Tanzania’s National Assembly Speaker Job Yustino Ndugai has resigned from the position following a debt fallout with President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
This is after Ndugai publicly questioned the government’s external borrowing in an economy buffeted by the global coronavirus pandemic.
Ndugai submitted his resignation letter to his Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) secretary-general notifying of his move to step down.
“I want to notify the Tanzanian Citizens that today being 6th January 2022, I have written a letter to the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Secretary-General seeking to resign from the position of Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Tanzania,” read the statement.
“This decision is personal and optional and was made with the broad interests of my country, the government and my CCM party,” he added.
According to him, he informed the parliamentary authorities of the decision as stipulated in Tanzanian laws.
He appreciated his superiors, colleagues and countrymen for the period he had served and worked together with them saying they had harmoniously assisted him in serving the country.
“I, therefore, take this opportunity to thank my fellow lawmakers, her Excellency President Salma Suluhu Hassan and the government at large, my fellow county residents of Kongwa and all Tanzanian citizens for their uniting support in the period that I was in your service,” he said.
Last month, Ndugai criticised the government’s public borrowing questioning whether the country’s debt level was healthy.
Addressing govment officials, Samia said it was not appropriate for Ndugai to make the comments he made.
She defended the government’s debt strategy saying that the government will continue borrowing under friendly terms.
“The government did not start borrowing in 2021, we have been borrowing since independence and we are doing this for people’s development,” she said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised Tanzania’s risk of debt distress to moderate in August.
The IMF cited the collapse in tourism revenues during the pandemic as the main reason it had changed the assesement.
