Magufuli as a servant leader

There is a time and a season for everything under the sun, says the Preacher. A time to be born and a time to die. John Magufuli, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, passed away on Wednesday, 17th March, after a protracted illness, aged 61. His deputy, Samia Suluhi Hassan, has since been sworn-in as successor; the first woman in the country’s history.

He was one of the most outstanding leaders of his generation. Niccolo Machiavelli recommended that if a prince has to choose between being loved and being feared, he would be wise to choose the latter. Most of our leaders are more feared than loved. Magufuli was a rare exception. He was genuinely loved by the ordinary wananchi of Tanzania.

He was following in the footsteps of the founding-father of Tanzania, the illustrious Julius Kambarage Nyerere (1922—1999). Scholar, statesman and pan-African socialist, Mwalimu Nyerere was a humble and incorruptible statesman who gave Tanzanians a sense of genuine pride in their nationhood. Tanzania today is different from neighbouring Kenya, where ethnic animosities are bitter and toxic.

John Pombe Joseph Magufuli was born in Chato district on the shores of Lake Victoria on 29 October, 1959. He came from humble stock. During the campaign trail in 2015, he declared: “Our home was grass thatched, and like many boys, I was assigned to herd cattle, as well as selling milk and fish to support my family…. I know what it means to be poor.”

A humble schoolteacher, he was educated at the University Dar es Salaam; earning a doctorate in Chemistry in 2009. After a stint in teaching, he joined the Nyanza Cooperative Union as an industrial chemist during 1989 -1995. He successfully stood for election as MP for Chato under the platform of the ruling Chamacha Mapinduzi (CCM). His abilities caught the attention of the then President, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, who appointed him to a succession of ministerial positions.

The late president had every opportunity to make himself one of the richest men in Tanzania. But he never succumbed to that temptation

In July 2015, he won the CCM presidential primaries. He won the elections and was sworn in as the fifth President of Tanzania on 5 November, 2015. He won a second five-year term in October 2020.

One of the first decisions he took as president was to slash his own monthly salary from $15,000 to $4,000. On his first day in office, he made a surprise visit to the Ministry of Finance to find out how many people had actually turned up for work. That same week, he announced a blanket ban on all foreign travels for public servants; saving in the process as much as $430 million for the treasury in 2017 alone. He dismissed more than 10,000 of the country’s 450,000 civil servants for possessing fake certificates. He also scrapped the rather costly traditional Independence Day celebrations that hold every 9th of December; declaring it, instead, as a day for cleaning up the country. He was often seen picking up rubbish outside State House. He said they could not be spending so much on mere festivities “when our people are dying of cholera”. He also trimmed the cabinet from 30 to 19 ministers.

A devout Catholic, the late president was opposed to abortion and family planning. He also dismissed Covid-19 as a global scam. When the first test kits were brought to Dar es Salaam, he had them secretly tested on goats and chickens. When a goat tested positive, he was derisive. He was also opposed to the generalized lockdown, especially on places of worship. He was quoted as saying: “Corona is the devil and it cannot survive in the body of Jesus”. To his last day, he continued advocating for home-grown steam and herbal remedies, including the concoction from Madagascar.

Magufili was among a new breed of African leaders that do not suffer from the innate inferiority complex that afflicts many of our people when they are faced with our new Roman proconsuls.

The government inevitably went on a head-on collision with the so-called international community. The UNDP Country Representative was expelled. The EU broke off diplomatic relations and stopped bilateral aid. In 2017, he accused the British gold-mining company, Acacia, of tax evasion; slamming an unprecedented tax bill of $190 billion, after 250 of their containers were intercepted at the Dar es Salaam port. The company settled for a payment of $300 million as well as concession of a 16% stake for the government. The government passed a new law empowering it to terminate or renegotiate a mining contract in the event of proven fraud. He turned down the Chinese offer of a $10 billion loan; stating that only a “madman” could possibly accept its terms.

The late president scores high on macroeconomic management. Tanzania for decades operated a poverty-stricken, centralized command economy. He successfully engineered a new prosperity. Economic growth averaged nearly 6 percent annually. He was nicknamed “the bulldozer” because of his giant strides in infrastructural development – highways and bridges, port facilities, aviation, energy, mining and railways.

He gave Tanzanians renewed confidence in their sense of nationhood.

The late president was criticised for allegedly muzzling opposition voices. In July 2016, he banned shisha smoking, pointing to its bad effects on the youths. He took a hard line on LGBTQ rights. No man is perfect. The highest wisdom of statecraft is to know that even the saint will occasionally get his hands dirty. Magufuli was no saint. But he was the quintessential servant-leader who served his people with compassion and justice. According to Joseph Warioba, a former Prime Minister, the late president had every opportunity to make himself one of the richest men in Tanzania. But he never succumbed to that temptation.

In defending the honour of Tanzania and the dignity of our glorious continent, Magufuli undoubtedly incurred the wrath of powerful enemies from within and outside his country. He lived a strenuous and austere life. God and History will absolve him. His will be a rest of the righteous and the just.