MAGUFULI: A MAN OF THE PEOPLE
MAR 16, 2022
By Harid Mkali. London, England.
It is now a year since the all too untimely death of President John Pombe Joseph Magufuli who died on March 17th, 2021 just as he had started his 2nd term as President of Tanzania.
In October 2020 the people of Tanzania had spoken out loudly through their ballot boxes by re-electing the incumbent Dr. John Pombe Joseph Magufuli and his CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi) Party, and it was indeed a landslide of monumental proportions in both the presidential and parliamentary votes. Dr. Magufuli (affectionately known as JPM) garnered 84.4 percent of the total votes cast while his Party scooped all except 8 of the 264 constituency seats contested.
The scale of the victory was astounding. However, for many-objective observers of the Tanzanian scene in the last five years, this outcome came as no surprise at all – it was not only anticipated but others felt it was inevitable if good leadership was to remain meaningful in politics.
To comprehend the dynamics which influenced the results will entail a brief historical exposition of the situation inherited by Dr. Magufuli as well as the political trends in Tanzania between 1985 and 2015.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s, many countries around the world abandoned Socialism, embracing untrammeled Capitalism through the policies of “free market” and “privatization”. The theory was that countries should allow a few people at the top to be rich in the belief that the wealth of the few at the top would trickle down to the majority at the bottom. But in reality, the wealth never trickled down; rather it continued to be sucked upwards leaving the overwhelming majority of the people at the bottom in extreme poverty. This is the story of Tanzania between 1985 when Julius Nyerere stepped down and 2015 when JPM was elected as the 5th President.
After 30 years of the Zanzibar Declaration, which replaced the former socialist Arusha Declaration, Tanzania was effectively a failed state. Despite not having suffered civil war, the national wealth was being stolen with impunity by foreigners and nationals alike and the poor were suffering and dying of treatable diseases. Furthermore:
- The national airline was dead with a ‘fleet’ only a single aircraft, down from 14, but with 250 employees.
- All 450 state-owned corporations had been sold off at give-away prices.
- Government houses were shared out among the elite at knock-down prices.
- Most railway lines operational since colonial times were out of operation.
- Much of the cultivable land was given away into private control under the guise of ‘investments’ in farmland resulting in often deadly land conflicts.
- Sand concentrates containing 13 different kinds of minerals were being freely shipped in large quantities and without government oversight.
- The state had stopped providing free education and health; while civil servants went abroad for treatment at state expense the common people were sleeping on the floor in hospitals and women were giving birth two to a bed.
- Contracts were being signed with little or no regard as to whether they were advantageous for Tanzania, though presumably to the benefit of those signing.
- By 2015 the country had 20,000 ghost workers receiving regular government salaries plus 14,000 people working with fake qualifications.
- Patriotism was dead. Anybody talking of national interest was considered crazy and discipline in the work place had disappeared.
- Corruption was rife and the rich acted as if they were beyond the law.
- Primitive beliefs of albino body parts being a secret of business success was triggering a spate of killings across the country.
- The Dar Es Salaam region was slowly choking itself from traffic congestion, and so was the economy through loss of man-hours.
- So, the level of hopelessness and despair in the country was so severe that some people resorted to the desperate measure of forming a liberation movement, complete with an army, police force and flag. A respected Kiswahili newspaper Jamhuri of 15/04/2014 published an article titled: Majambazi wajitangazia Serikali – (Bandits declared their own government).
- What a turn-around; the leading liberator nation of the African continent being forced to liberate itself from the corruption and greed of its own leaders!
So, that was the state of play in Tanzania when Dr. John Pombe Magufuli assumed the leadership in November 2015 at a point when people had given up all hope of Tanzania recapturing the glory of Mwalimu Nyerere’s era.
But in just five years, Magufuli and his Government sorted out most of the problems outlined above with almost miraculous efficiency. No one in their wildest dreams expected Magufuli to turn around the fortunes of Tanzania the way he did, and in only five years. During his first term of office from 2015-2020, his achievements included:
- Re-introduction of free education up to standard twelve, so doubling enrolments in Standard One.
- Free health care for the elderly, children and pregnant mothers was re-introduced with universal health care a commitment in JPM’s/CCM’S 2nd term manifesto.
- In the first 54 years since Independence Tanzania managed to build 77 district hospitals whereas Magufuli built 71 such hospitals in five years – not to mention numerous regional hospitals, 450 health centres and dispensaries.
- He brought forward the electrification of all villages which foreign pundits said would take 100 years but is now scheduled for 2022. Tanzania will be the first country in Africa to electrify all its villages.
- The national airline is fully functioning again with a fleet of 12 brand new
- Aircraft was bought for cash during JPM’s first term.
- All railway lines have been revived and the building of a new Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is in progress which will greatly enhance the infrastructure and commerce of the whole of East Africa linking Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda and DRC with Tanzania and coastal ports.
- Brand new/refurbished boats are operational again on all three lakes – Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa.
- Tarmac roads now connect all regions in the country with journey times greatly reduced. For example, a journey from Mbinga to Dar-Es-Salaam via Lindi which used to take a week now takes 24 hours.
- Traffic congestion in the Dar Es Salaam has been significantly eased by road expansion and the building of bridges and flyovers.
- Construction has started on the 2,115 MW Julius Nyerere Hydro-Power Project (JNHPP) at Rufiji, planned since Nyerere’s time, which will supply power to the whole country with surplus for export.
- JPM dealt appropriately with the early stages of Covid-19, refusing lockdown as impossible when most people had to work today to eat tomorrow and backing the development of local vaccines from traditional sources like Tanzania’s Covidol and Madagascar’s Covid Organics.
- He banned the further research into GMO agriculture when he realised the threat to small-scale farmers and to Tanzania’s food sovereignty, as well as the unknown health risks.
- JPM rescinded the policy of doling out large tracts of land to foreign and private ‘investors’ under the Kilimo Kwanza (Farming First) programme. This programme had caused many, sometimes deadly, land disputes of which JPM resolved over 134,000 in his first term.
- The country’s move from a lower to a middle income nation as defined by the World Bank, projected for 2025 actually occurred in 2020 thanks to President Magafuli’s outstanding leadership.
So just how did JPM achieve these changes?
JPM was committed to reducing state expenditure by controlling budgets for state occasions, cutting down on trips abroad at state expense, and even handing his presidential jet over to Air Tanzania. He reduced extravagant salaries paid to some top Company CEOs to 15 million shillings (US$6,700) and JPM cut his own salary to 9 million shillings (US$4,000) a month; making him the lowest-paid President in Africa.
He also ensured that appropriate taxes were paid into the state coffers, both personal and corporate, doing away with the ‘tax holidays’ which had been on offer to foreign investors.
Unfavorable contracts were either canceled or re-negotiated to ensure the state received a fair share of profits. Government-funded projects throughout the country that had previously had little oversight from the central government now became closely monitored for value for money.
Corruption among public servants from junior to ministerial level was rife when JPM began his presidency. He soon began to challenge public servants who appeared to have unexplained wealth and instructed them to show their assets had been gained honestly.
The people of Tanzania recognized and acknowledged the uniqueness of President Magufuli and his achievements by returning him to the office at the October 2020 general election with a landslide. Tragically he is no longer around to pursue his plans to further improve the lives of the common people of Tanzania – but he will be sorely missed and mourned by his people for a long time to come.
Harid Mkali is an author & journalist based in London, England. He can be reached via Email:mkali@live.co.uk; phone: +44 7905392355