By Ignatius Bahizi – East Africa Editor, The African Gazette
Samia Suluhu Hassan is the first woman to become President of a country in the East African Community – EAC. She took over office after the sudden death of John Pombe Magufuli and is now in charge of one of the most influential states in the regional grouping.
Tanzania is the second-biggest economy after Kenya; it is the most peaceful country, and wields a lot of political influence in the region.
Geographically, Tanzania is bigger than the three EAC member states of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi put together. Suluhu’s predecessor had embarked on building Tanzania’s economy ignoring many of the EAC’s agreements under its common market protocol.
President John Pombe Magufuli emphasized Tanzania first, and was nick-named the bulldozer because of his hands-on methods of work, and introducing drastic measures aimed at building Tanzania’s economy using Tanzanian resources.
He fought corruption with zeal, banned foreign travel for government officials and for himself in a bid to save money to build the economy. Towards the end of his first five years’ term, Tanzania was ranked a lower middle income country by the World Bank.
What has the New President done differently?
The new President has changed a few things in the near five months she has been in power, and is certainly running the country in her own way. Unlike Magufuli, who took his time to even visit his neighboring countries, President Suluhu Hassan has already visited all EAC partner states apart from South Sudan. She has been to Uganda twice, then Kenya, Burundi, and Rwanda perhaps to follow-up on some of the unfinished business started by Magufuli.
She made her maiden visit to Uganda for the occasion of signing agreements in the oil sector. Uganda, which discovered huge amounts of oil deposits fifteen years ago, is in the final stages leading up to production. In 2017, the now late President of Tanzania had negotiated a deal with Uganda that would enable the latter construct a 1,440 Km crude oil pipeline traversing Tanzania’s territory to transport her oil from its wells in Hoima – Western Uganda to the Tanzanian port of Tanga. This is meant to enable landlocked Uganda’s oil access the international market through Tanzania, which has access to the sea.
Both countries signed the Host Government Agreement, the Share Holders, and Tariff agreements for the project named the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). According to French Oil Company Total Energies, which together with Chinese oil and gas producer-CNOOC are partnering to develop Uganda’s oil sector, the project is one of the largest in the oil sector on the African continent, expected to attract more than $10 billion of investment.
Trips to Kenya, Burundi, and Rwanda
After Uganda, President Suluhu Hassan’s next trip was to Kenya where she addressed the national assembly. In Kenya she also signed a gas pipeline deal with her counterpart Uhuru Kenyata. The Pipeline is to run between the two countries’ largest Indian Ocean ports Dar es Salaam and Mombasa. Both countries also agreed to revive their relationship, which had been tainted by trade barriers imposed on either side. This had become a big issue under President Magufuli, But President Kenyata and Suluhu agreed to focus more on easing bilateral trade by reducing the trade barriers.
Smooth trade between the two countries has the potential to trigger massive growth and development. The EAC’s two largest economies also happen to have the highest populations which can support both production and consumption.
From Kenya, President Suluhu’s next two visits were in Burundi and Rwanda. Good bilateral relations between her country and the two northern neighbors were top on the agenda, and concluded with the signing of several cooperation agreements focused on commerce. In Burundi, the agreements were in areas of mining, energy, and agriculture among others. She also held a meeting with the Tanzanian and Burundian business communities. On her visit to Kigali late July, Suluhu toured several development projects and agreements were signed focused on rail infrastructure and Information Technology.
What is behind President Suluhu’s Visits?
Unlike her predecessor who resented foreign trips saying that they ate a lot into the national purse, Suluhu has visited more countries in her first four months as President of Tanzania than Magufuli ever did, and all her trips have been focused on exploring more business opportunities with neighbors.
Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi which are landlocked are looking to Tanzania for access to the sea. Kenya which has been the traditional route through its Mombasa port, has started losing business. During the 2007 election violence in Kenya, the business communities from the three member states and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) suffered huge losses when rioters in Kenya torched or looted some of their cargo that was en route from Mombasa. As Kenya heads into another election next year, it is prudent for the neighbors to act proactively and look at alternatives.
President Suluhu also comes during the time when the EAC is tearing at the seams. Uganda and Rwanda have been embroiled in wrangling for more than three years, so much so that both countries’ Presidents have not met in a long time, and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame snubbed Museveni’s swearing-in ceremony in May. Each country accuses the other of trying to destabilize its security.
The President of Rwanda did not meet the late President of Burundi in the entire final term of his Presidency that ran between 2015 and 2020. Kagame has still not met the new President Evariste Ndayishimiye who has been in power for more than a year now. Burundi accuses Rwanda of supporting coup plotters against former President late Piere Nkurunziza in 2015, accusations Rwanda denies. There has not been a significant step taken to repair relations between the two countries, which led to the closure of their common borders.
President Suluhu Hassan, therefore, comes to all this squabbling as a neutral party and might probably play a big role in helping Kampala and Kigali, and Kigali and Bujumbura mend fences. President Uhuru Kenyata failed to mediate between Museveni and Kagame, and talks initiated by Angola assisted by DRC for both men to bury their hatchets, hit a snag.
The regional bloc’s first female President’s fresh feminine wisdom might be just what the region needs to propel it towards sustainable unity and development.
Ignatius Bahizi – Currently East Africa Editor of The African Gazette, he is a journalist of repute and an analyst of geopolitics and security of the Great lakes region of Africa. Ignatius has worked in the region for over ten years with different local and international media houses.
The post Can the first female President in the region plug the cracks in EAC? first appeared on The African Gazette.