Following Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli’s announcement on June 22, 2017 that all pregnant schoolgirls across primary schools and secondary schools in his country should not continue with their education at all, various organizations regionwide, media channels and social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook have gone berserk in a bid to challenge and chide his sentiments.
The President had argued that if these schoolgirls were to be allowed back to school after delivery, they would consequently influence other girls back at school into engaging in sexual activities.
However, the general argument brought about by the various groups that not only challenged his sentiments but also wanted him to retract his statements and make an apology to Tanzania’s girls was that Magufuli’s decision to institute this policy would bring about more harm than good in the society including the rise of the tally of ‘unschooled mothers’ thereafter.
A petition that is claimed to have been delivered to the Presidency of the United Republic of Tanzania with the hashtag ‘#ProtectGirls Sign the Petition!’ by one Petrider Paul specifically stated that ‘the Government of Tanzania needs to formulate a legal framework that would allow teenage mothers to resume schooling after giving birth however such a statement from the President propagates more discrimination without considering that these girls (students) need more sexual reproductive health education to be able to protect themselves from early pregnancies while in school’.
Elsewhere, Dinah Musindarwezo, who is the Executive Director of African Women’s Development and Communication Network(FEMNET), exclaimed, “African women are strategizing and mobilizing with other women’s rights organization to compel President Magufuli to make an apology to Tanzania’s girls and all the young women in Africa and retract that statement immediately!”
Among all these reactions from, more precisely, women rights groups was also a reaction from the Director of Equality Now, Africa Office, Faiza Mohammed. Ms. Mohammed stressed that, “It is unfortunate that instead of addressing sexual violence in schools (which is why girls are getting pregnant) President Magufuli aims to re-victimize young girls by denying them their right to education.”
Twitter was also not left behind with both Kenyans on Twitter and Tanzanians on Twitter creating and using the hashtags #StopMagufuli and #ArudiShule respectively to chide President Magufuli. For instance, one @Precious_1ne on Twitter said ‘Education is even more important for young mothers in order to provide a better future for their child #ArudiShule. Another by @JessCooke21 read, ‘The girl loses her right to #education but there’s no repercussions for the one who impregnates her? #ArudiShule.’ Closer home, via the #StopMagufuli hashtag, Kenyans seemed relatively more angered by Magufuli’s statements compared to Tanzanians with @JudyKosgei satirically tweeting that, ‘Hope Dr. John Pombe Magufuli is not a doctor, he must have failed anatomy. Pregnancy is not contagious #Fact #StopMagufuli’. Elsewhere, @OmondilisedPaul wrote, ‘Magufuli sounds more like Mugabe’s fraud……... No longer the best president we once thought of... #StopMagufuli’.
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