Upping university students' allowances: A sign of desperation and misdirected efforts

Two men went bear hunting. While one stayed in the cabin, the other went out looking for a bear.

He soon found a huge bear, shot at it but only wounded it. The enraged bear charged toward him, he dropped his rifle and started running for the cabin as fast as he could.

He ran pretty fast but the bear was just a little faster and gained on him with every step.

Just as he reached the open cabin door, he tripped and fell flat. Too close behind to stop, the bear tripped over him and went rolling into the cabin.

The man jumped up, closed the cabin door and yelled to his friend inside, "You skin this one while I go and get another one!"

Hunting was at one time in the history of humanity an important survival tactic. People had to hunt animals for meat and clothing. Those who had the best hunting skills were respected in the society and could be likened to today’s rich people. Their families never lacked meat and food hence were an envy of many.

I know some societies these days, especially in some parts of Africa, are still surviving on hunting. Others still do it to supplement their food, though the practice is widely banned by governments as a way of protecting wild animals. Yes, they need protection because their existence is under threat and with the improvement in technology, then these animals are in danger as they can no longer escape the hands of their hunters.

I have had the experience of hunting myself. When we were growing up, I know most of the people belonging to the older generation, have at one point or another been involved in hunting. They either did it for genuine reasons or for fun. Most of us have stories to tell when it comes to hunting but we will reserve them for another day.

Hunting has seem many African societies coming up with many phrases, idioms and other parts of speech meant to advise people on various aspects. They were drawn much into hunting to such an extent that so many folk tales and other parts of their speech such as wise words and phrases were drawn out of their experiences.

One such adage is a common African saying,“kupedzera miseve mumakunguo idzo hanga dzichiuya.” This statement can loosely be translated as wasting arrows shooting crows while guinea fowl are approaching. The statement highlights misdirected efforts where hunters will waste their arrows on crows, of which, even if they shoot and kill will not eat.

This is exactly what our government is doing right now. They are wasting the very few arrows they have on crows while the family is hungry back home. It will be better to use the arrows wisely and target those animals that will bring food on the table.

In case you don’t get me dear reader, the happenings in this country for the past few weeks have been interesting to say the least. Last week, the government increased food allowances for university students.

In as much as other hunters will applaud you for your skills in shooting down crows, despite the fact that your arrows are few, the fact remains that it is a misdirected effort and will never change the fortunes of your family.

This is the same with our government, they were hailed for raising those allowances and received a lot of praises especially from the students themselves, but the fact remains that it was a misdirected effort and a mere waste of resources. It doesn’t need a rocket scientist to tell us that there are more pressing issues in this country than raising students’ allowances. It goes without saying that the allowances were more than enough even before they were raised.

It is a fact that we have so many people in this country surviving on less than a dollar which is equivalent to 1600/- a day. It is no secret that food is not that expensive in this country and in most cases it becomes expensive in up market restaurants and hotels.
But, the problem with our students is that they do not know why they are at university. The primary reason they are enrolled is for them to acquire the much needed education and skills for a better tomorrow.

We all know that food in most university canteens is cheap and even if it is not, there are many decent food outlets where the food can be sold at reasonable prices. The problem with our students is that they want to put themselves in a class they don’t belong and want to live in luxury. This then makes it difficult for them to budget the money as they live to impress other people and would want to be considered rich.

It’s a shame that the government has been duped into believing that the money is not enough. Most of those students come from poor families and they know how it is to survive on limited resources, but once they are at university, they forget where they come from and they pretend they can’t survive on 5000/- a day, an amount that is more than what they use at home.

The government should deal with other pertinent issues such as the crisis bedeviling the Energy Ministry rather than wasting resources. It goes without saying that the ministry is in shambles now. The problem of electricity is there for everyone to see and experience. I can't even mention the losses wananchi and the corporate world have suffered due to the power problem. The cluelessness of the ministry and Tanesco's top echelon on finding a permanent solution to this problem that is fast bringing our economy to it's knees is there for everyone to see.

The drama by the ministry's officials, unearthed last week, of trying to bribe their way into passing a faulty budget shows how clueless and desperate these people are. The only sensible solution is to give way, but our forefathers were right when they said sikio lakufa hali sikii dawa.

Few people cannot continue holding the nation at ransom. We are tired of it and the powers that be should make sure that new brooms are introduced that is if the Aziz Way fails to knock sense on these people. The ministry and its power utility have arrived at a cross roads and the only root to take is the Aziz Way, failure to which the President should put his house in order by replacing these old brooms.

As long as the government continues misdirecting its efforts, concentrating on less important things then wananchi will continue to suffer. There is also need to put their priorities right. The government should hunt wisely lest the hunter becomes the hunted.

And finally a story is told of an African village which was troubled by a man-eating lion. So its leaders sent a message to the great white hunter, to come and kill the beast. For several nights the hunter lay in wait for the lion, but it never showed up. Finally, he told the tribal chief to kill a cow and give him its hide. Draping the skin over his shoulders, he went to the pasture to wait for the lion. In the middle of the night, the villagers woke to the sound of blood-curdling shrieks coming from the pasture. As they carefully approached, they saw the hunter lying there, groaning in pain. There was no sign of the lion. "What happened, bwana? Where is the lion? asked the chief. "Forget the damn lion !" he howled. "Which of you Idiots let the bull loose?"

God bless you

bongoblast@thisday.co.tz/0657651300