TANZANIA: Samia Suluhu Hassan Sworn In As President of United Tanzania

Sarah Pelaji- Tanzania

Mama Samia Suluhu Hassan has been sworn a New President of United Republic of Tanzania on 19^th March 2021 in a short ceremony held at the Magogoni Palace in Dar es Salaam.

This follows the death of President John Pombe Magufuli in March 17, 2021.Immediately after being sworn in, she inspected a special parade for the first time as commander-in-chief of the United Republic of Tanzania’s armed forces.

Mama Samia, 61, is the first woman to hold the post in Tanzania and the second in eastern Africa after Slyvie Kiningi the only female president to hold the East African presidency in Burundi.

Her Excellency President Samia Suluhu will hold the office until 2025 in accordance with Tanzania’s constitution.

In his first speech after being sworn in as the sixth president, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said nothing would be lost.

“The Late John Pombe Magufuli taught me a lot and brought me up and prepared me well. We have lost a strong leader. He was the catalyst for change,” President Samia said.

The president also expressed her feelings about how difficult it was for her to take the reins.

“Today I have taken a very high oath with great sadness and with great sympathy and I apologize that I will not speak much for I am in great sorrow,” she explained.

In addition, President Samia has urged Tanzanians to bury their differences.

“This is a time to bury our differences and be united as a nation, to comfort each other to show our love and brotherhood, to maintain our peace, to cherish our dignity and our patriotism as Tanzanians.

She thanked opposition leaders in Tanzania for their condolence messages on the death of the former President John Pombe Magufuli and all the Heads of State from the neighboring countries who consoled Tanzania on the loss of their president.

The ceremony was attended by retired presidents of Tanzania Alli Hassan Mwinyi, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and the President of Zanzibar Hussein Mwinyi.

Samia Suluhu Hassan was born on January 27, 1960 in Zanzibar. From 1966 and 1972 she got primary school education in different schools in Zanzibar. She studied secondary education between 1973 and 1976 in Zanzibar. After high school, Samia Suluhu Hassan did not go directly to college, as in 1977, she was employed as a publisher in the Zanzibar government where she rose to the rank of government planning officer between 1987 and 1988.

She joining Mzumbe Morogoro Institute for Development and Leadership where she graduated with Advanced diploma in Administration in 1986. Between 1992 and 1994 Samia Suluhu Hassan studied a Master’s degree in Economics at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

In 2015 she graduated a Master’s degree in Socio-economic Development in a partnership program between the Open University of Tanzania and Southern New Hampshire University in the United Kingdom.

Samia Suluhu Hassan was married just two years after graduating from high school in Zanzibar in 1978 to Mr Hafidh Ameir, who was then an agricultural officer in the Zanzibar revolutionary government where the two were blessed with four children.

Samia Suluhu officially joined politics in 2000. She officially joined politics in 2000 when she was elected to the Zanzibar House of Representatives as a special envoy.

Later she was appointed Minister of Health, Gender and Children, by the then President Aman Karume. In 2005 she was re-elected as a special envoy and re-appointed as a minister, this time being given the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Investment in Zanzibar government.

Samia crossed the line as a year after the 2010 general election she resigned from the Cabinet of Zanzibar after being appointed by former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete as Minister of Union Affairs in the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, serving under Vice President Mohamed Gharib Bilal.

In March 2014 Tanzania embarked on a movement to change its Constitution where Samia rose again, after being elected Vice-chairman of the Special Constituent Assembly in Dodoma.

In July 2015, Dr. John Pombe Magufuli nominated Mama Samia as his running mate and after the election she became Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania .

In 2020, the deceased President of Tanzania, John Magufuli while seeking re-election, once again nominated Samia Suluhu as his running mate where his party’s victory protected Mama Samia’s history.

She is now the Sixth President after Julius Nyerere, Ally Hassan Mwinyi, Benjamin Mkapa, Jakaya Kikwete and John Magufuli.