Prof Lipumba mum on next move

CiviUnited Front national chairman Prof Ibrahim Lipumba addresses members of the opposition party at its headquarters in Dar es salaam yesterday.

 The membership of the Civic United Front (CUF) chairman Prof Ibrahim Lipumba hangs in the balance as there is a lot of speculation that he was either crossing the floor to another party or quitting politics. 

 

There has been mixed reactions among party members who said   the co-chair of the Coalition of Peoples’ Constitution was going to resign any time from now. Others had it that he was at will with CUF and therefore he can resign at any time for whatever reason.

 

It was not immediately established whether Prof Lipumba has tendered his resignation as the party national chairman but reports obtained exclusively yesterday from the party senior members maintained the Economist was intending to quit CUF.

 

However when Prof Lipumba showed up for a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Buguruni in the outskirts of the city he simply uttered words… “I respect the decision of my political party.”

 

He said CUF was an institution. According to him, it should be   managed as an institution but not as an individual, he said very briefly without going into details.  

 

Lipumba was supposed to address a press conference yesterday morning in his office. However when the journalists went to his office for the conference he was not there, only to find party elders who had occupied his office.

 

Prof Lipumba has been CUF national chairman for two decades, (1995-2015), and for him he was appointed national chairman just from a team of party members.  This means that any other potential party member could as well be appointed the national chairman.  

 

A  party elder who declined to mention his name explained to scribes that what the chairman (Prof Lipumba) meant  was to respect the decision of CUF to join Ukawa and amicably endorsing their flag bearer in the coming General Election.”

   

CUF deputy secretary Magdalena Sakaya said that the majority of elders in the party did not know the whereabouts of the  national chairman.

 

The elders had wanted to speak to him before before speaking to the media. 

 

Another party elder who spoke on condition of anonymity pointed out that no one knew what ‘our chairman was about to reveal the media. He had advised the media to postpone the press conference untill next time .

 

Impeccable sources had it that Lipumba was not happy with    Coalition of People Defending Constitution (Ukawa)

to invite  former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa into the union and has said it is ready to give him a chance to remove CCM out of power.

 

Amina Msonde CUF cadre said it’s their duty to show up at head office to know what their leader  wanted to say. “We didn’t come here because of the ramous that our leader was going to resign. Those were just manufactured lies and will not listen to them … we are here to support  him and chart strategies for the coalition.  

 

Nurdin Msati also a CUF member also was in support of Amina   saying he does expect Lipumba to quit CUF.

 

During the Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) general convention on Tuesday, Zanzibar’s First Vice President Seif Sharif Hamad and presidential aspirant in the October polls (CUF) called on CCM cadres to join the opposition.

 

He said “joining the opposition side is not a sin.”

 

“In Ukawa, there is enough human resources to run the country and bring about economic development without any problem and therefore people should not fear,” he said.

 

Responding on rumors that the CUF chairman Prof Ibrahim Lipumba has left the party, he discredited them as unfounded and untrue.

 

“The law requires any leader who wants to resign from the party to write a letter to the party’s secretary general, we have not received any such letter from Lipumba,” he said.

 

Former Zanzibar deputy minister for health Juma Duni Haji, who  had crossed over to Chadema and was endorsed Lowassa’s running mate admitted that it was a tough decision to resign from his post but he maintained that it was necessary in order  to strengthen the alliance so as to defeat CCM come the October polls. 

 

“The current situation in the country must change,” he said.

“Now, our people are living in poor and deplorable conditions...we are determined to address these challenges facing our people,” he reassured the public.