Thomas Sankara. The poorest president.

Have you ever heard the expression "The people have the government they deserve"? Do you think this is a correct statement? I am not going to answer that question. But I hope that after reading this post, you will find the answer. In the meantime, I'd like you to meet the president of an African country. It's boring, you might think. Take your time... You may have never heard of this man, but you will be very interested to meet him. Get to know him...

Thomas Sankara was a military man. The son of an officer who served in the French army during the Second World War. His life was always linked to the army, and he fought in the wars between the then Upper Volta, later renamed Mali, and Mali. In 1983, partly due to his immense popularity, he became president of Burkina Faso.

Thomas Sankara lived on an army captain's salary of $450 a month, while his $2,000 presidential salary was donated to orphanages. One of the first innovations of his government was the public publication of the income and accounts of all government officials.

The people's president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara.

Austerity became the official stance of the newly elected president and he started, of course, with himself. He banned the installation of air conditioning in his office because he was "ashamed in front of people who cannot afford such luxury", and asked not to put up his portrait in public places and offices because "we have seven million people like me in the country". The government's entire fleet of Mercedes cars was sold, replaced by Renault 5s, the cheapest cars in the country at the time, for the needs of ministers. Sankara cut the salaries of officials and banned them from using private drivers and flying first-class tickets.

Officials had to replace expensive suits with traditional cotton tunics sewn by locals. Before the new year, ministers, aides and other employees had to hand in their monthly salaries to social funds. Dismissing half the Cabinet, Sankara sent them to collective farms to work the land "where they would be more useful". Three years after Sankara came to power (in 1986), the World Bank declared that corruption had been completely stamped out in Burkina Faso. During his rule, factories and housing were built, debts to small tenants were forgiven, the capitation tax was abolished, the entire population was taught to read and write in nine local languages, road infrastructure was developed and free medical care was provided to the population.

Naturally, the corporations and billionaires did not like this turn of events very much. Not only was the Soviet Union giving away such valuable resources free to its citizens at the time, but a spark of freedom was erupting in the heart of Africa. It was a dangerous precedent that threatened to grow into something bigger. The emergence of such a man was frightening and it was decided to act.

On 15 October 1987, Thomas' closest friend and associate, Justice Minister Blaise Compaore, betrayed him by organising a coup d'état. Thomas Sankara and 12 of his closest aides went to the rebels unarmed, hoping to persuade them with words, but the coup organisers had no intention of talking. Sankara and those who came out to the protesters were shot. After the president's assassination, it turned out that all his personal possessions consisted only of an old Peugeot car bought before he came to power, a refrigerator with a broken freezer, three guitars (he loved jazz music very much) and four bicycles.

Well his former friend, the onetime revolutionary Blaise Compaore, immediately set about returning the country to capitalism and the first thing he did was to buy himself a new Boeing 747. Burkina Faso is now one of the poorest and most backward countries. Everything that was achieved in 4 short years by Thomas Sankara, the people of this country have lost.
PEOPLE ... You can talk a lot about bad presidents, governments and soulless oligarchs, but everything happens for one reason only, the indifference of the people of this very country, cowardice, inability to assert their rights. Everyone expects "Jesus Christ" to sacrifice his life for them and everything will be all right. But nothing changes. As soon as a man leaves, what he tried to do disappears with him.