Written by Zitto Kabwe…Go well, Governor Edwin MteiLet us go back to December 1979. You are the Minister of Finance. You have taken some visitors to see the President. The President is Julius Nyerere. The President does not want to receive these visitors, but you believe they are important guests given the country’s economic situation at the time. You understand the country’s condition well, having been the founding Governor of the Bank of Tanzania, the Secretary General of the East African Community which had just collapsed, and now the Minister of Finance.The President refuses. He is angry, and you leave the President’s residence with your guests, visibly upset. In other words, you, the Minister of Finance, are furious, and your Commander-in-Chief is equally furious.You return to your office. Your fellow minister, the Minister for Agriculture, brings you a message asking you to go and see the President—this same Julius—regarding the purchase of a farm. You know very well that the Treasury has nothing, to the extent that paying salaries is already a challenge. You go to the President and refuse both his and your fellow minister’s proposal. You are even angrier.You return to your office and write a resignation letter. You leave to deliver it to the President, but on the way you meet the President’s aide, who hands you a letter from the President. You do not read the President’s letter; instead, you rush to see the President to submit your resignation letter. The President asks you whether you received his letter. You say yes, but you have not read it. You hand him your resignation letter. He accepts it.The President orders that your letter be the official public record. You resign instead of being dismissed.Across the country, demonstrations are being prepared—we shall not turn into a pillar of salt. The demonstrations oppose your views. You are seen as an enemy of the nation. Shortly thereafter, that same President appoints you as Africa’s representative to the International Monetary Fund—the very institution whose officials had previously been rejected.This was Edwin Mtei. This was Tanzania. This was the level of maturity our nation had attained only 20 years after Independence: that people could disagree without hatred and continue to respect one another. It was this maturity that held the nation together. It is this maturity which, 60 years after Independence, is now lacking, and the nation finds itself in deep tension.This was also the foundation that Mzee Mtei upheld when he later co-founded, together with others, the CHADEMA party—that politics should be conducted through disagreement without violence, without hatred. These ideas are clearly reflected in his book From Herdsman to Governor.Today we bid farewell to Governor Mtei. He goes to join Nyerere. He goes to reunite with his friends—Bob Makani, Victor Kimesera, Brown Ngwilulupi, Mama Mary Kabigi, and many others. Edwin Mtei’s life has come full circle. He has lived a full life. Truly, we should celebrate his life. We should reflect on his journey.The founding Governor of the Bank of Tanzania—indeed, the very word “Governor” came to mean Mtei. Mwalimu Nyerere continued to call him “Governor Mtei” long after the country had many other governors—Nyirabu, Rutihinda, Idris Rashid, Daudi Balali, Professor Benno Ndulu, and others. I am not sure whether there is even a hall within the Bank of Tanzania buildings named after Mtei. If the answer is no, the Bank of Tanzania should reflect on this. The Bank now has many branches across the country. I believe it would be a good and fitting gesture for one of the Bank’s branch buildings to be named after Edwin Mtei.For today’s politicians and leaders, there are great lessons to be learned from the life of Mzee Mtei. I am not saying we should be exactly as they were, in terms of maturity, as I described earlier in this tribute. To borrow the words of Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, “Nostalgia is not a strategy”—remembering the good old days alone is not a strategy (unfortunately, Kiswahili does not have a single-word translation for “nostalgia”). Nevertheless, maturity defined the lives of these elders.They were able to disagree without hatred;They were able to hold different positions without quarrelling;They were able to have different ideas without insulting one another;They were able to make different decisions without killing one another.Respect for human dignity—never degrading another person—was a great value to them. It is our duty to reflect and find ways to disagree without disrespect, without violence, without killing, without insults.That is the best way to honour our elders.In my view, that is the best way to honour Edwin Mtei.Go well, Tata!Arusha, 24/01/2026