Magufuli reign unmasks conspiracy to stifle growth
By Paul Amina
African leaders often rueful about decades of missed opportunities and misplaced priorities, will for a long time reflect on the life and times of the departed workaholic fifth Tanzanian President, John Pombe Joseph Magufuli.
Magufuli lived to answer the yesteryear dreams of Tanzanian founding father, Julius Kambarage Nyerere. One such dream was self reliance and social justice for which a music was composed, Mwalimu kasema it can be done, play your part.
The composition was endorsed at the ideological launch of the ruling Tanganyika African National Union Arusha Declaration on Self Reliance and Ujamaanin 1967.
In his reign, he did everything within his power to ensure that campaign pledges were fulfilled without reliance on donor support. Behind Magufuli, whose name sounds like a lock but not a lockdown was Suluhu that translates solution in English.
The duo without beating drums also combined to echo the slogan of a black US presidential slogan, “Yes we can” on a trajectory to realising the ideals of the ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
Condolences to the family of the fallen hero and Tanzanians spoke volumes as they unmasked discreet development partners conspiracy to stifle continental growth by condoning waste of national resources, corruption in high places and looting of public wealth by gluttonous rulers.
The revelation of selfless achievements and piety put many Afrophobia and Northern hemisphere mania mourners to unspeakable shame and utter disbelief of achievements by a black man at the helm.
Now, one can understand why most of the beneficiaries of mineral wealth snubbed the funeral service of the gallant son of Africa.
In concurrence with other mourners, was none other than Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta who said that donor dependency syndrome was an impediment to the development of Africa.
The achievements of the 61-year old leader in a half a decade are monumental, unmatched, remarkable and baffles most of his peers, in a continent where honesty is demonised and corruption glorified. His African peers wallow in opulence.
Magufuli is vividly remembered for locking out corrupt contractors, inflators of contract costs and lackluster performance in his administration earning him the nick name of bulldozer.
Africa is a lucrative market for processed finished products from its own resources by shameless foreign investors who loathe waking up the sleeping dogs, the Africans.
Indeed, more than half a century of independence waste is irreversible and graft common place. waste. Betrayal and hurdles notwithstanding, upon assuming office in 2015, Magufuli mustered the rare courage and resolve to live the dreams of Nyerere hated by the Bretton Woods Institutions whose policies helped impoverish Africa.
Magufuli’s courage is not without a precedent. One of his successors, Nyerere loathed corruption and conspicuous consumption that cost him foreign aid and enemies in equal measure. Nyerere, for instance, was a lone fighter against residual colonial rule in Africa.
Mwalimu was betrayed by peers in the quest to liberate Portuguese and Boers colonies. A road map for clearing any cobwebs that could be an impediment to Tanzania’s prosperity has already started and it is for the new lady President Samia Suluhu Hassan to squander the opportunity and the goodwill of the Tanzanian people and the CCM ideologues.
In a cloud of doubt, political uncertainty and betrayal, is African unity possible? The answer is yet to emerge, because leaders are not prepared for a union because of trivial interests. —The writer is a freelance journalist—[email protected]
