(PictureTanzanian President John Joseph Pombe Magufuli)
A petty dictator? May be! A benevolent overlord? Probably! An unusual kind of an African leader? Undoubtedly! A leader that Tanzanians longed for and finally got? You betcha! Since his election four years ago, President John Magufuli has become an enigmatic and emblematic President.
Some people despise him, others praise him; there are many who cringe at the mention of his name while others the bare mention of Magufuli’s name brings a sense of pride and patriotism not seen in the country since the time of the Founding Father Julius Nyerere during the struggle for independence in the 1950s.
While there are many things that are dissimilar between the two leaders, one can see a rising parallelism between the two on at least two areas. Both – Nyerere and Magufuli show a great and unambiguous belief in the aptitude of the Tanzanian people to bring forth their own development. Secondly, both Nyerere and Magufuli see and treat politics – at least in the early years of their presidencies – as hindrances against that development.
However, while Nyerere’s proclivities could be explained by looking at historical factors and even by looking and studying his political philosophy – Magufuli’s tendencies have not been clearly stated and articulated. In that sense it is hard and indeed unfair – if not outright impossible - to compare the two leaders and come to a fair and rational conclusions. The over half a century of time passing between the beginning of Nyerere's and Magufuli's tenures any attempt then to see the parallels between seem would definitely be insurmountable. Of course this does not negate nor discourage a possibility of a comparative study of the two presidents to understand them at least from an intellectual perspective.
As someone who has openly supported President Magufuli, I believe I owe some explanation to those who heeded my call to reject the opposition candidate and support Magufuli’s 2015 run. It was an unpopular decision then and to some it remains as such today. I have lost many friends – or at least that is what I thought of them – simply because of my support for Magufuli. Some of the people who also supported Magufuli have now wavered and regret their choice. As a true democrat I’m not bothered by such difference of opinions, positions, or political proclivities. Indeed I had expected them and in fact defend the rights of those who oppose me or my positions.
I have also kept many friends who supported the opposition candidate and still do not support Magufuli. This has given me an incredible opportunity and insight to understand where my friends stand and also reflect my own decision to support Magufuli. Was I wrong then? Should I have continued my support for the opposition in light of that Great Opposition Betrayal of 2015? Thus follows my apology (defense) of Magufuli; once again unambiguously clear and openly purposeful.
Four years later, I have seen what I have seen, I have heard what I have heard, and I have come to a categorical conclusion that President Magufuli is the leader that Tanzanians have longed, waited and prayed for and finally got. He is a man of action; a double measure of boldness and dare. His tongue might not be as eloquent as many others and his style not as charming as others. His walk may be lacking the swagger of a showman and his words sometimes carry the sharpness of a dagger. But make no mistake; he is a man on a mission.
His mission could be elucidated and expounded by looking at two of his most prominent axioms that have marked his first four years in office. The first one is his total, uncompromising, and unambiguous call to all Tanzanians and Africans in general to believe in themselves.
To believe not in their place in the universe but a belief in their own ability to positively effect and perfect their lives. In so many places and occasions President Magufuli has spoken of his desire to see that Tanzanians do not doubt themselves. That, they shouldn’t see themselves of as being unable to reach anything that they desire as a nation and as a people. He refuses to see a nation of an average people (Taifa la watu wa wastani)! His call to duty roars in a deafening sound like the lions of the Serengeti Plains waking up from a summer slumber – Tanzania We Can Africa We Can!
One might mistook and ignore this call and see it as hollow and shallow. To some of us this call reverberates to the very core of our being. It instills and inspires the young generation with a sense of duty to their nation and to themselves. Magufuli is daring the young people to reach for the stars and beyond! Nothing is impossible anymore if we put our minds and efforts together. My friends, these are not just mere words of a political elite – of which Magufuli is definitely not. He envisions a nation of people who could aspire and achieve great things.
In light of this, we can see why the massive construction and spending projects that he had initiated or brought to completion are bold, futuristic, and in fact necessary. The SGR, the Airplanes, The Nyerere Hydroelectric Power Dam, Bridges, Schools, Hospitals and clinics and roads construction and many more are just a sign and a dare of what as a nation can do.
To some these are wasteful and redundant, and others have argued that the projects are nothing but a myriad of white elephant projects. However, it is almost impossible to argue that the use of our own money in some of these projects, the hiring of Tanzanian professionals as well as mid and low level workers (engineers, consultants, etc.) is a bad thing and not beneficial to the country.
The massive transfer of knowledge and the buildup of new experience that is happening under Magufuli’s watch is undeniably profound for our nation. Magufuli is bold enough to dare the nation to believe in itself. That is the first axiom that informs Magufuli’s management style.
