They are not on the same terrain but they have similar aims and objectives which they have set out to achieve. It is not a pleasant duty to compare because comparisons are odious. Nothing is good or bad but by comparison. Reason and judgement are the qualities of a leader. A leader can lead from behind due to bad advisers. All of them impact our lives for good or ill but none of them can take us to Utopia.
Bio and Magufuli are like two friendly bedfellows who have set out to end graft which they will never achieve. Unlike Bio, Magufuli has achieved an international reputation as a martinet. This is not to say that Bio is not a martinet in his own way. They are on the same page in more ways than one. In accordance with the syndrome in all countries sackings have been done by the two men but it is the manner of sackings that raises questions that leaders do not usually answer. One of the sackings of Magufuli was that of the long-serving Director General of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB); a similar action by Bio that elicited widespread criticism when Bio did the same to the head of our Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Magufuli (the bulldozer) banned inessential foreign travel for politicians and business class flights for all but the most senior figures. Similarly there was a ban by Bio for the same reasons but its implementation has been rather foggy. A case in point about the Bio doctrine is the delegation to the last sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Rumours doing the rounds that have never been clarified spoke of the wife of the Minister of Finance being part of the delegation and other travellers who were said to have been on other business but the coincidence of travel was the big question mark.
The parting of the ways of the two leaders is that of their approach to wastage of state resources. While Magufuli has reduced his cabinet from 30 to 19 Bio has not done the same. His approach has been to appoint a deputy minister to almost every ministry and to carry on from the last regime with ministries that have duplicating functions. Voters of Bio would not like to hear this but an ex-soldier should be a martinet in all aspects. Discipline should not be tempered with leniency. Where there is a will there is a way. Bio can work harder without sentimentalism to be another Magufuli in West Africa. The lithmus test will come with the implementation of the recommendations of the Commissions of Enquiry.
Bio and Magufuli: Who is Who?
