Samia Suluhu: First Female Tanzania President
President Samia Suluhu has made history in the country’s politics as the first female president following the demise of the sitting president John Magafuli.
Samia Hassan has been sworn in today as the President of Tanzania. She is the sixth President and the First Female of President Tanzania.
With her calm nature, President Samia Suluhu unexpectedly rose to the position of vice president after the late president Magufuli selected her as his running mate and won the elections.
She made history again today, Friday, March 19, 2020 when she was officially sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president at the state hose before state officials at the state’s capital, Dar es Salaam.
In the presence of cabinet members and past presidents of Tanzania including Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Jakaya Kikwete and Abeid Karume, vice president samia hassan took an oath of office with a Quran in her right hand which was overseen by chief justice Chief Justice Ibrahim Jumavowing.
The 61-year-old Hassan, dressed in black suit and red hijab pledged to protect the east African country’s constitution and hold it in high esteem.
Speaking at her investiture, she urged Tanzanians to come together and stay connect by letting go of their differences in order to focus on the country’s development which was the main dream of her late predecessor.
Also, she promised to continue the works ahead as espoused by the late president because she’s already been prepared for the task ahead by Magufuli since teaching was part of him.
President Samia Hassan was born in Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archipelago of Tanzania in January 1960.
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During that period in Tanzania, most women were denied of education because parents had the perception that a woman’s place was the kitchen.
However, Samia Hassan was privileged to be part of the few women to undergo education and training at the primary and secondary level where she studied statistics and completed in 1977.
President Samia Suluhu then gained employment opportunity at the government sector in the Ministry of planning and Development to be precise. In 1992, she joined Tanzania’s chapter of World Food Program as a Project Manager.
Same year, Hassan obtained a certificate in postgraduate Diploma in Economics at the University of Manchester, London.
Climbing to the top of the educational ladder, she earned a joint Master’s Degree programme in Community Economic Development from the Open University of Tanzania and Southern New Hampshire University in the United States of America.
She began her political career in 2005 when she was first selected to join the Zanzibar House of Representatives and was given a ministerial position by the then president Amani Karume.
In 2010, she contested and won the National Assembly for the Makunduchi parliamentary seat with over 80% percent of the vote.
Four years later, Hassan was nominated as the Cabinet minister and became Vice-Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly responsible for the drafting of a new constitution for Tanzania.
Her skillful ways of addressing several challenges on that field earned her the nation’s respect. In July 2015, presidential candidate for Tanzania’s largest political party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), John Magufuli appointed her as his running mate.
President Samia Hassan has formerly begun the task ahead as the continuation of the five-year term commenced by late president John Magufuli as directed by the country’s constitution.
Tanzanians are still in a 14-day mourning state as burial plans are yet to be announced by the newly installed president.
Photo Credit; TZ Daily | TZ Rhem
