US President Barack Obama will soon receive a ‘leadership wand’ similar to the one which was used by Tanzania’s first president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, from the same sculptor who made the latter’s banter.

US President Barack Obama will soon receive a ‘leadership wand’ similar to the one which was used by Tanzania’s first president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, from the same sculptor who made the latter’s banter.

Speaking in Arusha, renowned artist, sculptor and cultural scientist, Mr Athuman Omar Mwariko, said he has already fashioned out a special wand for the American president and was awaiting response from the White House.

Apparently, the artist has already dispatched an official message to Washington DC regarding the proposed gift to the leader.

Mr Mwariko’s rare ‘leadership wands’ don’t come often. So far, there are only four of them; the first was made for the President of Tanganyika, Julius Nyerere in the early 1960s, the second was again sculptured for the same leader, but this time as President of Tanzania, in 1985 shortly before he retired.

The third leadership wand was made only this month and it was presented to the current Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete in Arusha over the weekend.

Mr Mwariko presented the banter to the head of state during the International Albinism Awareness Day, which was held at the Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium here.

President Kikwete is the only leader after Mwalimu Nyerere to get the coveted ‘leadership wand’ from the artist. Mwalimu’s stick, popularly known in Kiswahili as ‘kifimbo’, has always been a source of awe, speculation and rumours among the people, with some believing that it has ‘magical’ powers, something which Mr Mwariko vehemently refutes.

Born in 1949, Mwariko, who is a Havard Scholar, is also the man behind the design, formulation and the current shape for the national emblem, the ‘Coat of Arms,’ which he reportedly moulded from clay during his time at Makerere School of Art in Uganda, back in the 1960s.

The Moshi (Kilimanjaro) born artist was declared ‘East Africa’s Star,’ by the Queen of England in 1972. His track record as far as brushing shoulders with eminent persons is a jaw-dropping one.

During the interview in Arusha, he was equipped with a heap of letters and certificates from former US presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan; former United Kingdom Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, Kenya’s founding president, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and of course, Mwalimu Nyerere.

He attended the Fine Art School of Makerere University in Uganda back in the 1960s and says that was the time when he designed the ‘Coat of Arms’ and secretly sneaked it to Mwalimu Nyerere. Afterwards, he received training in Nigeria, Congo-Brazzaville, UK and Havard (US).

The artist is among the 32 aspirants who want to vie for the Tanzanian presidency in the forthcoming October 2015 general elections on Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) ticke