Wish granted; Chakwera greets the revered Pan-Africanist
* Lumumba greatly praised Chakwera’s eulogy of late Tanzania’s President Magufuli as greatest funeral oration ever made
* Prompting him to request an audience with Chakwera to encourage him to be in the forefront of the leadership in Africa
By Duncan Mlanjira
Great African orator, Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba from Kenya, who requested for an audience with Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera last month to encourage the Malawian “to be in the forefront of the leadership in Africa”, has had his wish granted as he met Chakwera on Thursday at Mtunthama State Lodge in Lilongwe.
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In wishing to meet Chakwera in March, Lumumba had described Chakwera’s eulogy of fallen Tanzanian leader John Pombe Magufuli as the most powerful tribute ever made for an African leader.
In an interview with a Pan-African TV station, Lumumba had said: “Africa needs something new, something different.
“I am not discrediting what the other leaders spoke [of Magufuli] but Chakwera touched something that nobody touched [and] he spoke from his heart.
Inside Mtunthama State Lodge with Chakwera
“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,” said the revered Pan-Africanist.
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.
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 Magufuli and Chakwera during a State Visit
to Tanzania
“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.
“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.
Chakwera also meet with Magufuli’s successor Samia Suluhu Hassan soon after he took oath of office
“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.
“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.”
Magufuli (61) died of heart disease on March 17 at the Emilio Mzena Hospital in the business capital Dar es Salaam and was buried in his native home in Chato district in Geita region on March 26.
* More to the story on Lumumba’s and Chakwera’s meeting coming up soon
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