John Joseph Magufuli was born on the 29th of October 1959, he is a Tanzanian politician also, the current President of the nation since 2015. His presidential rule is solely marked by the reduction of government corruption and unnecessary spending.
Recently, he issued crucial bans that have shaped his image and that of his government both locally and internationally.
The first ban he issued was on incessant foreign travel. The move was welcomed with open hands by the public as civil servants were often seen as wasting taxpayers’ money by making frequent foreign trips, some of which were not beneficial to the country, and doing so by flying in first or business class. Till date, overseas trips for public officials are still limited, and although the president no longer issues approvals, officials must seek permits from authorities closely monitored by his office.
The second ban was on live parliamentary broadcasts. He took measures to limit the coverage of the state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) and later extended this to private broadcasters. Broadcasters can now only air the morning question and answer session. The debate sessions are no longer shown live. The opposition and civil society organisations opposed the move, believing it was done to deliberately distance parliament from the public. Nape Nnauye, the information minister at the time, defended the decision, saying the monthly cost of 4.2bn Tanzanian shillings ($1.8m, £1.4m) to air parliamentary debates all day was too expensive for the TBC. He also said some Commonwealth countries had done the same thing to save money.
Africans on Twitter loved all of it – the hashtag- #WhatWouldMagufuliDo? saw other African Presidents as either being mocked or called into action to emulate the no-nonsense Tanzanian leader. Hopefully, this step betters Tanzania and Africa as a whole.
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