A BURKINA-FASO-LIKE REVOLUTION UNDER THOMAS SANKARA IS WHAT NIGERIA AND AFRICA DESPERATELY NEEDS
November 26, 2020 | News
Haven recently taken a closer look at the life and times of former President of Burkina-Faso, late Thomas Sankara, I strongly believe that, the revolutionary ideas, policies and style of governance he introduced,
A BURKINA-FASO-LIKE REVOLUTION UNDER THOMAS SANKARA IS WHAT NIGERIA AND AFRICA DESPERATELY NEEDS
Haven recently taken a closer look at the life and times of former President of Burkina-Faso, late Thomas Sankara, I strongly believe that, the revolutionary ideas, policies and style of governance he introduced, are exactly what we desperately need to see happen in Nigeria, as well as all over Africa because there are so much Nigerian/African political leaders can emulate and learn from this man, Sankara, on how to govern and lead as public office holders.
According to Wikipedia records, Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé socialist revolutionary and President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. A Marxist–Leninist and pan-Africanist, he was viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution and is sometimes referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara." After being appointed Prime Minister in 1983, disputes with the sitting government led to Sankara's eventual imprisonment. While he was under house arrest, a group of revolutionaries seized power on his behalf in a popularly-supported coup later that year. And just at age 33, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta. He immediately launched programmes for social, ecological and economic change and renamed the country from the French colonial name Upper Volta to Burkina Faso ("Land of Incorruptible People"), with its people being called Burkinabé ("upright people"). His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalizing all land and mineral wealth and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. His domestic policies were focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritizing education with a nationwide literacy campaign and promoting public health by vaccinating 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles.
In fact, as reiterated by Keeping It Real anchored by Adeola online: “this is by far the best President that Africa has ever had, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso. After he took over power at the age of 33 after a bloodless military coup, the first thing that Sankara did was to reduce the salaries of all the Ministers and all the public officials, including his own salary. He took away their luxurious cars - Mercedes Benz at the time, and he made them drive regular cars, including himself. No more First-class, all officials had to fly Economy class. Not a single special preference was left for the government officials. He put an end to colonial taxes and embedded in his people to stand against colonial mentality. He took care of food, housing, healthcare, for his people. At that time, several African countries were dealing with disease epidemics, but not in Burkina Faso because he provided vaccines. His government was the first African to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa.
“He was also one of the first Head of State in the whole world to promote women’s rights, as he appointed women in major government institutions…He stood against forced marriages, under-aged marriages or even expelling women from school if they got pregnant…men were no longer allowed to beat their wives. He also instituted mass sporting activities. Everybody had to become active and participated in sports in other to keep fit and healthy. Which he also took part in like basketball. People were made to ride bicycles, because he believed that a healthy body and mind would reduce diseases. He also took environmental issues seriously and insisted that they plant ten million trees in other to combat the growing desertification of the Sahel. Other things he did in this regard include redistributing land from feudal landlords to peasants, suspending rural poll taxes and domestic rents and establishing a road and railway construction programme. He constructed vast roads, and railways and connected all the major streets together.
“At that time, they did not have much money in Burkina Faso, but instead of relying on foreign aid, he told everybody to take part. People were so glad to take part in the building the railways and the roads. He actually discouraged his people from relying and depending solely on foreign aid. He also insisted that Burkina Faso produce their own goods. And everybody, including government officials were to patronize Burkinababe products - from clothes, food, everything all made in Burkina Faso. He facilitated good irrigation and fertilization programs. People started seeing Burkina Faso made in products just within four years that he was president. And in less than four years that he was in power, Burkina Faso that used to be very poor, became food-self-sufficient.
“It was a major revolution at that time in Burkina Faso. Corrupt officials were tried in Court, and the funny thing was, no lawyer was allowed to represent them. So, you had to prove yourself guilty or not guilty in front of everybody, and it was televised. Many people were disgraced by this approach because they were not allowed to pay lawyers to represent or defend them. Though, many people critized this approach, as a violation of human rights. But it achieved the desired results of reducing corruption. At the OAU Summit at that time, Sankara even challenged other African leaders to stop relying on the West or the East developed Countries. And he was only like 33-34. Just imagine that... Sankara also commissioned several housing projects for the less privileged. And was always relating with the people at the grassroots level. He was not ‘untouchable’ like our politicians nowadays, who have long convoys that everyone has to get out of the way for them. Sankara was never like that. He related with everybody and anybody. These were what took Burkina Faso out of misery in less than four years.
