Godson Karigo, President of COSUA Tanzania
The Coalition of Supporters’ Unions of Africa (COSUA), which is a pan-African partner to the African Union using sports to build African unity, has described Dr. John Pombe Magufuli, former President of Tanzania, as “one of the few leaders who believed in his continent’s abilities, despised and acted against corruption and chose to be a true African statesman with a political reach that extended beyond the continent of Africa.”
This was contained in a statement issued by COSUA under the hand of its founding President, Advocate Sarfo Abebrese and addressed to the President of COSUA Tanzania, Karigo Godson Karigo.
The statement referred to the deceased President’s exemplary leadership in rejecting a $10 billion loan from China, cutting his cabinet down to 19 ministers, placing a travel ban abroad and abolishing tax exemptions on himself and his government officials and cutting his own salary down from $15,000 to a paltry $4,000 per month to turn around the economy of Tanzania.
“With the limited resources he generated internally, he introduced free education in government schools, acquired eight new planes and ordered another three by close of this year for Air Tanzania, built a new Terminal 3 at the Julius Nyerere Airport, in addition to landmark projects like the Tanzania Standard Gauge Railway, the Mfugale Flyover, Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station, Ubungo Interchange and the Selander and Kigongo-Busisi bridges,” Abebrese stated.
The statement listed other projects like the Port of Dar es Salaam expansion, Dodoma and Magufuli Bus Terminals, an LNG plant, water and wind farm projects, Uhuru Hospital and a world class Gold Refinery plant as some of the infrastructural legacies he left behind for his country, without saddling them with huge debts from foreign banks.
“Tanzania, and indeed, the entire continent of Africa, has lost a great and incorruptible leader, a leading example for future African leaders to emulate to keep our continent free from the shackles of neo-colonialist and imperialists,” Abebrese eulogised in conclusion.
The funeral of the late President starts today in Tanzania and it will run for a week.