sheikh shaaban
Member
- Jan 22, 2017
- 19
- 32
Most people in social media and those in government think that it is unwise to criticize a sitting president. As you have seen in my foregoing evaluative commentary I completely disagree with such a stance. The President is a leader of government and its top executive. He takes full responsibility for strategy, policy as well as operations, the whole hog.
Magufuli was a character full of holes as a person; I was aware of his penchant for pretty fair complexions in his women and he had had a few affairs. But we also heard that he was quite rough. We heard that the first lady had herself been hospitalized once due to a severe beating! I remember his speaking in Tanga Mwambani and asking for a good Segeju lady to marry while his official wife was seated at the same podium – that would ordinarily never be allowed anywhere!
One good attribute of the 5th phase government is execution; Magufuli actually executed whatever decisions he made and that is extremely important. I don’t have much else good to say for Magufuli but I do have a lot of misgivings.
One, he did not have trust in official systems and institutions and therefore saw no problem in killing or disrupting their workings. Remember he inherited a well-staffed Best Results Now [BRN] programme and within a month of his assuming office it was virtually dead. Instantly undoing the work of his predecessor of many years. I have heard the story of his exchange with he former head of BRN but to cut a long story short he thought he personally could do a better job at evaluating the government than that the BRN. In such a situation what do you so as an executive? Resign, which is precisely what the BRN Head did - he resigned and all the excellent brains at BRN left too. Now we have nothing. Magufuli abhored good clear thinkers and he systematically got rid of these arbitrarily.
Second, Magufuli listened and relied excessively on the grapevine which is unreliable and extremely dangerous for high office. There is no harm listening but one should never act on the basis of the grapevine but this Magufuli did all the time.
Third, his biggest problem is impatience and wanting to obtain results immediately. In government results are obtained in cycles and planning periods and never instantly. Consequently he stepped on the toes of too many people and this creates enemies. This now leads to his biggest shortfall – executive interference.
I interacted with a lot of people in government as well as in the parties, CCM, CHADEMA, ACT Wazalendo, CUF, etc. I had and still have friends among all parties. I have not so far come across anybody who had not received a phone call from President Magufuli and this is not how you want to run a government!
He had a view on virtually everything and would not wait for official input or discussions. Believing he knew everything he would take a position and often it was a contested position which on sound analysis could be faulted. But he did not care – an egoist brat.
Finally he abhored due process and consequently made impromptu illogical decisions. He once sacked a retired District Director!
It is nepotism that I leave last in this discussion. Towards the end of JK’s tenure some people accused him of appointing too many muslims among judges, for example. That was unfair but it was ok to make known those complaints. Magufuli has gone completely the opposite and not a Swahili got appointed to positions during his tenure but those noises were completely silent.
Remember the fight between the Regional Administrative Secretary and the Regional Commissioner in Mwanza. Although it was the RC who was at fault Magufuli sacked instead the RAS and retained the RC. Or the TPA saga where he removed both the DG of TPA and the PS of the parent ministry. But he failed to do the same with TRA where he got rid of the Commissioner General and did not even touch the PS of the parent ministry. Of course all these were arbitrary decisions indicative of his despotic character.
Magufuli would have made an excellent Prime Minister but hewas in my view a useless President.
Magufuli was a character full of holes as a person; I was aware of his penchant for pretty fair complexions in his women and he had had a few affairs. But we also heard that he was quite rough. We heard that the first lady had herself been hospitalized once due to a severe beating! I remember his speaking in Tanga Mwambani and asking for a good Segeju lady to marry while his official wife was seated at the same podium – that would ordinarily never be allowed anywhere!
One good attribute of the 5th phase government is execution; Magufuli actually executed whatever decisions he made and that is extremely important. I don’t have much else good to say for Magufuli but I do have a lot of misgivings.
One, he did not have trust in official systems and institutions and therefore saw no problem in killing or disrupting their workings. Remember he inherited a well-staffed Best Results Now [BRN] programme and within a month of his assuming office it was virtually dead. Instantly undoing the work of his predecessor of many years. I have heard the story of his exchange with he former head of BRN but to cut a long story short he thought he personally could do a better job at evaluating the government than that the BRN. In such a situation what do you so as an executive? Resign, which is precisely what the BRN Head did - he resigned and all the excellent brains at BRN left too. Now we have nothing. Magufuli abhored good clear thinkers and he systematically got rid of these arbitrarily.
Second, Magufuli listened and relied excessively on the grapevine which is unreliable and extremely dangerous for high office. There is no harm listening but one should never act on the basis of the grapevine but this Magufuli did all the time.
Third, his biggest problem is impatience and wanting to obtain results immediately. In government results are obtained in cycles and planning periods and never instantly. Consequently he stepped on the toes of too many people and this creates enemies. This now leads to his biggest shortfall – executive interference.
I interacted with a lot of people in government as well as in the parties, CCM, CHADEMA, ACT Wazalendo, CUF, etc. I had and still have friends among all parties. I have not so far come across anybody who had not received a phone call from President Magufuli and this is not how you want to run a government!
He had a view on virtually everything and would not wait for official input or discussions. Believing he knew everything he would take a position and often it was a contested position which on sound analysis could be faulted. But he did not care – an egoist brat.
Finally he abhored due process and consequently made impromptu illogical decisions. He once sacked a retired District Director!
It is nepotism that I leave last in this discussion. Towards the end of JK’s tenure some people accused him of appointing too many muslims among judges, for example. That was unfair but it was ok to make known those complaints. Magufuli has gone completely the opposite and not a Swahili got appointed to positions during his tenure but those noises were completely silent.
Remember the fight between the Regional Administrative Secretary and the Regional Commissioner in Mwanza. Although it was the RC who was at fault Magufuli sacked instead the RAS and retained the RC. Or the TPA saga where he removed both the DG of TPA and the PS of the parent ministry. But he failed to do the same with TRA where he got rid of the Commissioner General and did not even touch the PS of the parent ministry. Of course all these were arbitrary decisions indicative of his despotic character.
Magufuli would have made an excellent Prime Minister but hewas in my view a useless President.
