ONNI FINALLY SPEAKS ABOUT HIS POLITICAL MENTOR:The only Political Role Model I have is Thomas Sankara.


Focus: The True Visionary Thomas Sankara
Thomas Sankara was Burkina Faso’s president from August 1983
until his assassination on October 15, 1987. Perhaps, more than
any other African president in living memory, Thomas Sankara, in
four years, transformed Burkina Faso from a poor country,
dependent on aid, to an economically independent and socially
progressive nation.
Thomas Sankara began by purging the deeply entrenched
bureaucratic and institutional corruption in Burkina Faso.
He slashed the salaries of ministers and sold off the fleet of
exotic cars in the president’s convoy, opting instead for the
cheapest brand of car available in Burkina Faso, Renault 5. His
salary was $450 per month and he refused to use the air
conditioning units in his office, saying that he felt guilty doing so,
since very few of his country people could afford it.
Thomas Sankara would not let his portrait be hung in offices and
government institutions in Burkina Faso, because every
Burkinabe is a Thomas Sankara, he declared. Sankara changed
the name of the country from the colonially imposed Upper Volta
to Burkina Faso, which means land of upright men.
Thomas Sankara’s achievements are numerous and can only be
summarized briefly; within the first year of his leadership,
Sankara embarked on an unprecedented mass vaccination
program that saw 2.5 million Burkinabe children vaccinated. From
an alarming 280 deaths for every 1,000 births, infant mortality
was immediately slashed to below 145 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Sankara preached self-reliance, he banned the importation of
several items into Burkina Faso, and encouraged the growth of
the local industry. It was not long before Burkinabes were
wearing 100% cotton sourced, woven and tailored in Burkina
Faso. From being a net importer of food, Thomas Sankara began
to aggressively promote agriculture in Burkina Faso, telling his
country people to quit eating imported rice and grain from
Europe, said, “let us consume what we ourselves control,” he
emphasized.
In less than 4 years, Burkina Faso became self-sufficient in foods
production through the redistribution of lands from the hands of
corrupt chiefs and land owners to local farmers, and through
massive irrigation and fertilizer distribution programs. Thomas
Sankara utilized various policies and government assistance to
encourage Burkinabes to get education. In less than two years as
a president, school attendance jumped from about 10% to a little
below 25%, thus overturning the 90% illiteracy rate he met upon
assumption of office.
Living way ahead of his time, within 12 months of his leadership,
Sankara vigorously pursued a reforestation program that saw
over 10 million trees planted around the country in order to push
back the encroachment of the Sahara Desert. Uncommon at the
time he lived, Sankara stressed women empowerment and
campaigned for the dignity of women in a traditional patriarchal
society. He also employed women in several government positions
and declared a day of solidarity with housewives by mandating
their husbands to take on their roles for 24 hours.
A personal fitness enthusiast, Sankara encouraged Burkinabes
to be fitted and was regularly seen jogging unaccompanied on
the streets of Ouagadougou; his waistline remained the same
throughout his tenure as president.
In 1987, during a meeting of African leaders under the auspices of
the Organization of African Unity, Thomas Sankara tried to
convince his peers to turn their backs on the debt owed western
nations. According to him, “debt is a cleverly managed
reconquest of Africa. It is a reconquest that turns each one of
us into a financial slave.” He would not request for, nor accept
aid from the west, noting that “…welfare and aid policies have
only ended up disorganizing us, subjugating us, and robbing us of
a sense of responsibility for our own economic, political, and
cultural affairs. We chose to risk new paths to achieve greater
well-being.”
Thomas Sankara was a pan-Africanist who spoke out against
apartheid, telling French President Jacques Chirac, during his
visit to Burkina Faso, that it was wrong for him to support the
apartheid government and that he must be ready to bear the
consequences of his actions. Sankara’s policies and his
unapologetic anti-imperialist stand made him an enemy of France,
Burkina Faso’s former colonial master. He spoke truth to power
fearlessly and paid with his life. Upon his assassination, his most
valuable possessions were a car, a refrigerator, three guitars,
motorcycles, a broken down freezer and about $400 in cash.
Few young Africans have ever heard of Thomas Sankara. In
reality, it is not the assassination of Thomas Sankara that has
dealt a lethal blowed to Africa and Africans; it is the
assassination of his memory, as manifested in the indifference to
his legacy, in the lack of constant reference to his ideals and
ideas by Africans, by those who know and those who should
know. Among physical and mental dirt and debris lie Africa’s
heroes while the younger generations search in vain for role
models from among their kind. Africans have therefore,
internalized self-abhorrence and the convictions of innate
incapability to bring about transformation. Transformation must
runs contrary to the African’s DNA, many Africans
subconsciously believe.
Africans are not given to celebrating their own heroes, but this
must change. It is a colonial legacy that was instituted to
establish the inferiority of the colonized and justify colonialism. It
was a strategic policy that ensured that Africans celebrated the
heroes of their colonial masters, but not that of Africa. Fifty
years and counting after colonialism ended, Africa’s curriculum
must now be redrafted to reflect the numerous achievements of
Africans.
The present generation of Africans is thirsty, searching for
where to draw the moral, intellectual and spiritual courage to
effect change. The waters to quench the thirst, as other
continents have already established, lies fundamentally in history
- in Africa’s forbears, men, women and children who experienced
much of what most Africans currently experience, but who chose
to toe a different path. The media, entertainment industry, civil
society groups, writers, institutions and organizations must begin
to search out and include African role models, case studies and
examples in their contents.
For Africans, the strength desperately needed for the
transformation of the continent cannot be drawn from World
Bank and IMF policies, from aid and assistance obtained from
China, India, the United States or Europe. The strength to
transform Africa lies in the foundations laid by uncommon
heroes like Thomas Sankara; a man who showed Africa and the
world that with a single minded pursuit of purpose, the worst can
be made the best, and in record time too.
Source: African Leadership Magazine

Good one from my favorite Oba.