Dr. John Pombe Magufuli is the 5th President of Tanzania. He was born on 29 October 1959 and assumed office on 5 November 2015. He succeeded President Jakaya Kikwete. Dr. Magufuli previously worked as the Minister of Works in President Kikwete’s administration.
President Magfuli is married to Janet Magufuli, a primary school teacher and they have three children. He is a devout Catholic with a corruption-free reputation. President Magufuli campaigned for the presidency on a platform of hard work and made history in his country by appointing Tanzania’s first-ever female Vice President, Samia Suluhu.
The president’s nickname is Tinga Tinga (Swahili for “The Bulldozer”). He is also popularly known as JPM, acronyms of his names and is active on Twitter. President Magufuli has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Dar es Salaam.
Dr. Magufuli, The Bulldozer: tackling corruption and cholera head-on in Tanzania through words and deeds
BBC Africa (2015) note that right from the beginning, President Magufuli has displayed a zeal for austerity and impatience with corruption and waste. He cancelled Independence Day celebrations, traditionally a time for the government to spend big on a public display of nationalism.
Instead, the time was spent on street-cleaning to improve sanitation and arrest the spread of a cholera outbreak (CCTV Africa, 2015). President Magufuli also downsized by more than 90 percent the budget for the opulent state dinner that usually marks the opening of Parliament and ordered the money saved to be spent on hospital beds and road works.
BBC Africa (2015) also observes that President Magufuli cancelled foreign travel for officials and banned the purchase of first-class air tickets for government officials. Furthermore, he ordered that government meetings and workshops be held in government buildings rather than expensive hotels and cut a bloated delegation of 50 people set to tour Commonwealth countries to just four (BBC Africa, 2015).
He publicly issued a serious warning to the people he selected as ministers that he would not tolerate corrupt and bureaucratic government officials and that the ministers would have to work tirelessly to serve Tanzanians along with him.
Indeed, Allison (2016) notes that Tanzania’s President Magufuli was a relatively unknown quantity when he came to power. It didn’t take long for that to change. His headline-grabbing anti-corruption and anti-waste measures soon captured the imagination of Africa and beyond. President Magufuli demonstrated a humility lacking in too many African leaders. Allison (2016) observes that #WhatWouldMagufuliDo trended for weeks on social media across Africa.
Allison (2016) argues that the President’s nickname, ‘The Bulldozer’, is well-deserved and is a reflection of his rare ability to get things done in government. Allison (2016) notes that as Works Minister, if Dr Magufuli promised to build a road, he would get it built, no matter who or what stood in his way. So it should not have come as too much of a surprise that this decisive leadership style would make itself felt in his presidency. But no-one was expecting Magufuli to act so decisively, so quickly (Allison, 2016).
Within days of being sworn in, Magufuli was making far-reaching changes and has become an African icon (Fayehun, 2016). According to Allison (2016), President Magufuli’s approval rating among Tanzanians is a staggering 90.4%. Allison (2016) observes that this high approval rating reflects President Magufuli’s ability to effectively communicate as a leader by putting out his core anti-corruption message clearly across to his followers and others. President Magufuli has so far shown a no-nonsense approach in taming corruption, laziness and the business-as-usual syndrome among public servants. This has endeared him to most Tanzanians. — to be continued
