Lissu: Magufuli was a dictator
Tanzania opposition leader Tundi Lissu remains bitter with fallen president John Magufuli, even after the Head of State’s death.
Magufuli succumbed to heart-related complications in Dar-es-salaam on Wednesday, aged 61.
Salma Suluhu. who served as Magufuliu’s vice-president for six years, has been sworn in to replace him even as preparations continue ahead of the former president’s burial on Thursday or Friday.
But Lissu, currently is in exile in Belgium, has continued his attacks on the deceased leader and Tanzanian authorities, via Twitter
It is Lissu, for the record, who ‘announced’ Magufuli was gravely sick days before he died. He initially claimed Magufuli had been transferred to a Nairobi hospital for treatment and later moved to India.
“I know he is in Nairobi hospital. I was there for several months on treatment and I have my sources inside the facility and that is where I am basing my story on,” he told the Kenyan media in an interview.
And following Magufuli’s death, Lissu has, in his recent tweets, sarcastically claimed the Tanzanian government should build the fallen head of state a ‘Mausoleum’, even as he mocked the schedule leading to the burial.
“Now that everyone has proven that he (Magufuli) is dead, why can’t they build him a Mansoleum so that people can be able to see him all the time?” he posed.
Lissu who lost to Magufuli in the country’s general elections last November but claimed to have been rigged out, has also questioned the rationale behind the government’s decision to have the late Magufuli’s procession visit selected areas in the country for residents to pay their condolences.
“It appears you (the government) want to show us how he (Magufuli) was loved. Why don’t you move his body around the whole country instead of selected areas so that all Tanzanians can pay their last respects? Or is he not loved in the areas that his body will not be taken to?”
Lissu’s relationship with Magufuli deteriorated when a car he was driving in was shot at 38 times in 2017. He was seriously injured in the incident in which 16 of those bullets hit him. He required months of treatment at various hospitals in Nairobi to get back to his feet.
After contesting against Magufuli in November, Lissu had to flee to exile after claiming his life was in danger.