DAR ES SALAAM, April 23 -- AS Tanzania prepares to receive the Commissions report, the country must recognise a simple but often overlooked truth: peace, national cohesion and reconciliation are not only civic values. They are economic necessities.

Across Africa, where social stability has weakened, countries have paid in lost growth, weaker investment, disrupted tourism, rising fiscal pressure, delayed projects, and diminished public confidence. Tanzania should, therefore, approach this moment not merely as a political event, but as a test of economic maturity.

This is not a symbolic issue. Instability is expensive. Confidence can be damaged faster than it is rebuilt. When the national atmosphere becomes tense, uncertain, or fractured,...