Tanzanian President Magufuli Downplayed Risks Of COVID-19. Now He's Dead
John Magufuli. Creative Commons photo.
(ANALYSIS) NAIROBI — Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli, who often said prayers would protect people from the COVID-19 pandemic, died of a heart attack this week, according to the government. Samia Suluhu, the former vice president, succeeded Magufuli and became East Africa’s first female head of state.
Many in Tanzania, including Magufuli’s top opposition leader Tundu Lissu, claim that Magufuli was infected with the coronavirus, though there is not evidence of that claim.
Magufuli’s death follows the death of Burundi President Pierre Nkurunzisa, who denied the existence of the virus and chose to hold prayer crusades to fight its spread. He contracted the disease and died from it last June.
Before his death, Nkurunziza said God had “cleared the coronavirus from Burundi’s skies.”
According to Kenyan news site The Star, Nkurunziza said, “Burundi … has signed a special covenant with God, whether you believe it or not.”
Similarly, Human Rights Watch reported that Nkurunziza’s spokesperson, speaking of exposure to the coronavirus, said, “Burundi is an exception … because it is a country that has put God first.”
In Tanzania, Magufuli almost criminalized any reference to the presence of the disease in his country. Last October, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya announced a three-day national prayer event after a phone call from Magufuli.
Magufuli was later to reveal that he had assured Kenyatta that prayers work. He also asked his fellow Tanzanians to set aside time to pray for their Kenyan neighbors. It was befitting that prayers could unite the two leaders whose opposing approaches to handling the pandemic had earlier led to a diplomatic spat.
Kenyatta introduced stringent measures that included a lockdown in Nairobi and Mombasa and dawn to dusk curfew all over the country, and Magufuli claimed the virus was a conspiracy, took a laid back approach: he never closed places of worship, had schools reopen faster than medical experts recommended and had his country resume normalcy even as the rest of the globe went into panic mode.
But this week, news started appearing that Magufuli had been taken ill and was admitted at the prestigious Nairobi Hospital.
Although most Kenyan media outlets reported the story, they never referred to Magufuli by name, only calling him “an African leader.” It was only the respected news blog Kahawa Tungu that mentioned Magufuli by name.
Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu told Kenya’s KTN television that Magufuli was receiving treatment in Kenya and asked those in charge to tell Tanzanians about the president’s health.
“The President’s well-being is a matter of grave public concern,” he tweeted. “What is it with Magufuli that we don’t deserve to know?”
Tanzanians in the know said, albeit in hushed tones, that the pandemic was ravaging the nation. Then government leaders started dying. That included the First Vice President of the island of Zanzibar, Seif Sharif Ahmed, who went public and confirmed that he had tested positive for COVID-19 before he died, Chief Secretary to the Cabinet John Kijazi, Governor of the Central Bank Benno Ndulu and others. It was at Kijazi’s funeral that President Magufuli came to acknowledge the existence of the virus when he advised his countrymen to take precautions.
Fr. Charles Kitima, the General Secretary of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference, issued a statement disclosing that 25 priests, 60 nuns and two elders of the laity had died in the last two months, adding that they had all complained of breathing difficulties.
In death, just as in life, Magufuli has continued to stir controversy. Some who saw his tough stance against the virus as standing up to Western countries and big pharma, claimed — without proof — that Magufuli had been killed by those two. According to those in this camp, African leaders who had shown some backbone in dealing with the West usually come to a bad end and that Magufuli was following a well scripted route.
But those opposed to this conspiracy theory say Magufuli endangered a whole country with his recklessness.
When Nkurunziza, with his “God will protect Burundi” sloganeering, died from COVID-19, many joked that Magufuli would soon be on the line. Thousands of Tanzanians have died, their deaths recorded as pneumonia by a public health system forced to obey the dictatorial and misinformed COVID-19 diktats of Magufuli.
Recently, Magufuli had begun softening his stance in response to high profile deaths in his government, but it was too late. It is true that Magufuli had suffered heart problems for a long time and had a pacemaker. He was in that group of people who were most at risk. He was, as analyst Oduor called him, “A person who had underlying health issues but decided to trade his own health for fundamentalist religious beliefs, conspiracy theories and pseudoscience.”
Tom Osanjo is a Nairobi-based correspondent for Religion Unplugged. He is a former parliamentary reporter and has covered sports, politics and more for Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper.