DAR ES SALAAM, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Saturday joined fellow citizens in commemorating 100 years of the birth of founding leader Julius Nyerere.

       Speaking in a debate to mark the occasion, President Hassan urged Tanzanians to continue honoring what Nyerere stood for during his lifetime.

       "In order to honor him, we should continue nurturing peace, unity and solidarity that the founding leader stood for," she told her audience at the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Kibaha district in Coast region.

       President Hassan also urged Tanzanians to continue nurturing Nyerere's philosophy which entailed self-dependence.

       "We have to work hard in using our resources in order to become economically independent," said the head of state.

       On February 3, the government of Tanzania launched a program dedicated to marking 100 years of Nyerere.

       The program called "Mwalimu Nyerere@100" is being coordinated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and will climax on April 13, the birthday of Nyerere, in his native village of Butiama in Mara region.

       The program is aimed at identifying new strategies to commemorate the work, life and philosophies of Julius Nyerere in the next ten years.

       Nyerere, who ruled Tanzania from 1964 to 1985, was one of Africa's leading independence heroes.

       He was born on April 13, 1922, in Butiama on the eastern shores of Lake Victoria in northwest Tanzania.