PRESIDENT John Magufuli has poured out his heart, revealing why he doesn’t relish foreign trips, insisting that it was illogical for him to go ‘globe-trotting’ even as his own country reels in economic rot and grand scale fraud.
And, on the same footing, the President
has vowed to continue turning down foreign invitations and, instead,
dedicate his time to strengthening his grip on important issues facing
the nation.
Dr Magufuli was speaking shortly before
he officially inaugurated the 23bn/- Sengerema water project that will
supply more than 90,000 members of the population here with clean water,
thanks to the African Development Bank (AfDB), for donating more than
80 per cent of the project funds.
The president, who took the opportunity
to elaborate on other national critical issues, said remaining in the
country all the time had helped him tackle a number of issues – from
graft in high places to acts of economic sabotage in a myriad ways.
He said he wouldn’t spend time
travelling overseas while the country faced many challenges, such as
smuggling. “I have turned down more than 60 invitations … I’m not
interested. I would rather stay home and uncover the rot visiting upon
our national resources and I will maintain this until the last ‘root’ is
uprooted,” he said.
Dr Magufuli cited recent moves aimed at
uncovering theft in the mining sector as one of the heavy tasks he was
facing and was ready to undertake more such tasks, saying he wanted his
successor to lead “a rich and prosperous country.”
With all other scams already being dealt
with, the Head of State says his office has now come across massive
theft in the supply of fertiliser vouchers to ‘ghost’ farmers receiving
equally ‘ghost supplies.’
On the recent move to send three mining
bills to Parliament under certificate of emergency, he said that was
deliberately decided since he could not afford to keep on waiting while
the country’s precious minerals were snuggled like nobody’s business.
Dr Magufuli said it was a shocking
revelation coming into terms of how much the country had been losing all
along with minerals worth more than 388tril/- being stolen already,
enough to feed the nation for more than 12 good years.
It was on that fact that he decided to
take the bills in the House as a matter of urgency in order to rectify
the current situation and make sure the country benefits fully from its
resources.
He asked security organs and local
government leaders to remain firm and deal with theft of public
resources and assured them of maximum guidance and support as the
government extends war on economic enemies.
Earlier, one Hamis Mugwao, a member of
Chadema who apparently announced to defect to CCM told the President on
the sabotage in another water project in Sengerema District whose
implementation delayed after 2.4bn/- was siphoned.
The President gave an instant directive
for the money swindlers to return the money immediately while security
organs hold them accountable.
The Mwanza Regional Commissioner, Mr
John Mongela, said as he presented brief report on development projects
that apart from the implementation of water projects, the region was
also doing well with industrialization agenda with at least 12
facilities already in different stages.
“The water project at Nansio, Ukerewe is
now working and people are getting clean and adequate water. We are
busy with other campaigns including setting up industries and farming
where at least 22 million kg will be harvested this season up from 5m kg
last season,” he said.
However, Dr Magufuli was irked by poor
performance in implementing the privatization of industries that left
197 such privatized ones white elephants citing the Mwanza based
Tanneries Company.
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