Reading The Chanzo’s May 6, 2025, article, ACT Wazalendo’s Presidential Candidate Ahead of Tanzania’s 2025 Elections: A Silent Deal With CCM’s Samia?, reminded me of a compelling piece I once read on Medium by Chaba Ruhwanya, titled Doomed If You Do and Doomed If You Don’t.
It’s a sharp meditation on the impossible expectations placed on women leaders mostly in a patriarchal society like ours where the feminine calmness is mistaken for weakness, and confidence without aggression is treated as betrayal.
But what The Chanzo’s piece focuses on is not just the gendered lens of leadership, it’s a wider, troubling pattern which slowly is becoming our political culture: a refusal to acknowledge that opposition can take many forms.
Today in Tanzania, so long as you identify yourself as opposition you are expected to perform rage, talk in loud voices, have relentless confrontation, and public dramatics, and the most unfortunate part is that alone is what defines legitimacy.
There’s now an unspoken formula: if you’re not protesting daily, throwing punches on podiums, or trending on social media for verbal attacks, then you’re not a “real” opposition leader. Too bad that’s not just a misunderstanding of politics; it’s a distortion of it.
The article portrays ACT Wazalendo as a silent and compromised party for what the author claims to be a “change in ACT’s former Party Leader Zitto Kabwe tone towards the current regime under Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan,” not a surprise though because it’s a lie that has been told for far too long that it has started to sound like the truth as that famous saying “when a lie is told so often, it starts to sound as the truth.”
Being strategic
Let’s be clear: ACT Wazalendo is not silent or compromised. It is strategic.
Over the years, the Party has acted with deliberate courage, boycotting compromised processes, challenging institutional abuse through legal means, standing firm in the face of repression, standing in solidarity with all oppressed citizens including political leaders and Activists. To reduce all of that to a conspiracy theory just because the current tone is measured rather than militant is not just unfair, it’s intellectual laziness.
Worse, it reinforces the toxic belief that opposition must always be chaotic to be credible, because it seems we are being told, once again, that unless you shout, abuse, or throw public tantrums, you must not be serious. That if you’re not constantly in combat mode, you’re probably compromised. That if you speak with restraint, you must be involved in some hidden deal.
In the article, the author questions the Party’s decision on who is to run against the current President in the coming October General Election, which I must first say he is pre-empting the decision which ACT Wazalendo members will make in the coming General Meeting scheduled to be held in July, sad he suggests that Dorothy Semu’s nomination reflects compromise and makes it easy for the current President to win.
Discomfort with women
His reflection reminded me of the saying, When the Bar Is Built for Men, Women Always Look Too Small. The critique betrays something deeper: a discomfort with women who stand tall without asking permission. It treats Dorothy’s calm as evidence of incompetence when it might actually be her greatest asset. Why must female politicians mimic the rage and rhetoric of their male counterparts to be seen as serious contenders?
Tanzania has no shortage of shouting politicians, both women and men. What it needs desperately is empathetic, disciplined, and visionary leaders who listen as much as they speak, and Dorothy Semu embodies that. She represents a renewal of leadership grounded not in theatrics but in purpose.
READ MORE: ACT Wazalendo: Can Tanzania’s Left-Leaning Party Overcome the Odds to Challenge CCM in 2025?
The critique makes a comment that wants to show a reflection of what he says are comments from Party members who find Dorothy uncharismatic, different from her predecessor, Zitto Kabwe, which isn’t surprising, we live in a country where calm composure unsettles those who believe power must always be loud and masculine. But leadership is not volume, it’s vision.
And if Dorothy is chosen to represent the Party in the coming elections, then it will be nothing short of ACT’s decision to divide political labour, placing her at the forefront of national healing and Zitto in the trenches of legislative battle, which is not a sign of weakness rather a strategic depth.
Role of the opposition
But this rejoinder is not just about defending one candidate or one party. It’s about urging a shift in how we understand the role of opposition in Tanzania, especially as we enter a crucial political moment.
Because if we sit down, quietly and honestly, and reflect on the impact of opposition politics over the past decade, the uncomfortable truth is this: we have not made enough systemic change.
Too often, we’ve mistaken resistance for results. We’ve praised noise over nuance. We’ve clapped for confrontations that didn’t build anything lasting. And in the process, we risk handing the next generation a hollow definition of what it means to oppose power: be loud, be angry, and get noticed. But that’s not resistance. That’s performance.
True reform, or real opposition, means reshaping systems, not just shaking fists at them. It means building institutions that outlive us. It means creating spaces where young people can see themselves not just as protestors, but as policymakers, visionaries, and future builders. It means investing in ideas, in discipline, and in movements that don’t rely on one face or one moment to survive.
Dorothy Semu’s candidacy may be unfamiliar to some, but that unfamiliarity is not a weakness. It’s an opportunity to do politics differently. To centre ideas over insults. To outthink, not outshout. To lead, not just to react. So, no. ACT Wazalendo is not betraying the opposition. It is redefining it.
Let us not confuse maturity with passivity. Let us not continue teaching our youth that opposition means noise and theatrics. If we want real change, then we must start respecting those who seek it with intelligence, strategy, and purpose.
I believe it’s not too late to make the 2025 elections not just about who wins, but a reflection of what kind of political culture we are normalising. Will we continue rewarding outrage, or will we start demanding results? Will we keep recycling slogans, or will we invest in institutions? Will we keep punishing women for leading differently, or finally learn to listen when they speak?
Because the revolution this country needs may not come in screams. It may come in a strategy. And if it does, we must be wise enough to recognise it.
Ayker Peter is a public policy analyst and political branding expert affiliated with opposition ACT Wazalendo party. She’s available at aikapeter2420@gmail.com and @AykerP on X. The opinions expressed here are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chanzo. If you are interested in publishing in this space, please contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com.
