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Corruption in student politics
2008-02-16 09:11:19
By Editor
The just-ended Parliamentary session which deliberated the Richmond scandal has proved that corruption is deep-rooted in our society.
However, the common impression which is definitely flawed is that it is just the leaders and the well-to-do who are corrupt and the rest of us are clean.
By stating this, we absolutely have no intention to whitewash the criminal behavior of those who have dragged the country into losing billions and hiking power tariffs.
What we want to do is to show the other side of the coin.
We cannot run away from the fact that corruption has become a scar on the conscience of everyone in Tanzania.
However, the encouraging thing is that there is an awakening on the part of a large segment of the population that we are treading on the wrong path.
This is why we have seen a very lively debate in Parliament this time.
It became clear that most of the legislators were now up in arms against the vice.
There is another section of the population which has been quite vocal in speaking against grand corruption. These are the young people.
We are sure that many of those driven to be outspoken are well-intended because they want our country to move in the right direction.
We encourage them to do so because they are the future leaders of this country.
However, we wish them to remember that charity begins at home, that it is their foremost duty to fight vice in their midst.
One of the issues that they must address is the rise of corruption in student politics.
The level of dishonesty manifested by aspirants of leadership in student politics gives the impression that politics is all about money.
For this reason, student leaders are partly to blame for existing corruption in Tanzania, not forgetting the fact that bribery is the country`s biggest enemy.
Whoever has keenly followed the campaigns for campus leadership might be shocked at how aspirants are capable of gross dishonesty for the sake of bagging more votes than others.
Sad to say, the student population does vote for such leaders, putting themselves at the risk of being exploited, but not served, by their leaders.
One asks himself why students spend a lot of money to win elections.
However, the answer is not long in coming because once the aspirants are `in power,` they concentrate on how to amass money.
There have been complaints about new students being compelled to give kickbacks to secure allocation of rooms in student hostels.
We do not intended to vouch for these allegations, only to state that the very fact that such claims are made indicates that things are wrong.
We advise our young people to refrain from corrupt acts because once they get used to the game, they will buy themselves into passing exams and securing lucrative jobs for which they are not qualified, such that when their time comes, they may drag the country into worse scandals than Richmond.
We say this because we wish our generation all the best, such that they won`t turn the learning centres into hotbeds of corruption.
If they want to enter politics, they should aim at being clean from the start.
As Aristotle said: `The student of ethics must apply himself to politics.`
We beg aspirants of student leadership to first become students of ethics.
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