Mincing no words and in his straightforward and eloquent speaking style, the former president and CCM chairman brushed aside the opposition’s rhetoric on liberation, pointing out that the process was over a long time ago with independence in 1961 and the revolution in Zanzibar in 1964.Most Tanzanians who were old enough by the time in 1966 would remember how the then Union president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, lost his temper when students from the University of Dar es Salaam had marched to the State House in Dar es Salaam in an apparent protest over compulsory National Service and the accompanying salary deduction upon employment.
Kutokana na haya yote, siyo jambo la ajabu, kuikuta Tanzania ikishika nafasi ya 151 miongoni mwa nchi 170 duniani, kwa kiwango cha chini cha hali ya ubora wa maisha ya watu wake. Shirika la Maendeleo la Umoja wa Mataifa (UNDP), katika Ripoti yake ya mwaka 2015, iliyotoa matokeo ya tathmini za utafiti uliofanyika katika nchi wanachama, ilidhihirisha wazi jinsi ambavyo hata nchi zenye kipato kikubwa zilivyoshindwa kutumia utajiri wake ili kuboresha hali ya maisha ya watu wake. Utafiti huo uliangazia katika maeneo makuu matatu; huduma za afya, ubora wa elimu na viwango vya mapato. Nchi nyingi zilizojikuta katika kundi la nchi zenye kiwango cha chini cha ubora wa hali ya maisha ya watu wake, zilitoka bara la Afrika, baadhi yake zikiwa na utajiri mkubwa wa maliasili na rasilimali.