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Thomas Sankara
The recent political
happenings in Burkina Faso bears to mind the Arab spring of yesterday that
swept through the Arab world like a burning bush in the harmattan. It claimed
leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and the life of the Libyan hard man Muammar Gaddafi.
Right now the flames of change is in
Burkina Faso.
Leaders of Congo,
Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and the likes in other African countries that have sit tight leaders
would keep a close watch on the eagle that has just landed on the Iroko tree in this land locked West
African country.
Not even a sorcerer
could have predicted that President Blaise Compaore would leave Burkina Faso in
a such a hurry to neighbouring Ivory Coast to start a painful exile after
enshrining himself in the heart of
Burkinabe’s whom he governed with an
iron hand for 27 years.
He succeeded the Late
Thomas Sankara in a bloody coup backed by the imperialist French. He made Burkina
Faso a police state where the freedom of press was never obeyed, people were
arrested and imprisoned unjustly. It is on record that he was the first
President in the world to visit China after the ‘Tiananmen square massacre’ in
1989 and promising to do same in Burkina Faso if the need arises.
As the old African
saying goes “push a goat to the wall and he will be forced to fight back”.
Demonstration of his rule started in 29th
October 2014 when he tried to
extend his rule by 5 years through a rubber stamped parliament. The parliament
was set ablaze by rampaging demonstrators who demanded to end his 27years and
15 day rule.
For the first time since the death of ThomasSankara the masses stood up for their right in the dusty streets of Ouagadougou claiming to have gotten there
inspiration from the words of the late Revolutionary leader- Thomas Sankara.
Will I be wrong to say
that the ghost of Thomas Sankara is back to life? These were his saying a week
before his assassination “You may kill a revolutionary but revolutions don't
die, they live beyond the initiator".
Burkina Faso is a
country of 17 million people with a rich deposit of gold and manganese but
economically, she ranks 183 of 186 of The United Nation poverty index.
Today as I write, this
taught provoking questions are been asked by the Burkinabe how she got to this
level in the quagmire of poverty.
What is known today as
Burkina Faso was formerly known as Upper Volta by the French because of the
Volta River that runs through the lower ends of the country.
The locals fought
series of war with the French for 5 years before Upper Volta became a French protectorate
in the year 1886.
After 72 years of
white rule Upper Volta (as was then known) was granted self-autonomy in
1958.Full independence was received on 5th August 1960.
Since this landlocked
country gained its independence from France it has had five heads of states.
The fourth was Thomas Sankara who seized power from the weak regime of military
pharmacist Jean-Baptiste Oueddaogo.
The coup that brought Sankara
to government in 1983 was not bloodless; at least five people died in the
cross-fire. However, the president Jean-Baptiste was not killed and he
eventually resumed his work as a pharmacist.
After the coup, these
four officers that is Thomas Sankara, Blaise Compaore, Henri Zongo and
Jean-Baptiste Lingani, quickly formed their “National Revolutionary Council”
with Thomas Sankara as the head of state. Years later after the assassination of
Thomas Sankara in a bloody coup, Blaise Compaore took over government and in a
bid to tighten his grip on power, he secretly tried and convicted the two other
officers for treason.
When Thomas Sankara
was sworn into power he made it clear that his regime was not going to be just
another corrupt, luxury loving President dancing to the tune of foreign
masters. To the surprise of many, on the first anniversary of his government
the name Upper Volta was changed to an African name Burkina Faso (Land of the
upright).
He angered the west by
making friends with Fidel Castro of Cuba and Nicaragua then Marxist leader
Daniel Ortega. He even turned his back on Libya’s Gaddafi who sponsored the
coup that brought him to power. Gaddafi who would only ally himself with
dissenters on the continent and cause a great deal of trouble for
Western-backed regimes, unless they submit to him as there master. This Sankara
refused to do.
“Thomas Sankara makes
it difficult to sleep” says then President Mitterrand of France who was
recounting his experience with Sankara after his death. He was known for asking
taught provoking questions that kills sleep from one’s eyes. After treating me
to a large banquet in front of diplomats he said to me in his address, “we
Burkinabe have never understood why criminals like Jonas Savmbi, the head of
UNITA, and murderers like Pieter Botha, have the right to travel to France,
which is so clean and beautiful. They stain the earth with their hands and
their feet covered with blood.
To the outside world African leaders are
Kleptomaniacs who are unable to restrain their own greed and ego once they
ensconced in the golden presidential chair. In Thomas Sankara the black race saw
a man who shunned luxury and imported goods. He dispensed with custom made cars
and choose instead the tiny Renault 5, Le Car, as the official presidential and
ministerial automobile. Unlike his predecessor, who was one of Africa’s richest
head of state that enjoyed luxury at the expense of his people.
Looking at Sankara back then, Energy and
Idealism burned in him he was able to put a stop to the age long female
circumcision in Burkina Faso. His cabinet were made of women as this was rare
in Africa.
He was a
Pan-Africanist who believed that, Africa needs to be freed from the power of
colonial and neo-colonial powers, Burkina Faso was the first African country to
organise an anti-apartheid meeting in Africa.
He once said that it
was only in Africa that despite the abundance of fruit grown in sub-Sahara
Africa, it’s impossible in most country to find locally made juice. What you
find is coke, Fanta and energy caffeinated drinks which abound everywhere.
Before the World Bank
and the west brought about the issue of accountably in government to fight
corruption; in mid- 1987 he instituted an anti-corruption body to fight against
corruption in government. He was the first sitting African leader to appear before
an anti-corruption panel where he declared his assets and handed over gifts
that was given to him by foreign government to the state just like the legendry
Julius Caesar.
In the evening of
October 15, 1987 Thomas Sankara was shot dead in the presidential villa along
with nine of his aides in what seems to be a western backed coup. In 2002 Mr. Yomi Johnson testified in the
Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission that Charles Tailor and the then
Libyan leader Mommmar Gaddafi conspired with Blaise Compaore to assassinate Sankara
who was perceived as a major threat.
As my mum would say
those who are born to make a change in their generation make a mark and fades
away like a shooting star at night.
To Compore, Sankara’s government
was characterised with high handedness and the people hated him and wanted him
to go at all cost.
However recent
happenings in Burkina Faso is telling us otherwise. Truly the ghost from the
past is here to hunt the wicked.
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