Seif reveals details of secret talks with Nyerere

Secretary General of the Civic United Front, Seif Shariff Hamad, has revealed what transpired during a secret meeting he held with Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in 1995, prior to the first multi-party general elections.

Details of the meeting have remained secret for years, as Hamad has consistently refused to state what they had discussed.

Speaking in Zanzibar yesterday, Seif told The Guardian that he received a message from Mwalimu Nyerere inviting him to go to his Msasani home in Dar es Salaam.

`I was thrilled by the invitation and was in suspense all the time I was travelling from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam. When I finally met him, Mwalimu gave me heavily loaded advice,` he said.

He said Mwalimu Nyerere told him that due to the fact that he (Seif) had founded a party within a multi-party setting, he had to bear in mind the whole issue of maintaining national unity so that political parties should not be the source of conflicts among the people.

He added that Mwalimu told him the significance of understanding that the immense national resources were utilized within the national unity framework, and cautioned him against taking steps that could endanger that unity.

`My discussions with Mwalimu resulted in me having a difficult time because various individuals, including international leaders, wanted to know what we had discussed. But I respected the fact that it would be better to keep them confidential,` he said.

`There was no agenda to sabotage leaders. What he stressed was the importance of preserving unity as we marched towards political reforms,`Seif said.