NO, HE’S NOT NUTS – HE CARES FOR AFRICA
THEY do not call him “The Bulldozer” for nothing. The man with a manner and demeanour so tough, his face graces many a meme, including one claiming that “real men only apply a lotion to those of their parts left exposed after dressing up”.
Who, in 2018, still bans family planning adverts, arrests journalists – as he did with South African media advocate Angela Quintal and Kenyan Muthoki Mumo? What kind of president deploys an army to buy their country’s entire cashew nuts produce to break a stalemate with marketers; this after gate-crashing a related stakeholders’ meeting convened by his prime minister? Only one man can: John Pombe Magufuli, president of Tanzania.
Ask London-listed Acacia Mines, a subsidiary of Canadian company Barrick Gold that got thumped with a $1.9 billion tax and fine bill in 2017, about him. How about that three-metre high 24km wall he built around tanzanite mine fields near Kilimanjaro? He is either a raving lunatic or a man on a fiercely critical mission. Either way, his actions are guaranteed to shock many.
Magufuli is no raving lunatic.
He is a bold African leader; one prepared to hazard what many of his counterparts do not even dream about. His methods make us cringe because he is tackling cringeworthy injustices.
The wall he erected around the source of the precious violet-blue stone at Mererani Hills was in reaction to a loss of what’s estimated at 40% of all tanzanite production, due to smuggling by miners. To him, spending $2.2 million to build the wall was a worthy investment to protect what is a geological phenomenon unique to his country.
In the case of the $190bn in fines against Acacia, which ended being negotiated to $300m, he was aggrieved at what he considered under-reporting of the true value of the production of the mines. He was vindicated when a swoop at the Julius Nyerere Airport confiscated diamonds worth $29.5m on their way from Mwadui Mines to Belgium in August 2017. Petra Diamonds, their exporter, had reportedly declared only $14.7m on the papers. This is a story much too familiar all over Africa. Minerals being extracted for beneficiation abroad.
Back to this week’s case of cashew nuts. Magufuli’s beef with the marketers who buy them from the farmers over Tanzania is that they were paying $0.65 per kilogram. Magufuli ordered that to be increased to a minimum of $1.43. The private companies balked; and The Bulldozer ordered his army to buy all the cashew nuts on Monday so that the government could sell them. This would guarantee that the farmers receive per kilogram of their crop an amount that is still less than what we pay for 250 grams in the shops.
Agriculture employs more than 60% of Africa’s workforce. It can only be sustainable in the new frontier, Africa, if it prioritises economic justice – especially fair trade for the farmers. In this case, like or hate The Bulldozer, he is on the money; unless we have a better solution to make our economy more inclusive of the marginalised majority.
If only more African leaders could risk being wrong because they fight the cause of the weak amongst us.