By Masato Masato-(TANZANIA DAILY NEWS) Dodoma — PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete has condemned in the strongest terms preachers of religious hatred in the country, reaffirming the government resolve to protect the country’s peace and tranquility for all Tanzanians at all costs.
“We, Tanzanians, have lived peacefully for many years but there are few misguided individuals attempting to use religions to propagate hatred among us for their selfish interest. The government will never give them that chance,” President Kikwete said.
He was speaking at a well attended and historic ceremony to consecrate Mpwapwa Diocese Bishop Jacob Erasto Chimeledya as the sixth Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Tanzania. Archbishop Chimeledya succeeds Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa who retired officially at the event.
“The government will never allow or provide any loophole to those crooks (preachers of hate) to accomplish their satanic motives–their motives are evil and they will never succeed, we will trace them wherever they are and bring them to justice,” charged the president, assuring his government’s sustained cordial relation with all religions.
He said all the religions he knew–Christianity, Islamic, Buddhism and others–preach peace, love and unity among all human beings: “Whoever tries to sow the seeds of discord in the pretext of religion are anti-religious and we should always ignore them.”
Mr Kikwete warned religions against provoking the government by abusing their freedom to worship, “I don’t expect the police to be everywhere to monitor religious preaching because some will complain about interference of their freedom of worship but never promote your religion by demeaning other’s beliefs.”
He acknowledged the great role that religions have played in social service delivery to the public but implored religions to invest in economic empowerment of their followers, saying poverty-stricken believers were at great risk of betraying even their God. The president was nodding to the church’s plans to establish a bank–Wezesha.
“Most of the commercial banks we have are only friendly to the rich but very harsh to the poor,” President Kikwete said during the mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit here. At attendance also were the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and his wife Caroline, former Prime Ministers Joseph Warioba and John Malecela, speaker of the national assembly Anna Makinda and her deputy Job Ndugai and many other dignitaries.
Speaking after his consecration, Archbishop Chimeledya conceded that all was not well in the church but also condemned the looting of public resources, corruption, abusive drugs and the killing of innocent people–the elders and people with albinism.
He asked the government to intensify the fight against the evils but also invest heavily on irrigation agriculture to guarantee a hunger free nation as the best strategy to accelerate economic development.
The newly installed Archbishop appreciated the government determination to provide education to its people but called for more investment to improve the ward secondary schools through provision of teachers and all learning materials–books, libraries and laboratories. He said the church has plans to expand its St. John’s University of Tanzania to Mtwara and Kigoma as well as establish the Wezesha bank to support all Tanzanians, financially.
In his preaching, archbishop Welby decried divisions in churches, challenging the bishops and archbishops to love each other and their enemies as well as they always strive to seek from God all the answers to the communities’ problems.
“The divisions in our churches deny the chance to defend what we preach…we should always preach and live what we preach,” said Archbishop Welby who was consecrated on March 21, 2013 to head the Anglican Church in the world. He showered praises for Tanzania as a peaceful and just country, with an enviable record of liberating the oppressed.
