AfricaPress-Tanzania: PRESIDENT John Magufuli has urged his Tanzanian compatriots to consolidate peace, love tranquillity and solidarity.
Alongside the call, he cancelled Heroes Day celebrations that are traditionally marked on July 25, to honour soldiers who fought for the country.
According to a statement issued yesterday by the Directorate of Presidential Communications, the celebrations were supposed to be held in the capital city-Dodoma.
In the statement, President Magufuli asked the general public to use the day to remembnational heroes who shed their blood for the nation, including individuals who played their roles at different levels in building the nation.
This is the second time President Magufuli is cancelling Heroes Day, directing the funds to development projects.
In 2018, the president ordered that 308mil/-that had been set aside for the Heroes Day commemorations to be spent on road construction in Dodoma.
He specified that the money should be spent on the installation of traffic lights along Kisasa Road and on the 1.4 kilometer Emmaus-African Dream tarmac, which is under construction.
During the first month of his leadership in 2015, Dr Magufuli cancelled Independence Day celebrations, substituting them with a nationwide cleanliness drive.
He reallocated the money that was to be spent on the festivities that marked 54 years since independence from Britain; To fund the expansion of the Mwenge Morocco Road in Dar es Salaam.
“It would be shameful to spend huge sums of money on the celebrations when our people are dying of cholera,” said President Magufuli.
The bold move came with the hash tag ‘whatwouldMagufulido’, as Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, announced that President Magufuli cancelled yet another costly commemorative event (Independence Day) (reportedly a whopping 995m/-) to be spent on constructing a medical facility in Dodoma to be named Uhuru Hospital.
In another development, President Magufuli cancelled the 2016 Union celebrations and directed that the money be spent on the expansion of the Mwanza city-airport road project.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 56th National Union Anniversary ceremony (500mil/- ), and Uhuru Torch race (1bn/-) were cancelled.
The funds were channelled to Zanzibar to fund logistics for tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Thus, to any discerning observer, the thrust of the president’s apparent cost consciousness message is that development projects matter more than merrymaking.
