Thanks, neighbours, friends for great show of solidarity

The occasion was the state funeral of the only Head of State to have died in office since our country attained independence six decades ago.

It is an occasion that has elicited the most profound sentiments among the people of this country and in neighbouring countries as President Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli had become a shining example of what South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said was generational leadership, of a new spirit of African leaders.

Indeed, scores after scores of inspired intellectuals took up the departed president as a trailblazer – as a role model.

Attendance at occasions of this kind serves as a barometer for ‘gauging’ the sort of links involving two or more countries and also the personal affinities of leaders of surrounding countries and further afield.

On the basis of their presence among us and in the remarks that they made at the national funeral ceremony held in our national capital, millions of those who followed the proceedings on television and radio and via other media outlets had occasion to take stock of these testimonies.

While this may not have answered all questions that may have cropped up, it definitely gave a clear picture of where we stand, just as the sentiments of our religious leaders showed or suggested.

There is no doubt whatsoever that we have been told by those near us and by religious and other community leaders that we have an examination ahead of us, and all eyes are watching how those holding public office will rise to the occasion.

A major reason is that those closely associated with the evils that Dr Magufuli combated to the last breath will likely be readying to swim back to their usual habits and expect the public authorities to be cooperative. And it so often happens that when one strikes the shepherd, the sheep scatter.

That is why it will take willpower and resolution to ensure that we don’t lose focus all too easily as our detractors want or desire, and a whole series of actions will be ignited in different quarters of the public service and regulatory structures.

This period of mourning and laying to rest our departed leader calls for enhanced vigilance as ill-intentioned elements at delicate points of surveillance will use the gap of attention to get bad things done, knowing that public authorities have their attention fixed elsewhere.

If there isn’t sufficient vigilance at the moment, after this event has passed we may start getting used to new ways, and the effect will be clear.

Public expectations are that the principles on the basis of which governance has rested for the past half a decade of JPM’s presidency are observed have a chance of being realized when leaders at various levels notice that those above them are keen about standards

Those with authority are the ones most severely tested, for they don’t actually have to allow this or that negative turn of habit to take place but only need to be less than thorough for wrongdoers to notice the difference.

That is why the remarks made at the national funeral ceremony – in Dodoma city, yesterday – revitalized hope on a breadth of the citizenry, as our top leaders vowed to keep the spirit of fulfilling public expectations tied with the JPM leadership as the guiding intent.

Gleaning through some of the remarks, for instance those of leaders of the principal religious organisations, it is clear that there was the formal and the profound, the collective sentiment of grief and the particularity of sentiments around Dr Magufuli’s leadership, and the fear that all this will be lost.

This awareness is also a test of our ability to keep to the maxim of ‘putting God at the forefront’ in whatever we do – namely, to take up the people’s expectations as the yardstick of what we ought to do, and not the interests of those capable of walking to offices of top national leaders and have a hearty conversation.

That is what distinguished Dr Magufuli from most others, completely refusing what is often called ‘state capture’, by roping in the leader, and then relaxing.

Meanwhile, people are still paying their last respects to the departed leader, having done so in Dodoma yesterday and moving on to Zanzibar today, Mwanza tomorrow and finally his home village in Chato District.

From the scores of people who have fainted and have had a worse experience, this wholesale grief should be honoured by both word and deed by all those in public office. They must live up to this spirit – to public expectations.

That would also serve to reciprocate the solidarity our country’s neighbours and friends have demonstrated in the way they have joined us in mourning Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli.