John Magufuli: Enigmatic builder who rained on his own parade
tanzania
He will remain enigmatic for some time, and even when volumes are churned out on his life, work and legacy.
John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, was paradoxical in many senses. He was a driven man, always anxious to do more than would appear to be what was expected of him as part of duty. At the same time, he left out of his to-do-list too many things that he should have attended to.
He was that rare breed of politician who boasted three university degrees in science, but showed little inclination to listen to what scientific experts were saying, instead professing his belief in God as a remedy, and pandering to remedies and potions prescribed by quacks.
Magufuli rose to become head of state of a country that treasured its double linguistic identity, embracing Kiswahili and English as the two languages of state and administration without being comfortable with either, and made linguistic mastery seem irrelevant in leadership, even allowing himself a few coarse barbs in public.
He always exhorted his people to place God ahead of whatever they did, and yet he did not seem to heed his own advice when the Church representatives counselled him to do right by his people: To observe good governance and allow for dissenting voices to be heard.
The late president never ceased to state that he was the champion of the underdog in society, but when faced with the question of pregnant schoolgirls, he threw them under the bus, stating that he was ‘’not the president to educate mothers.’’
He vowed at every chance that he was on a warpath against corruption and spendthrift practices in government, and yet made sure great expenditures were hidden away in the President’s Office, making sure they would not be independently audited. He came to power riding on a victory of his party, Chama cha Mapinduzi, in a multiparty contest, and yet immediately after assuming office, declared that in five years there would be no opposition, and indeed went on to outlaw any and all opposition activities, including mass rallies and demonstrations.
He appealed to the people to pray for him so that he would not become arrogant, but became the most arrogant president in the history of Tanzania, insulting his ministers and other officials and using foul language on subalterns.
He declared that he was the president of all Tanzanians, but it soon became clear that he was partial to certain groups of Tanzanians whom he promoted and to whose transgressions he turned a blind eye.
In his appointments, one could discern the small number of Muslims, women and people from certain regions of the country. In fact, in his last Cabinet formed last November, there was not a single Zanzibari, barring the vice-president. Though I know it is still early days, I think it will be very hard to place Magufuli in a neat little pigeonhole, because wherever he is placed he is likely to be a handful, and even the most trenchant critics may find him something of a curveball.