Features
Updated: March 19, 2021

LIFE: Samia Suluhu Hassan, The First Female President Of Tanzania

By Adedayo Babatunde
March 19, 2021
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History was made in the Eastern Africa region on March 19, 2021, when Tanzania's Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn-in as the first female President of Tanzania following the sudden death of President John Pombe Magufuli on Wednesday, March 17, 2021.

The 61-year-old affectionately known as Mama Samia in her country was sworn in on Friday in an inauguration witnessed by members of the Cabinet and Tanzania’s former presidents, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Jakaya Kikwete and Abeid Karume.

She assumed office as the sixth president of Tanzanian with the hope to give Tanzanians citizens a better future and a sense of direction amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic associated with the death of the president.

Samia Hassan who took the oath of office with the Qur’an in a ceremony at the State House in Dar-es-Salaam two days after she announced the death of Magufuli who had not been seen in public for more than two weeks joins the list of prominent women on the continent to have run their countries.

However, the new office will make her becomes the only other current serving female head of state in Africa alongside Ethiopia’s President Sahle-Work Zewde, whose role is mainly ceremonial.

She will also be the country's first president born in Zanzibar, the archipelago that forms part of the union of the Republic of Tanzania and the 10th Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Being the first female head of state in the country of over 58 million people, Samia Suluhu Hassan has urged the East African country to look forward with hope and confidence.

Hassan, who assured the citizens to work towards uniting the nation said that Magufuli ‘who always liked teaching’ had prepared her for the task ahead.

“Nothing shall go wrong,” she assured, urging all the country’s people to work to unite the nation.

“This is the time to stand together and get connected. It’s time to bury our differences, show love to one another and look forward with confidence. It is not the time to point fingers at each other but to hold hands and move forward to build the new Tanzania that President Magufuli aspired to,” she stated in her first public address as the president.

Hassan became the first female vice-president of Tanzanian in the 2015 general election as Magufuli's running mate, leaping over several other more prominent politicians in the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has been in power since independence in 1961.

She was re-elected last year along with him and, according to the constitution of the country, she should serve out the rest of the five-year term in the top job, set to run until 2025.

The last time a woman ran a country in East Africa was in 1994 when Agathe Uwilingiyimanain served as Prime Minister of Rwanda from July 18 1993 until her death on April 7 1994. Yet again, Hassan is making history as the first female East African President.

Meanwhile, her calm demeanour in managing occasional outbreaks of pandemonium and the way in which she dealt with some of the more outspoken members earned her plaudits.

Brief History Of New Tanzania's President, Samia Suluhu Hassan

Samia Suluhu Hassan was born on 26 January 1960. She hails from the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar called Sultanate Zanzibar, an Islamic state controlled by the Sultan of state between 1856 and 1964. Hassan rose through the ranks over a 20-year political career from local government to the national assembly.

She graduated with an advanced diploma in Public Administration from the Institute of Development Management, now called the University of Mzumbe in 1986 and employed by the World Food Programme on project funding in 1992.

She also graduated with a post-graduate diploma in economics from the University of Manchester between 1992 to 1994. She holds a Master’s degree in Community Economic Development via a joint-programme between the Open University of Tanzania and Southern New Hampshire University, USA.

She attended her Primary Education in different schools including Chwaka Primary School in Unguja from 1966 to 1968, Ziwani Primary school in Pemba from 1970 to 1971 and Mahonda Primary School in Unguja in 1972.

She also obtained her East African Examinations Council (EEAC) in 1977 from Ngambo and Lumumba Secondary School in Unguja before joining the Zanzibar Institute of Financial Administration (ZIFA) for Statistics studies.

After various studies in Tanzania Samia joined the National Institute of Public Administration in Lahore, Pakistan. In 1991 she joined the Institute of Management for Leaders, Hyderabad in India for a Certificate Management Course.

In 1978, Samia Hassan got married to Hafidh Ameir, a union that has been blessed with one daughter and three sons over the years. Ameir is a retired agriculture officer and is currently a consultant.

Their children are in careers ranging from business to information technology. The daughter is the only one to have followed in the mother’s footsteps. The daughter, Mwanu Hafidh Ameir, is a member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan Political Career

Samia Suluhu Hassan is a Tanzanian politician who was first elected to office in 2000 as a special seat member to the Zanzibar House of Representatives and appointed a minister by President Amani Karume. She was re-elected in 2005 and was re-appointed as a minister in another portfolio.

She served as a Minister of Youth Employment, Women and Children Development in Zanzibar in 2000-2005 and served as a Minister for Tourism, trade and Investment in Zanzibar from 2005-2010.

In a bid to keep climbing the wall of fame, Hassan sought election to the National Assembly in 2010, standing in the parliamentary constituency of Makunduchi and winning by more than 80%. This led President Jakaya Kikwete to appoint her as the Minister of State for Union Affairs.

Hassan rose to national prominence in 2014 as the vice-chairperson of the Constituent Assembly, tasked to draft a new constitution for the country.

While in July 2015, the stalwart was named Magufuli’s running mate in the 2015 presidential campaign on the platform of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the pair was re-elected in October last year in a disputed poll marred by allegations of irregularities.

This fits, however, makes her the first female running mate in the party's history and subsequently became the first female vice-president in the history of the country and now the first female president Tanzanian.

She was named the Tanzanian President on Friday, 19, March 2021, due to President Magufuli's death on 17 March 2021 following a brief illness attributed to heart failure. Hassan, however, will serve the balance of Magufuli's second five-year term.

Following her swearing-in, Suluhu formally became the sixth president of Tanzania She also became the first woman to hold the office in the country.