President Samia’s tough task; right Magufuli’s wrongs
What you need to know:
- Samia Suluhu Hassan has officially taken over as Tanzania's sixth President.
- Ms Hassan is set out for a tough task – to right any wrongs left by her predecessor, and to raise high the mantle of women in leadership.
- Magufuli is infamous for reinforcing the policy on expelling pregnant girls from school and disallowing the re-entry of the teen mothers, a decision that had been challenged in the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights by women rights advocates.
Tanzania’s former Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan has officially taken over as the country’s sixth president. She is to complete the remainder of the five-year presidential term after the death of John Pombe Magufuli.
The 61-year-old who hails from a semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar which is 99 per cent Muslim, was serving her second term as the Vice-President (VP).
She becomes the second president for Tanzania from the island after Ali Hassan Mwinyi. She was in 2015, elected alongside the late Magufuli on the Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party ticket. Then last year, they were both re-elected in a general election marred with attacks on opposition leaders and lingering questions on its credibility.
While she becomes the first female President of the East African nation courtesy of Article 37 of Tanzania’s Constitution, which permits the VP to take over the Presidency for the remainder of the term, Ms Hassan is set out for a tough task – to right any wrongs left by her predecessor, and to raise high the mantle of women in leadership.
Teen mothers
Magufuli is infamous for reinforcing the policy on expelling pregnant girls from school and disallowing the re-entry of the teen mothers, a decision that had been challenged in the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights by women rights advocates.
In November, last year Equality Now, a women rights organisation with global and regional offices and other Tanzania based women rights advocates jointly filed the policy overturn case at the Arusha-based Court.
The case was yet to be determined as Tanzania withdrew its special declaration to the court, hence individuals and non-governmental organisations cannot directly file a case against the government.
Ms Suluhu could be excused for failing to act against the policy as her hands may have been tied then. That may, however, not apply now that she is the Head of the State, argues Ms Memory Kachambwa, the executive director of African Women’s Development and Communication Network (Femnet).
“People have always excused her when Magufuli said pregnant girls cannot go to school because she was seen to be under his shadow. But now, she has the opportunity to demonstrate transformational leadership,” says Ms Kachambwa.
She adds: “Expectations are very high to prove that she can do it without the shadow of an autocratic leader who couldn’t listen to anyone.”
She notes that “it is not easy taking over the Presidency from Magufuli” owing to extra efforts needed to make things right for her country, especially taming the spread of Covid-19, a virus whose existence Magufuli publicly denied.
“She has to reconcile the legitimacy of last year’s election and rebuild the nation,” she says.,
Covid-19
“With the Covid-19, she has a lot to think about like vaccines, precautionary messaging and putting in place measures to contain the spread.”
Ms Kachambwa is of the opinion that Ms Hassan will leave a memorable legacy if she avoids falling into the trappings of power, puts the right people in her administration and remains open to listening to her people and heeding to transformative advice.
“She has no choice but to change the tide. She has already broken the barriers to show that Muslim women can rise into leadership. Now it is the time to demonstrate to all girls and women across the continent that they can actually do it,” she says.
Ms Hassan, who holds a Master’s degree in Community Economic Development, is not new to leadership.
She served as Minister of State in the vice president’s office in charge of Union Affairs.
Between 2000 and 2005, the graduate of University of Manchester with a postgraduate diploma in economics, was minister of youth employment, women and children development in Zanzibar. Later, she took over the docket of tourism, trade and investment.
Then in 2010, she joined politics, winning the parliamentary seat for Makunduchi. Magufuli then chose her as his running mate, winning the 2015 and 2020 elections, respectively.
She breaks record as being the first female President in East Africa and the first female VP in East Africa to rise to Presidency.