The second axiom could be said is in fact the foundation of the first. Magufuli wants every Tanzanian not only to believe that he or she can do great things but also to know and believe that we have within our country the natural resources and God-given wealth as well as the fact that we possess an innate potential within ourselves to achieve that which was deemed improbably just few years ago.
To this end, Magufuli has shown that we cannot continue to depend on foreign aid to do things that are within our power. From the very beginning of his presidency four years ago he has always tried to remind us that we can only develop ourselves. This is the same sentiment that five decades earlier the Founding Father Mwalimu Nyerere had eloquently expounded.
It is not enough to believe in ourselves or recognize the potential prowess that our natural wealth has accorded us. We have to act as people who believe in ourselves. We have to start bringing ourselves development without waiting four our “uncles” from foreign lands to render us a hand.
These two axioms – the belief in our own ability to achieve greatness and the recognition of our natural and adaptive potential as a country and a people to bring our own development are the glue that hold together Magufuli’s plans, policies, projects, and dreams. These two axioms or maxims if you will are founded on two factors. These are factors that in reality will be what defines Magufuli’s political philosophy and in a sense are what causes the tension and friction with some people. These are factors that motivates Magufuli – the President.
These two factors were not well known during the time he was a junior or senior minister in Mkapa’s or Kikwete’s Cabinets. There were some signs but not fully displayed.
Magufuli is and has always been motivated first of all by an overzealous sense of urgency of the now. From the first time he spoke at his inaugural address to any of his most recent public remarks Magufuli sees the country as extremely late to the development fiesta!
He believes that some of the things that he has to do now should have been done many years ago. He accuses the previous administrations of being wasteful, undisciplined and in effective. Sometimes he does this in direct attacks and in many other times in veiled attacks – without really naming names but we all know who is talking about.
Unfortunately, when doing so Magufuli is in fact is accusing himself and his own political party. Indeed, in this regard the gathering and continually growing crowd of his critics is correct. Tanzania has always been ruled by CCM (and its predecessor TANU). The many policies that have been implemented in the country for almost sixty years a have all come from the group of political elite within CCM. The failures of implementation and supervision that have plagued the country over the years have one common denominator that bears the blame.
Yes, CCM and its government bears the overwhelming blame and shame of the all political failures in the country. No other party, no other political figure that can shoulder that blame except CCM, the ruling party. Thus, when Magufuli is pointing fingers at others he must always be mindful of how much blame his party bears.
This in a sense explains why in some places Magufuli has apologized publicly on those failures of his party to bring the country development. While those apologies did not attract many attention to many people to some of us highlights why Magufuli is the right person; he doesn’t excuse these failures nor does he ignores them. He understands that it is his responsibility to correct where others before him had failed. I would even argue that Magufuli follows the spirit of Nyerere’s reflective document – Tujisahihishe (Lets correct ourselves)(1962) or that of Tanzania Miaka Kumi Baada ya Uhuru (Tanzania Ten Years After Independence)(1971).
On this urgency, Magufuli follows on the footsteps of Mwalimu himself. Nyerere said in the 1960s that “we must run while others are walking”. He was referring the sense of urgency that the new nation of Tanzania and Tanzanians themselves should have when it comes to bringing their own development. In Kiswahili he said “yatupasa tukimbie wakati wengine wanatembea”.
Magufuli is motivated by this “fierce urgency of now” as Martin Luther King would call it. Of course, one has to be careful when approaching things from this angle of urgency. It is easily possible and probably for one to forced errors due to this urgency. When for example considering the construction of any building which could be used by people one must and should always pay attention not to do it in a hurry. Otherwise, it is very possible to end up with beautiful looking buildings (from the outside at least) that hides underlying engineering deficiencies that would threaten the structural integrity of those buildings.
So this sense of urgency of now must be taken and executed with caution whenever possible and however necessary. We should not fall into the trap of complacency that our ancestors had warned us about – haraka haina baraka. On the other hand we must also be mindful of doing things so carefully and meticulously that we don’t finish them. Like another Swahili maxim says – pole pole ndio mwendo. We must always find the balance between these two polar opposites.
I’ll use a vivid example here. Few weeks ago Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa visited one of the construction site at Mitengo in Mtwara. One of the pictures of the buildings there caught my eyes:
The second factor that motivates Magufuli in my humble unsolicited opinion– which I will happily offer anyway - is the way he sees the role of politics in the country.
Magufuli has always been politically incorrect; he has a not so hidden disdain taste for politics. Anyone who has followed Magufuli’s rise to power would agree with me that Magufuli has always shown an utter disregard for what many would consider to be political correctness. His language sometimes is as offensive as his mannerism. To call Magufuli apolitical might not be very far from the truth. Of course, this doesn’t mean he does not use to advance his agenda but he does so as a matter of necessity not duty.
