Tanzania’s lion roars no more, but will live on!

When a leader such as a president dies and you see citizens wailing, weeping and others collapsing as they pay their last respects, then you know what, in their lives, he or she meant or represented.

 I was but only a   Senior One student at St Joseph’s Vocational School, Mbarara, and I remember a love song, “When I die, I keep on living…” by No Mercy, mimed by a tall and handsome Senior Four  Rwandan lad, Didas Kalenzi, on March 19, 1993, on the School Patron Saint’s Day. His performance wowed us but left me wondering: how could one die and keep on living?

 As I struggle to come to terms  with the passing of H.E. John Pombe Magufuli, one of the leaders I strongly admired, I cannot help but reminisce on No Mercy’s song, 28 years later!

We shall all die someday –and we will be called many things by various people, but whether or not we shall be loathed villains or heros will depend on where one stood when we still lived or served our country or what their interests were.
 
A corrupt official or self-seeking politician whose fraud or treachery we unflinchingly tackled, countered or punished will definitely demonise us while a hitherto impoverished citizen whose life we saved by infrastructure development or for safeguarding their lives, property and freedoms from unscrupulous government officials who had become a tormenting menace, will canonize us.

As Tanzania’s fierce lion, Mangufuli’s, candle burns out, I can only imagine the silent joys of evil schemers he frustrated, contrast to the grief endured by the tempest tossed –those who loved him. To the latter I belong albeit not Tanzanian, but for my Pan-African spirit and enthusiastic advocacy of the East African Federation!

President Mangufuli firmly prevailed over corruption, wasteful government expenditure, as well the media on biased and inaccurate reporting.
He is quoted to have once cautioned them: “Media owners be careful: if you think you have that freedom; not to that extent.”

Some people have attempted to conscript the world into thinking that Dr Mangufuli succumbed to the dreaded coronavirus which he downplayed.

His deputy –now president, Samia  Hassan Suluhu, announced otherwise. But in case this was an underlying condition, and considering the numerous Covid-19 deaths reported of Tanzanians, what would it mean for Ugandans? When President Museveni put up a spirited fight against Covid-19, some people grumbled.

Would it be coincidence that the news of  Mangufuli’s demise trickled in just on the eve of exactly a year since our own President Museveni announced and effected total lockdown and related standard operating procedures (SOPs) as safeguards against the pandemic? Could it not have been worse?
 
Mangufuli, a chemist, interestingly, defied science, which, unfortunately, heavily cost his country more like when Maji-Maji rebellion’s Kinjeketile Ngwale, instructed his fighters to use ‘sacred water’ as ‘bullet-proof’ against the German bullets as they fought for independence. Did history repeat itself? Who knows!

At 61 years, Mangufuli certainly died young –with many of Tanzania’s and Africa’s dreams vested in him.
But in his short tenure as Works and Transport minister and later, president, applied himself unreservedly in the transformation of his country.

In the process, as is proper to human, he certainly stepped on some people’s toes, but I believe he served his divine purpose –and left a legacy in many ways worth emulating!

His  body  has been  lowered in his grave, but he will keep on living! Lest I forget, the self-exiled Opposition leader, Tundu Lissu, was among the first to send in commiserations! Great gesture!

Patrick Katagata Jr, former MP aspirant, Buhweju County
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