* To those that doubt that a woman can be President of Tanzania, I say to you that the one standing before you today is a woman, and President!
By Grace Kuria, africacgtn.com
Tanzania’s new President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday stamped her authority as the 6th President of the United Republic of Tanzania, saying, “To those that doubt that a woman can be President of Tanzania, I say to you that the one standing before you today is a woman, and President!”
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Fondly addressed as Mama Samia, she paid tribute to her predecessor late John Joseph Pombe Magufuli for believing in women leaders, evidenced by making her the first female vice-president in Tanzania, and now the first female president of the country.
She went further to reveal the close relationship the two leaders had, that saw them lead Tanzania for close to 6 years, after the duo won the 2015 elections.
“The late President Magufuli has left us but he has completed the work he came to do in the world, his task was to show us the way, to show us how the work is done, how to implement and make difficult decisions in the national interest” President Samia said in her eulogy during the State Funeral on Monday in Dodoma.
She appreciated her fellow African leaders for being present during the State Funeral assuring them that Tanzania shall continue to have a good working relationship with all the countries.
The visiting presidents included Malawian Lazarus Chakwera; 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.
Mama Samia assured Tanzanians that all is well in the country and that nothing will change, adding that she will continue leading the nation in the same way Magufuli did.
Magufuli (61), who died of heart disease on March 17 at the Emilio Mzena Hospital in the business capital Dar es Salaam, will be buried in his native home in Chato district in Geita region on March 26.
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