The world was at stand still as Tanzania rode to fame thanks to the late President John Magufuli who rubbished COVID-19 protocols and kept all the sectors alive.
As of May 2020, the Dodoma government had stopped daily update on COVID-19 statistics and all the sectors were wheeling back to life. President Magufuli had declared the country COVID-19 free and made a firm stand that his administration would not be committed to enforcing the protocols. He shot to fame with a tag of a ‘COVID-19 denialist’ which trended upon his sudden death on March 17.
But in Magufuli’s absence came his vice Samia Hassan Suluhu who made a surprising but expectable decision to rope in science in the fight against the virus, adding that Tanzania ‘can nolonger operate like an island.’
She formulated a team to evaluate the country’s policies on COVID-19, the situations and the probable interventions.
“Tanzania cannot isolate itself as an island when it comes to addressing the pandemic,” she said in an address from Dar-es-Salaam on March 6.
Her address came just Muhimbili National Hospital’s (MNH), the country’s national referral hospital, issued a statement that its steam therapy booths would remain intact, amidst protest from a section of legislators.
Steam inhalation, a process where individuals inhale steam in the closed chambers, became famous after the late head of state waxed lyrical about it.
Change of tact
Before his death, in late February 2021, Magufuli urged Tanzanians to keep using the steam and pray for recovery from the virus. With obscured efficacy and no clear-cut administration process; the steam inhalation process has attracted debate with no medical conclusion as the answer to COVID.
But it remains a wait-and-see scenario whether the country will continue embracing the method after President Suluhu ordered for a change of tact.
Coming into the office in the end of March—Suluhu who hails from the Sultanate of Zanzibar—has been making changes to the government.
She ordered for the reopening of media houses that were shut under her predecessor although ordered them to operate within the law.
Political leaders such as exiled CHADEMA party’s Tundu Lissu had warned against following Magufuli’s script saying Suhulu would be risking a huge backlash if she maintained the status quo.
“Pursuing Magufulism without Magufuli is a dead end. Denying COVID-19 is a deadly dead end. The opposition survived Magufuli. Trying to fight the opposition would only erode her credibility faster,” Lissu said in an interview with Council on Foreign Relations.