SPEECH BY H.E. DR.

JAKAYA MRISHO KIKWETE, FORMER PRESIDENT AND CHANCELLOR

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM, AT THE CEREMONY TO COMMEMORATE THE
55TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM, NKRUMAH HALL,24TH
OCTOBER 2016
Ndugu Peter Ngumbullu, Chairman of the University of Dar es Salaam Council;
Honourable Judge Joseph SindeWarioba, President of the University of Dar es
SalaamConvocation and Vice Chairman of the University Council;
Prof.RwekazaMukandala, Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam;
Members of the University Council;
Deputy Vice Chancellors Prof.FlorensLuoga, Prof. David Mfinanga and Prof. Cuthbert Kimambo;
The Designate Distinguished Chancellors Lecturer (2016), Prof.TadeAina;
Distinguished Principles, DeansProfessors, Academic and Administration Staff and Students of
the University of Dar es Salaam;
Distinguished Invited Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am delighted and gratified to be associated with this joyous event of launching the celebration of
the 55th birthday of the University of Dar es Salaam. I feel particularly privileged because I
officiated at the apex of 50th anniversary celebration held in this very Hall on 25th October, 2011.
And here I am 6 years later officiating the 55th anniversary celebration. The only difference
between then and now is that in 2011 I was a visitor but now I am an insider since being appointed
Chancellor of this great University by H.E. President John Magufuli early this year.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
To me, and I believe to all the staff, students, alumni and the great friends of this historicUniversity,
this is truly an occasion for reincarnation. It is a moment of rejuvenation of a family bondage, and
an opportunity to remind ourselves of the great contribution this University has made to our lives as
individuals and as a nation.
And so allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to start with a word of appreciation. I sincerely thank the
Vice Chancellor and theUniversitysother dedicated leaders andstaff for organising this function,
and for providing all of us with the rare opportunity to congregate as a family. I appreciate the
wonderfultwo-day programme that the organisers have prepared for the 55th anniversary. It has a
lot of exciting and engaging events, I trust that participants will have memorable experiences today
and tomorrow.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
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I wish also to use this opportunity to congratulate our Alma Mater, the University of Dar es Salaam.
It takes a great deal of dedication and effort to grow from a tiny college offering only one
programme with 14 students at three storey buildingto a comprehensive university offering
education in a multiplicity of academic and professional disciplines and a student population of
about 24,000 today. To be specific from one three storey building at Lumumba Street to the large
town we see now at Mlimani today. It is not a small matter to engineer this phenomenal growth in a
resource-constrained post-colonial society that we have been. Above all, it takes an enormous
amount of human ingenuity for a single institution to be able to fulfil the basic high-level human
resource needs of an entire country for more than four decades, not to mention the Universitys
role in training key personnel for other countries in the East African region. On these counts alone,
the University of Dar es Salaam deserves a place of special pride for our nation.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is also an opportunity to congratulate the University for the Equally Important Contribution it
has made to our society by spearheading struggles for social justice and freedom. Through public
intellectualism and professional engagements, the University has played a major role in enhancing
social and political awareness among fellow Tanzanians of all walks of life and especially the
younger generations. The Vice Chancellor has mentioned the radical intellectual debates of the
1960s and 1970s, which evidently had significant ideological and political consequences for Africa
and humanity at large.
In my speech during the climax of the 50th anniversary celebration, I added two more aspects of
the Universitys meaningful engagement with society, which I find worth repeating today. The first is
the professional advice and support often silently given to government and other organisations,
either by individual academics or by particular establishments within the University. The efficacy of
these services in various social, economic and political spheres of the countrys life is very well
known although usually not loudly acknowledged. Quite often, the impact was noted far away from
home when experts from this University headed world or regional organisations, established
academic units and programmes in universities abroad and ran them with outstanding successes;
or when our scientists made outstanding contributions to knowledge and gained international
recognition.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The second equally important aspect is the social impact that the University has made through
voluntary public service. Many Tanzanians are aware of the role played by the Legal Aid
Committee of the University of Dar es Salaam in assisting resource-constrained Tanzanians in
fighting for their rights in the courts of law.
The University also sends its students and staff annually to remote areas of the country for their
practical training. It also organises in-service training for school teachers and carries out other
voluntary outreach programmes. More importantly, for many years members of staff and students
have conducted research projects in rural and urban areas of our country. Often time the outcomes
of those research undertakings turned out to be instrumental in informing policy decisions and
actions of government and other institutions, thus contributing to improving the social and
economic wellbeing of the people of this great country of ours.

My own humble involvement in voluntary public service during my time as a student at this
University included working in Ujamaa villages. We participated in the construction of houses for
villagers during the country-wide villagisation campaign of the 1970s. I can assure you that those
moments remain to be among the most memorable both in terms of attitude building on the part of
individual students and the practical role played by the University in supporting implementation of
public policy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My final word of congratulation goes to all the people whose imagination, creativity and hard work
made the University succeed in playing its role so distinctively well. Special mention in this regard
goes to our first President of Tanzania and First Chancellor of this UniversityMwalimu Julius
Nyerere and his fellow founding leaders of our country for hatching and successfully pursuing the
idea of establishing the first national university. It is this bold decision which gave birth to the
University of Dar es Salaam we are celebrating its 55th anniversary today and tomorrow. I applaud
the first administrators and professors for painstakingly bringing the University to shape; and all the
successive generations of academicians, administrators and students for keeping it standing and
making it ever progressive.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me now to reflect for a moment on what it means for a university to turn 55. Coming of age
is perhaps the right terminology to describe the status of such a University. Some people say that
for a human being the age of fifty marks the beginning of a transition period from normal adulthood
toold age. It follows therefore that, at its 55th birthday the University of Dar es Salaam should be
considered an old institution. This is the defining and most enviable age in its development. In the
fifties one gains maximum maturity and is able to take full responsibility for his or her deeds.
Indeed, this is what I see when I look at the University of Dar es Salaam today. It is a mature
institution and one that is not quite old, but old enough to tell a tale about its past travels. It is no
longer naive about what growing up means in real terms. On the contours of its history one sees
the distance it has travelled, and the heights it has touched in terms of physical development,
moulding of the organisational structure, and diversification of its scholarly endeavours. Of course,
the contours also show considerable downturns experienced by the people on-board, especially in
terms of shortages of vital resources and, more recently, inadequacy of the physical infrastructure.
What is more, however, is that, in actual terms, these distinctive successes and the downturns
have been a source of vitality in the institution. As a result, and in congruence with the true nature
of a person at the age of fifty five, to-date the defining characteristic of the University of Dar es
Salaam has been a spirited and sustained endeavour to reach new avenues. This is the spirit we
want to revitalise and boost. It is the true meaning of the 55th anniversary commemorations we are
launching today.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is in this spirit that I perceive the future of the University of Dar es Salaam as envisioned in the
official roadmap ashas just been explained by the Vice Chancellor. The UDSM VISION 2061 is, in
my view, a pragmatic vision; one that is sufficiently ambitious and yet realistic enough to be fully
achieved within its time span. It requires continued imagination, innovation and sustained
cooperation between the University and its stakeholders, especially the Government, alumni,
parents and development partners. And, while we seek unity of purpose for the future of this
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institution, we must maintain a clear idea of where we want the University to be on the map of
higher education in this country. As we said earlier, this University symbolises the entire higher
education spectrum in Tanzania. We must maintain that position not only in terms of symbolism but
more importantly by way of actual performances in scholarship and service delivery.
I have said before, and would like to repeat the same here; that I want to ensure that this University
maintains a clear position of leadership in this country. From the very beginning this was meant to
be a University for preparing leaders in our society generally and in thevarious professional fieldsits
students will join upon graduation. I wish to emphasise that this University must remain the lead
university in this sense. Graduates from our various scholarly programmes and professional fields
must become leaders in their respective areas by virtue of the quality of education and mentoring
they receive from this great University. A lawyer, physicist, engineer, social scientist or any other
professionals graduating from this University must automatically becomeleaders in the respective
areas of engagement upon graduation. This is a key obligation we must fulfil as leaders of this
premier institution of high learning in Tanzania. Graduates from this prestigious university should
be the first to be sought after in the labour market. In Kiswahili: Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam
kiongozewenginewafuate should be our aspiration and inspiration.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Yet we must know that this virtue will not come on a silver plate. It is an ideal we must continue to
reflect on and consciously pursue to achieve. This is why it makes sense to have a Chancellors
Day each year, during which as a community we reflect on the kind of university we want and the
ways in which our dreams can be realised. I thank the leadership of UDASA for sounding this idea
during my consultations with the Universitys stakeholders earlier this year. I also thank the
University Management for taking administrative measures to initiate the implementation of the
idea. I am pleased to know that we are able to kick-start the Chancellors Day programme during
these anniversary celebrations, and would like to use this opportunity to convey my sincere