“Of course, the French did not like that they were losing grip of their former colony, because they stopped borrowing money, and Sankara stopped relying on their foreign aids, and they wanted to make sure that other African countries did not follow his footsteps. In fact, all those that were benefitting from Africa’s underdevelopment at that time, were not happy to see Burkina Faso rising, becoming self-sufficient and self-dependent. So, they sponsored his very best friend from childhood to overthrow him. We are talking about Blaise Compaoré, who has ruled Burkina Faso for the last 27 years. So, on October 15th 1987, Sankara was killed by Blaise Compaoré armed men. How ironic that Compaoré himself was over thrown in the month of October. Compaoré’s men killed Sankara and 12 others, with a shower of bullets which dismembered his body completely. So, they hurried and buried him in an unmarked grave like a goat. There was no ceremony for Sankara’s burial. They treated him like an animal. His wife and two children had to flee the country. And Blaise Compaoré nearly reversed all of Sankara’s good policies. Blaise Compaoré re-joined the IMF and World Bank, and he went right back to being a puppet in the hands of France. And what would have led to a true self-independence example in Africa, was quenched by Blaise Compaoré. The question is, would we learn a lesson from Burkina Faso? I mean all the African countries like Nigeria, where corruption is being celebrated today.
Sankara remained popular with most of his country's citizens. However, his policies alienated and antagonised several groups, which included the small but powerful Burkinabé middle class; the tribal leaders who were stripped of their long-held traditional privileges of forced labour and tribute payments; and the governments of France and its ally the Ivory Coast.
“Can we learn from Sankara’s example in Burkina Faso? All the African countries that have dictators (in civilian clothes) in power. As much as we admire Thomas Sankara, the man whose legacy will never die, it is actually painful that in Africa, we kill those we should celebrate, and celebrate those we should get rid of.” This is very typical of the Nigerian situation, which we hopefully pray will change one day.
Zik Gbemre.
November 26, 2020.
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
Haven recently taken a closer look at the life and times of former President of Burkina-Faso, late Thomas Sankara, I strongly believe that, the revolutionary ideas, policies and style of governance he introduced, are exactly what we desperately need to see happen in Nigeria, as well as all over Africa because there are so much Nigerian/African political leaders can emulate and learn from this man, Sankara, on how to govern and lead as public office holders.
According to Wikipedia records, Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé socialist revolutionary and President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. A Marxist–Leninist and pan-Africanist, he was viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution and is sometimes referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara." After being appointed Prime Minister in 1983, disputes with the sitting government led to Sankara's eventual imprisonment. While he was under house arrest, a group of revolutionaries seized power on his behalf in a popularly-supported coup later that year. And just at age 33, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta. He immediately launched programmes for social, ecological and economic change and renamed the country from the French colonial name Upper Volta to Burkina Faso ("Land of Incorruptible People"), with its people being called Burkinabé ("upright people"). His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalizing all land and mineral wealth and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. His domestic policies were focused on preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritizing education with a nationwide literacy campaign and promoting public health by vaccinating 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles.
In fact, as reiterated by Keeping It Real anchored by Adeola online: “this is by far the best President that Africa has ever had, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso. After he took over power at the age of 33 after a bloodless military coup, the first thing that Sankara did was to reduce the salaries of all the Ministers and all the public officials, including his own salary. He took away their luxurious cars - Mercedes Benz at the time, and he made them drive regular cars, including himself. No more First-class, all officials had to fly Economy class. Not a single special preference was left for the government officials. He put an end to colonial taxes and embedded in his people to stand against colonial mentality. He took care of food, housing, healthcare, for his people. At that time, several African countries were dealing with disease epidemics, but not in Burkina Faso because he provided vaccines. His government was the first African to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa.
