President John Magufuli announced new status for the administrative capital Dodoma. Addressing to the masses at the Union Day celebrations on Friday he called it as a city.
Dodoma is a newly-elevated city in Tanzania and Magufuli said, “By the power conferred on me by the Constitution of the country, I declare that Dodoma is now the city.”
Friday marked 54 years of the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. The two countries merged to form Tanzania in 1964. The celebrations were attended by sevearl diplomats and leaders including President of Zanzibar, Ali Mohamed Shein.
The Union Day was earlier celebrated at Uhuru Stadium in Dar-es-Salam, but since last year Dodoma has become a new venue for it.
Even though Dodoma is the capital of Tanzania, but most of the government offices and activities are held in Dar-es-Salam. The president’s residence too is housed in Dar-es-Salaam.
After taking the chair of president Magufuli pledged to relocated all the government offices to the capital, the newly built city. So far all the ministeries have been shifted.
Dodoma is iconic for several reasons. It is a good grape and wine production area in the region. The city houses University of Dodoma, which is the biggest in east and central Africa in terms of students accommodation capacity. It is 8kms east of downtown and sits in 6,000-hectare land. After full completion the university will be able to enrol 50,000 students.
The largest mosque in the country, the Gaddafi Mosque, is in Dodoma. It is even second largest in East Africa after Uganda’s Gaddafi National Mosque.
Named after former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the mosque was inaugurated in 2010 by the then President Jakaya Kikwete.. It has a capacity of accommodating more than 3,000 worshippers.