Lumumba says he has since requested an audience with Chakwera
* To encourage him to be in the forefront of the leadership in Africa
* It is a funeral oration which history must record as the greatest funeral oration of all time
By Duncan Mlanjira
Great African orator, Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba from Kenya has described Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera’s eulogy of fallen Tanzanian leader John Pombe Magufuli as the most powerful tribute ever made for an African leader.
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In an interview with a Pan African TV, Lumumba said he has since requested an audience with Chakwera to encourage the Malawian “to be in the forefront of the leadership in Africa”.
“Africa needs something new, something different,” said the the revered Pan-Africanist. “I am not discrediting what the other leaders spoke [of Magufuli] but Chakwera touched something that nobody touched [and] he spoke from his heart.
“It was the most powerful and in my view the most touching [eulogy] ever made. It is a funeral oration which history must record as the greatest funeral oration of all time.”
Late Magufuli and Chakwera during a State Visit
to Tanzania
He added that whether people like Chakwera or not but “go and listen to him again, read him again to capture the essence of the Magufuli that I met; the Magufuli that I know; the Magufuli who loved Africa”.
“That is why when I said in 2015 that Africa needs to be ‘Magufulified’, I have been vindicated,” said Lumumba, who was guest of honour for the 2019 Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (ICAM) annual conference held at Sun ‘n’ Sand Holiday Resort.
Lumumba during the ICAM conference in 2019
Other African presidents that spoke at Magufuli’s funeral on Monday included South African Cyril Ramaphosa, Zambian Edgar Lungu, Zimbabwean Emerson Mnangagwa, Kenyan Uhuru Kenyatta and from Comoros, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In his very poetical eulogy at Jamhuri Stadium in Dodoma Chakwera reminded the Tanzanians that it was just 166 days that he had met Magufuli during a state visit to Tanzania and “had dinner together at the State Residence in Dar es Salaam, but I did not know that it would be our last supper”.
“The following day, he saw me off the apron of Julius Nyerere International Airport, but I did not know that it would be our last goodbye. Today, I join you all in a state of shock and grief at the passing of one of Africa’s finest sons because none of us saw it coming.
Late President John Magufuli
“This ability to let no one see his next move coming, which we find unsettling in his death, is also what we found inspiring about his life.
“When they said laziness and sloth in public service cannot be cured, they did not see Magufuli coming.
“When they said the cartels of corruption strangling Africa’s governments cannot be defeated, they did not see Magufuli coming.
“When they said African States cannot become middle-income economies within a single presidential term, they did not see Magufuli coming.
New President Samia Suluhu Hassan
“When they said infrastructural projects in Africa cannot be completed on time and on budget, they did not see Magufuli coming. When they said the only way to pursue our development is to follow the failed prescriptions of foreign financial institutions that have left Africa more impoverished and in debt than they found it, they did not see Magufuli coming.
“To us who had the privilege of knowing the unpredictable Magufuli, the example of his life of service shall forever be a launching pad for our own. To us who have the honour of going through this world as Africans, Magufuli’s love of country shall forever be a light on that pilgrimage.
“To us who have been entrusted with governing the nations of our beautiful and rich continent, Magufuli’s leadership shall forever move us out of complacency.
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“It is right for us to hold him in this regard. John Pombe Magufuli was not just an icon. He was a hero. May his name be preserved in every Capital of Africa as a symbol of the kind of resolve that will create the Africa we want.
“May his work be venerated in every village as an example worthy of our imitation. And may his soul rest in eternal peace as he meets with his God, with whom we hope to one day see Magufuli coming.
Before departure at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe for Tanzania on the same Monday, President Chakwera described the late President as a man who ran with a vision and a mission in his calling.
“He was a man whom I related with so well. He was a man who ran with a vision and a mission because he knew that he had a special ministry,” he said.
Magufuli and Hassan being unveiled by former
President Kikwete in 2015
The President called upon the people of Tanzania to forge ahead in creating a Tanzania that the late Magufuli wanted.
“I believe that the Tanzanians will not only accept this, but move on to achieve and be a kind of people that Magufuli always wanted them to be,” the president said.
Magufuli (61), who died of heart disease on Wednesday March 17 at the Emilio Mzena Hospital in the business capital Dar es Salaam, is expected to be buried in his native home in Chato district in Geita region on Friday, March 26.
