3 min readMar 18, 2021
- Magufuli The President,Autocrat and Covid Denier in Chief.
Just few hours ago, the former vice president of Tanzania Bi. Samia Suluhu announced formally the passing of president John Pombe Magufuli, putting to an end rumors that he has been dead for almost a week now. Retrospectively, a detour into Magufuli’s past shows a man who was dedicated to public service, a patriot and a hardworking Tanzanian. He was first elected to parliament in 1995 to represent Biharamulo East and Chato under the Umbrella of CCM the party of the legendary Mwalimu J. Kambarage Nyerere. Since then, he proceeded to serve as a Minister under different ministries spanning across different regimes all of which were CCM Governments.
It was not a secret that Magufuli fancied and idolized Mwalimu Nyerere so much that he wished and longed to live under the ideals of public service set by Mwalimu Nyerere. During his first campaigns for the presidency in 2015 he campaigned on the mantra of taking Tanzania where Nyerere had dreamed of it to be and even convinced and used the late president’s son to showcase how he was a dedicated student of Mwalimu Nyerere’s ideals, this served as a great symbolism among CCM’s die hard fans and to the larger Tanzanian public that he won the presidency in 2015 with a clear majority.
The most defining moments of the illustrious public service career of former president Magufuli occurred during his 6-year period presidency. It was a hard period for most Tanzanians who saw their freedoms curtailed and economic progress get underway. As to whether he lived to the ideals of the founding father of the Tanzanian republic, it completely depends on who you ask, for he gained foes and friends in equal measure. He was a tyrant who didn’t hesitate to use his iron fist to punch or pound on anyone who dared disagree with him or his policies, how dare you disagree with the president? He muzzled dissent, banned opposition rallies, revoked NGO licenses as he wished and saw fit, and the idea of a free press in Tanzania was as foreign to him as rain is in the Sahara, the man breathed fire on the press, anyone who dared report differently from what the president saw fit was either kept in prison or bankrupted by government repressions. Kenya became a haven or passage of elected opposition members of parliament who feared for their lives as they sought political asylum. It’s this president who decreed that pregnant girls should not be allowed in schools “For a government cannot educate mothers” and notably remained dumb o what should befall those who had victimized these young school going girls or maybe a better policy to address the issue of teenage pregnancy.
Amidst all his shortcomings, former president Magufuli, was zealous in pursuit of public accountability, he was a reformist who hammered down heavily on corruption in Tanzania. He ensured a swift and efficient public service in Tanzania while he reigned, he reconstructed and initiated massive infrastructural developments in the country and put Tanzania on a path to economic recovery. Notably, he resisted the Trojan horse Chinese loans despite the heavy corrupt offerings to politicians by the Chinese to push for the same. He was not a saint by any stretch but to this end he has left a legacy in Tanzania.
Despite all the notables and unmentionables of the former Tanzanian president, what baffles many, is how a Doctorate holder in chemistry came to the conclusion that Covid-19 is not real. He was a denier in chief who denied the existence of Covid-19 and advised citizens not to wear masks, at one point he even ordered the arrest of those distributing masks questioning their origin and intentions. To him, Covid was a white conspiracy, to this end he refused any form of prevention measures in Tanzania and as a result, thousands died of Covid in Tanzania and finally him the denier in chief Succumbed to it after several of his ministers preceded him.
As Tanzania Mourns the death of President Magufuli, it also looks forward to the rebirth of practical democracy, the end of targeted assassinations, better relations with its neighboring countries and maybe a sustained economic development into the future.
Fare-thee-well Autocrat,Reformist and Covid denier.
Om shanti shanti shanti.
#RIPMAGUFULI.
