The new president of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, said the country should unite and avoid pointing fingers at the death of John Magufuli, her predecessor of Covid-19.
Wearing a red hijab, she took the oath of office on the Koran during a ceremony at the State House in the East African commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. She is the first female head of state in the country of 58 million.
Hassan, since 2015 vice president, delivered a short and gloomy speech after she was sworn in. He addressed a heavy male crowd that included two former presidents and uniformed officers.
“It’s a time to bury our differences and be a nation,” she said. “It’s not a time for finger pointing, but it’s a time to hold hands and move forward together.”
The remarks appear to dispel an atmosphere of uncertainty that arose after Magufuli, criticized by opponents as a divisive and authoritarian figure, disappeared 18 days before the death was announced.
His absence from public life speculated that he was critically ill with Covid-19. Magufuli has died of heart disease, Hassan said when he announced his death on Wednesday.
One of the first tasks Hassan (61) faces is deciding whether to obtain Covid vaccines. Under her predecessor, the government said it would not receive any vaccines until the country’s own experts reviewed it.
Analysts have said she needs to heal a country that was polarized during the Magufuli years and build her own political base to govern effectively.
Hassan is described as a soft consensus builder and will also be the country’s first president, born in Zanzibar, the archipelago that forms part of the union of the Republic of Tanzania.
Her leadership style is seen as a potential contrast to Magufuli, a shameless populist who earned the nickname “Bulldozer” for mustering through policies and who drew criticism for his intolerance of dissent, which his government denies.
She praised the late leader in her remarks: “He taught me a lot, he was my mentor and prepared me adequately.”
Rights groups say Magufuli’s six-year rule has been damaged by arbitrary arrests, the suspension of critical television and radio stations and the blocking of social media and other abuses.
Human Rights Watch, based in New York, said Tanzania had a chance to revive its democracy and reverse the country’s “downward human rights path” under Magufuli.
DaMina Advisors, a political risk advisory firm, has predicted that the new president is likely to make a public outcry over her predecessor’s policy of denying Covid and his general negative attitude towards foreign investors.