It is this second factor that I believe has led him to have basically curtail the vast richness of political activities in the country. And in this regard his critics once again are correct. It is clear that Magufuli’s urgency of the now conflict greatly with the world politics which we have seen since the return of multiparty democracy in 1992.
During the past twenty five years of multiparty democracy Tanzanians have enjoyed greatly the freedoms and liberties that come with having a lively, strong, and engaging opposition parties. Since the time of Augustine Mrema to Dr. Walid Kaborou, from James Mapalala to Dr. Slaa, to the rise of Zitto Kabwe and Tundu Lissu and every other opposition figure in between, the political life of the country has been enriched, challenged, and benefited from the bold, uncompromising presence of the political opposition.
Of course, the current state of affairs could not all be blamed on Magufuli. We have always had a straining relationship between the State and the opposition parties in the country. This is has been so true since the presidencies of Benjamin Mkapa, Kikwete, and now Magufuli. One thing is clear however, the confrontational approach that the opposition had used effectively against Mkapa’s leading to the killings at Mwembechai and Zanzibar and Kikwete’s that led to the killings of opposition members and that of Daud Mwangosi; that same strategy seems to be ineffective against Magufuli. It has been attempted and promptly squashed mercilessly.
I believe Magufuli approach is not necessary nor warranted. I’m of the opinion that the work that he has been doing all over the country speaks for itself and can easily be defended. I also believe that in order for President Magufuli to succeed and leave a political legacy that will be difficult to be matched by any leader sooner or later he needs to reconsider his relations with the opposition and the world politics in the country. I see the opposition not as the ticks on the hippo’s back which may cause diseases and irritations but as the birds that eat the ticks away and keep the hippo clean and healthy.
Magufuli needs the opposition; he might not agree with their philosophy or methodology, he might not like some of its leaders, or the fact that they even exist; but as long the Tanzanian Constitution guarantees the existence of a democratic state Magufuli options are constrained.
The guarantees of civil and human rights as well as the freedom of thoughts and of the press are not optional or conditional. Magufuli who publicly swore to defend them must be seen doing so in the same breath that he defends his grand ambitions, dreams, and work.
The two are not self-contradictory. As he gears up into the next year’s General Elections Magufuli must find a workable but necessary compromise with the political opposition in the country. He has already shown that he can deliver on his promises.
It can easily be deduced then that the two factors which motivate Magufuli’s work in the country are indeed his strength as well as his weakness in either direction he follows them. I am of a belief that in order for him to succeed he needs to find a clear and unequivocal balance that will allow him to fulfil his promises to the Tanzanian people while at the same time ensure that the rights that are constitutionally guaranteed are enjoyed by all.
In light of all this, as I look back and reflect on the first four years of Magufuli’s presidency I still see hope in the middle of despair, I see light at the end of the tunnel, and I see an incredible future when all is said and done. I’m looking at Magufuli as an emergency room doctor who is called to save the life of a badly wounded person. The first steps to stabilize the dying patient might be seen as cruel and extreme; but in fact are necessary.
Of course time is of the essence. I also believe that Magufuli will leave an extraordinary legacy in his second term; for the first five years have been used to set the stage while second term I believe will be a time for a lasting legacy. Of the later I am absolutely sure.
So, is he a petty dictator? May be! A benevolent overlord? Probably! An unusual kind of an African leader? Undoubtedly! A leader that Tanzanians longed for and finally got? You betcha! When Magufuli’s two terms are over, the Tanzanian people will be glad that for once they have had a president who dared fate by being bold and ambitious enough in a double measure of boldness and dare.
As we all look forward for 2020 and beyond Magufuli’s legacy will eventually be judged by history not by the projects and things he has accomplished but how he has left the country and the people feeling.
His rise and fall or his rise and further rise will be determined by how is able to finish amiably his race. In a nutshell, people will look back and see how was able to check the fundamentals of his political and presidential motivations and ambitions; of which you are now quite acquainted with.
You've summarised his 4 years administration correctly without sugar-coating like Mwanakijiji.
Hilo jina mlijibatiza pale mlipoamua jubadilishia gia angani.
Mapimbi mna kazi kweli kula Chadema, kulala Chadema, kwenda chooni Chadema mnalala kweli.
Alikuwepo JK aliyetoa uhuru wa demokrasia lakini mwisho wake akaitwa dhaifu, tuchape kazi tukitambua kuwa kuna changamoto na fursa katika huu huu umaskini tunaopambana nao.
Vitu vichache vya kurekebisha?