THE STRENGTH OF A YOUNG ENERGETIC AND VISIONARY LEADER

 Thomas Sankara

Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara was a Burkinabe whose parents wanted him to be a priest but he opted for military career due to the level corruption in his country which had killed his initial dreams of entering a medical school. As a result, he became a Burkinabe military Captain, Marxist revolutionary, Pan-Africanist theorist and president of Burkina Faso. Sankara lived for 36 years (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) and served his country as president of Burkina Faso for 4 years (from 1983-1987). He took power from Maj Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo in an internal power struggle and became president in August 1983. To symbolize his new autonomy and rebirth, he renamed the country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso meaning “land of upright men”.

During Sankara’s reign, several transformations were done in Burkina Faso, some of which include:

Limited the importation of foreign goods, there by promoting locally made products to be consumed in the country. Public servants were required to wear a traditional tunic woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsman. In addition to the country’s independency, Wheat production rose in three years from 1700kg per hectare to 3800kg per hectare, making the country food self-sufficient.

He converted the army’s provision store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone. This was the first supermarket in the country.

He opposed foreign aid, saying that “he, who feeds you, controls you”.

In order to prevent desertification, he planted over 10 million trees.

He constructed roads and a railway to link farm to markets and different parts of the country without foreign aid.

He reduced gender inequality by appointing females to high governmental positions, encouraged them to work, recruited them into the military, and granted pregnancy leave during education.

He banned female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy in support of women’s rights.

He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 the official service car of the ministers which was the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time.

He reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own to $450 a month and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets.

Sankara redistributed land from the feudal landlords and gave it directly to the peasants.

He discouraged neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance by speaking in forums like the Organization of African Unity.

As an accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself.

Leadership skills of Sankara

As defined by Nashakyaa (2019), leadership is the sustained achievements of extra ordinary goal, in extra ordinary times by extraordinary people in ordinary ways using minimum resources; Sankara is a good example of a born leader. Despite the limited reign of Sankara, his enormous achievement in just 4 years with limited resources makes him one of the great African leaders in history and a source of inspiration to African youths. 

Being the youngest president of his time, Sankara as a visionary leader instituted many changes to revise the old order. To start with, he turned his country from a sleepy West African nation with the colonial designation of Upper Volta to Burkina Faso meaning “the Land of the Honorable People” in Mossi and Dyula. Furthermore, he led one of the most ambitious programs of sleeping reforms ever seen in Africa. It sought to fundamentally reverse the structural social inequities inherited from French colonial order.

Sankara focused solely on the country’s limited resources for its growth while other African countries depended on external assistance for development and feeding. He shunned World Bank loans and promoted local food and textile production. Seen as a president who leads with example, Sankara reduced his salary to $480 per month as well as those of ministers and public servants for the growth of the country.

Ending his speeches with ‘homeland or death, we triumph!’ meant Africa can make it without being dependent on foreign aid if we all work hard for the growth of our homeland. In order to take the lead, he openly challenged both French hegemony in West Africa as well as the unchallenged power of his fellow military leaders referring to them as criminals in power.

Though Sankara’s efforts to lead Burkina Faso to higher heights were successful, he attracted a lot of enemies to himself in the process including his close friend Blaise Campaore who assassinated him in a coup. He was criticized in the west for being too authoritarian and undemocratic as he banned strikes, abolished trade union and political parties. After his death, his best friend Campaore took over power and reversed all laws set by Sankara.

To conclude, despite the efforts of Thomas Sankara to build a better Africa by starting from his country, several countries have failed to use his strategies as example and as a result, there continue to exist insufficient security, poor healthcare, education, unemployment, illegitimate elections, lack of freedom of speech, increase crime waves and many problems with prevent the growth of the nation. Therefore as leaders of tomorrow, we need to sit up and work harder for a better sustainable future.

Source: http://africa-facts.org

http://folukeafrica.com/thomas-sankara-daring-to-invent-a-future-africa/

Author : Lenjo Audrey