gratitude to Professor TadeAina for graciously accepting our invitation to this anniversary and to be
the first Chancellors Distinguished Lecturer.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As we position ourselves for the tasks ahead, we need to be clear on our individual and shared
responsibilities. I believe that our experts in the basic units, that is, in academic departments and in
schools, colleges and institutes, are best placed to continually map and strategise on the
development of each respective unit. They know where the bone meets the muscle, and what it
takes to enable their units to make progress in their development endeavours. Above all, as
custodians of knowledge in their respective areas, the heads of departments, college principals,
deans of schools or faculty deans, are the ones who are best suited for correctly assessing global
dynamics and local needs as far as knowledge creation and dissemination in their respective fields
is concerned. The point I must emphasize in this connection is that there is no alternative to
maintaining rigour, strategic creativity, and constant striving for greater relevance and excellence at
the basic and intermediate unit levels. Leaders and members of staff constituting these units have
a social obligation to always fulfil these imperatives.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Meanwhile,the University must continue to operate as a coherent institution with an integrated and
properly coordinated modus operandi. This means that the role of the Central Administration is
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therefore critically important. Actors on this platform have the obligation not only to ensure proper
coordination of routine and development efforts but also creatively engineer dynamic and
strategically crafted development policies and implementation strategies at the institutional level. It
is gratifying to note that, over the years, the Universitys top administration has always been aptly
responsive to this obligation; and the results are what we are celebrating today in this
commemoration.
As you are all aware, today universities and the higher education fraternity, in general, is facing
new and increasingly tough challenges. Therefore, current and future top administrators of this
University must not allow themselves to be stalled by custom and past traditions. They must,
instead, be more dynamic than their predecessors and be able to ensure continued prosperity for
the University in the changing and increasingly challenging environment. The University Council,
which is the main governing body for the University, will doubtlessly continue to provide policy
guidance and advice, and oversee implementation processes in accordance with the provisions of
the UDSM Charter of Incorporation. The Council has always played this role honourably, and there
is no doubt that they will continue to do so.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I will not do justice to the audience and to myself if I conclude this exposition on leadership
responsibilities without a word on the role of the Chancellor. Fortunately, there is sufficient
guidance on this issue in the Universities Act (2005) and the University of Dar es Salaam Charter
of Incorporation (2007). University Chancellors are heads of their respective institutions. As such,
they play an overall leadership role and attend to specific statutory functions. Most importantly,
University Chancellors play the vital role of linking their respective universities with the general
public and the civil authorities under which their respectiveuniversities operate. In modern
corporate language, we might say that the Chancellor connects the university with its essential
stakeholders. It is my pleasure to affirm that, as Chancellor of this most prestigious University in
the country, I am determined to fulfil these social and statutory obligations.
As a matter of fact, I have already begun to do that as exemplified by the ongoing construction of
new students hostels. It is a direct outcome of my request to H.E. President John Magufuli before
he came to lay the foundation stone for the new library on June 3rd, 2016 I made the request after
my consultative meetings with the stakeholders during my familiarization tour. The issue of
shortage of students accommodation was high in the views of every group I met.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Please join me in thanking our President His Excellency John Magufuli for being receptive,
responsive and caring. I promise to continue to work closely with the University Council, the top
Administration and internal stakeholders to find solutions to the many challenges facing this
University; I am simply saying that I will do my best to serve as an effective link between this
University and its outside stakeholders. I know this will entail, among other things, negotiations
with government authorities on issues concerning supply of essential resources to the University
and strengthening contacts with other stakeholders for the sake of maintaining unity of purpose
and motivating an effective stakeholder support for the University. I sincerely believe that, together,
we shall ensure that the University of Dar es Salaam achieves and maintains the status I just
explained to be the lead University in the United Republic of Tanzania. This will remain the key
objective of leadership throughout my tenure as Chancellor.
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Ladies and Gentlemen,

Allow me to conclude my opening remarks by wishing you all wonderful experiences as you
participate in the various activities slotted in the anniversary programme. I understand that my
speech will be followed by the Chancellors distinguished Lecture and a dialogue on the theme
Prof.TadeAina has chosen to address. I look forward with great anticipation to the discourse that
will ensue. Lastly, I wish the entire University community a joyous moment of commemorations and
great achievements in your engagements after the celebrations.
And now, it is my singular honour and pleasure to declare the 55th Anniversary Commemorations
officially launched. I thank you for your attention.