Samia Suluhu Hassan made history Friday when she was sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president two days after the death was announced of her controversial predecessor, John Magufuli, who denied that COVID-19 is a problem in the East African country.
Samia Suluhu Hassan made history Friday when she was sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president two days after the death was announced of her controversial predecessor, John Magufuli, who denied that COVID-19 is a problem in the East African country.
Wearing a hijab and holding up a Quran with her right hand, Ms. Hassan took the oath of office at the government offices in Dar es Salaam, the country’s largest city.
The inauguration was witnessed by Cabinet members and Tanzania’s former presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Jakaya Kikwete and former vice president Abeid Karume. The former heads of state were among the few people in the room wearing face masks to protect against COVID-19.
Ms. Hassan succeeds Mr. Magufuli, who had not been seen in public for more than two weeks before his passing was announced. Mr. Magufuli had denied that COVID-19 was a problem in Tanzania, saying that national prayer had eradicated the disease from the country. But weeks before his death, Mr. Magufuli acknowledged the virus was a danger.
A major test of Ms. Hassan’s new presidency will be how she deals with the pandemic. Under Mr. Magufuli, Tanzania, one of Africa’s most populous countries with 60 million people, made no efforts to obtain vaccines or promote the use of masks and social distancing to combat the virus. This policy of ignoring the disease endangers neighboring countries, African health officials warn.
Although Ms. Hassan announced that Mr. Magufuli died of heart failure, exiled opposition leader Tundu Lissu says the president died of COVID-19, citing informed medical sources in Dar es Salaam.
“The immediate job, the immediate decision she has to make, and she doesn’t have much time for it, is what is she going to do about COVID-19?” Mr. Lissu told The Associated Press in Belgium, where he lives in exile.
“President Magufuli defied the world, defied science, defied common sense in his approach to COVID-19 and it finally brought him down,” said Mr. Lissu.
“President Samia Saluhu Hassan has to decide very soon whether she is changing course or continuing with the same disastrous approach to COVID-19 that her predecessor took,” said Mr. Lissu.
Ms. Hassan must also decide how she will address Mr. Magufuli’s legacy, said Mr. Lissu. He said she must decide to continue with Mr. Magufuli’s policies which took Tanzania from a relatively tolerant democracy to a repressive state. He questioned if she will be able to restore the country’s political freedoms and democracy.
Mr. Lissu went into exile in 2017 after he was shot 16 times. The attack came shortly after Mr. Magufuli said those who were opposed to his economic reforms deserved to die. Mr. Lissu returned to Tanzania to challenge Mr. Magufuli in the Oct. 2020 elections. He lost to Mr. Magufuli in polls marred by violence and widespread allegations of vote-rigging. Mr. Lissu returned to exile, saying his life was in danger.
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