Magufuli’s chequered legacy

The year 2021 closed for Tanzania with momentous events, perhaps the most momentous being the death in office of the country’s fifth president, Dr John Pombe Magufuli, on March 17.
I choose to start 2022 by discussing Magufuli’s legacy from his regime that officially started with his swearing into the Presidency on November 5, 2015.
As President, Magufuli will be remembered fondly by some, and somewhat negatively by others. But, I shall not shy away from recording history as it really happened on the ground.
From my point of view, Magufuli’s greatest impact was on the people of Tanzania. Unbeknown to many, he pulled Tanzanians from out of deep slumber, as we are by Nature “a laid-back, no hurry in Africa” types.
Magufuli’s clarion call Hapa Kazi Tu – sheer hard work – caught on like a prairie fire. Looking back, one cannot help but wonder how in his five-year presidency he was able to effectively strip Tanzanians of what we had become infamous for: a laid-back attitude towards work.
This is one of the key – if not the most impactful – changes in Tanzania: a positive Magufuli legacy as President.
Changing age-old mindsets is never easy, and people may very well argue that nothing has really changed here.
But, for the first time in our history, public servants began to take their work seriously: a situation that continues even after the fatal departure of the change-maker.
Magufuli made no apologies – and accepted none – when it came to public services delivery. His may have been brusque in his approach, with some innocent bystanders becoming par for the course.
But, if you value exquisite services delivery, then you will know that many are the times when bureaucracy was an impediment to the elusive goal of socioeconomic development we have been chasing for long.
People may think that the Ubungo Interchange and the Bus Rapid Transit projects were Magufuli’s biggest development projects. Of course, I am not saying that these were not game changers in infrastructural development; they are.
But, the thing is that, huge infrastructural projects are not a magic bullet in socioeconomic development. If one has the requisite political will, is driven and can raise the needed funding, strategic infrastructural projects can pretty much be achieved even by an incompetent government.
But, then again, Magufuli’s government was nowhere near-incompetent, led as it was by a man who was resolute, and knew what he was out to achieve.
He led his cabinet and civil service bureaucrats with a firm hand. He did not have a choice in this. Incompetence and a bad attitude had built an empire in the bureaucracy that was the civil service. Magufuli knew all this, and set out to eradicate it.
He succeeded in this to a large extent – thus showing that these same stubborn bureaucrats could be made to do things differently, better… And, they did!
However, Magufuli’s democratic credentials were not that impressive. When the chapter in history is written on this, it will show that Tanzania’s political progression as a democratic nation regressed during his presidency. This is a blot that shall remain in Magufuli’s legacy.
As we proceed with the sixth-phase Union Government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, we have to acknowledge these records because they inform the trajectory which the nation shall take.
In conversations with some citizens of neighbouring countries, the legacy of the late President Magufuli seems to come out very strongly. After all, he was admired by many, and dreaded by many others in equal measure.
The late President was admired for his boldness against the robber barons in public service, and his anti-Western diatribe and outbursts.
Yet, you only have to see how Francophone Africa continues to be beholden to France while they remain poor, with some of their central banks still located in Paris.
It is such African ironies that will give Magufuli a positive place in Tanzanian and African history and political lexicon, even as his democratic credentials seem to wane in the eyes of others.
Happy New Year 2022 to all my esteemed readers, and may socioeconomic development reach each and every one of you.
RIP, Dr John Pombe Magufuli, “Shujaa wa Afrika”, who may not have been exactly a paragon of democracy, but is my hero, nonetheless.