“He was also one of the first Head of State in the whole world to promote women’s rights, as he appointed women in major government institutions…He stood against forced marriages, under-aged marriages or even expelling women from school if they got pregnant…men were no longer allowed to beat their wives. He also instituted mass sporting activities. Everybody had to become active and participated in sports in other to keep fit and healthy. Which he also took part in like basketball. People were made to ride bicycles, because he believed that a healthy body and mind would reduce diseases. He also took environmental issues seriously and insisted that they plant ten million trees in other to combat the growing desertification of the Sahel. Other things he did in this regard include redistributing land from feudal landlords to peasants, suspending rural poll taxes and domestic rents and establishing a road and railway construction programme. He constructed vast roads, and railways and connected all the major streets together.
“At that time, they did not have much money in Burkina Faso, but instead of relying on foreign aid, he told everybody to take part. People were so glad to take part in the building the railways and the roads. He actually discouraged his people from relying and depending solely on foreign aid. He also insisted that Burkina Faso produce their own goods. And everybody, including government officials were to patronize Burkinababe products - from clothes, food, everything all made in Burkina Faso. He facilitated good irrigation and fertilization programs. People started seeing Burkina Faso made in products just within four years that he was president. And in less than four years that he was in power, Burkina Faso that used to be very poor, became food-self-sufficient.
“It was a major revolution at that time in Burkina Faso. Corrupt officials were tried in Court, and the funny thing was, no lawyer was allowed to represent them. So, you had to prove yourself guilty or not guilty in front of everybody, and it was televised. Many people were disgraced by this approach because they were not allowed to pay lawyers to represent or defend them. Though, many people critized this approach, as a violation of human rights. But it achieved the desired results of reducing corruption. At the OAU Summit at that time, Sankara even challenged other African leaders to stop relying on the West or the East developed Countries. And he was only like 33-34. Just imagine that... Sankara also commissioned several housing projects for the less privileged. And was always relating with the people at the grassroots level. He was not ‘untouchable’ like our politicians nowadays, who have long convoys that everyone has to get out of the way for them. Sankara was never like that. He related with everybody and anybody. These were what took Burkina Faso out of misery in less than four years.
“Of course, the French did not like that they were losing grip of their former colony, because they stopped borrowing money, and Sankara stopped relying on their foreign aids, and they wanted to make sure that other African countries did not follow his footsteps. In fact, all those that were benefitting from Africa’s underdevelopment at that time, were not happy to see Burkina Faso rising, becoming self-sufficient and self-dependent. So, they sponsored his very best friend from childhood to overthrow him. We are talking about Blaise Compaoré, who has ruled Burkina Faso for the last 27 years. So, on October 15th 1987, Sankara was killed by Blaise Compaoré armed men. How ironic that Compaoré himself was over thrown in the month of October. Compaoré’s men killed Sankara and 12 others, with a shower of bullets which dismembered his body completely. So, they hurried and buried him in an unmarked grave like a goat. There was no ceremony for Sankara’s burial. They treated him like an animal. His wife and two children had to flee the country. And Blaise Compaoré nearly reversed all of Sankara’s good policies. Blaise Compaoré re-joined the IMF and World Bank, and he went right back to being a puppet in the hands of France. And what would have led to a true self-independence example in Africa, was quenched by Blaise Compaoré. The question is, would we learn a lesson from Burkina Faso? I mean all the African countries like Nigeria, where corruption is being celebrated today.
Sankara remained popular with most of his country's citizens. However, his policies alienated and antagonised several groups, which included the small but powerful Burkinabé middle class; the tribal leaders who were stripped of their long-held traditional privileges of forced labour and tribute payments; and the governments of France and its ally the Ivory Coast.
“Can we learn from Sankara’s example in Burkina Faso? All the African countries that have dictators (in civilian clothes) in power. As much as we admire Thomas Sankara, the man whose legacy will never die, it is actually painful that in Africa, we kill those we should celebrate, and celebrate those we should get rid of.” This is very typical of the Nigerian situation, which we hopefully pray will change one day.
Zik Gbemre.
November 26, 2020.
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes