THOMAS SANKARA AND HISTORY OF HIS REVOLUTION

When Captain Thomas Sankara was assassinated
on October 15, 1987, it was a dark testimony
regime he had instituted in former Upper Volta
which he changed to “Burkina Faso”, meaning
“Fatherland of Upright Men.”
But his countrymen were not so upright as his
childhood friend Captain Blaise Campaore
conspired with local and external forces to kill
him.
Three days before his death, a French journalist
had asked Sankara if he ever feared for his life
and how much trust he had for Campaore, his
second in command and childhood friend.
Sankara had given Campaore visible position and
power in running one of the world’s poorest
countries. Sankara told the reporter that ‘’if
Campaore plots against him, there was nothing
that could save him or frustrate the plot”.
Unknown to Sankara, Campaore was the insider
in the conspiracy between France and Cote
d’Ivoire to stop his’s four year Socialist-Marxist
revolution that was hitting at the root of poverty
and underdevelopment in Burkina Faso and West
Africa as a whole.
Three days later, gun men busted into his
presidential office where he was in a meeting with
his aides. The armed men were later found to
have been trained in Cote Dvoire from where they
moved in to Quagadogou for the operation.
The armed men were later identified to be
members of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic
Front of Liberia (NPFL). Sankara tried to ran
away but he was caught on the staircase and
rained with bullets. That was the end of the
Sankara revolution and the eventual 27 year reign
of Blaise Campaore who became one of the
disastrous examples of leaders in Africa.
Campaore prevented the family of Sankara from
taking his body as he was buried along with other
loyal solders that tried to fight back. Campaore,
the son-in-law of the Felix Houphouet Boigny,
then president of Cote d’Iovire were the strongest
supporters of Mr. Charles Taylor who invaded
Liberia from Nimba country in December 1989.
It is instructive to note that the invasion of
Liberia from the border with Cote d’Ivoire came
two years after the assassination of Thomas
Sankara.
Both Campaore and late Boigny were stoutly
opposed to the military mission of West African
States (ECOMOG) which was set up in 1991 to
put a halt to the barbaric execution of the civil
war in Liberia.
The outcome of the Liberian war which lasted for
13 years shifted attention away from Sankara and
the infamy of Blaise Campaore. Blaise Campaore
met his own waterloo last year when angry
protests by the citizens of Burkina Faso forced
him to abandon his plan to perpetuate himself in
power pressures from the family of Sankara has
forced the new helmsman in Ouagadougou to Mr.
Michael Kafando to order that the body of
Sankara should be exhumed for examination and
to be given a befitting burial.
Kafando has also ordered a full investigation into
the plot that led to the death of Captain Thomas
Sankara who was hailed as Africa’s Che Guevara.
The Sankara Revolution
At 33, Captain Thomas Sankara launched a
revolution to transform Burkina Faso. He launched
nationalisation and land distribution programmes
in the country. He pushed up school enrolment
from 6% to 22% and increased the national
vaccination programme to 2.5 million. Several

health centres were opened while massive
construction of road and rail transport were
embarked upon. Sankara ordered the planting of
10 million trees to combat drought and
desertification in his country. He declared war on
corruption by placing himself on less than $500 a
month. His ministers were on low pay as well.
Low profile was maintained in public life. He
strongly opposed foreign aid.
Under Sankara the government also prioritised
gender equality, working towards the end of
female genital mutilation, forced marriages and
polygamy. The tragedy that robbed ‘Africa’s Che’
from his family may also have preserved his place
among the stars as Sankara is still much revered
across Africa today.
Discontent with the Revolution
Discontent with the revolution set in when he tried
to alter the traditional institutions. Sankara
stripped traditional chiefs of their rights and
privileges. He set up “revolutionary people’s
tribunals” to try former public officials charged
with political crimes. Opposition parties and
unions were banned and media freedoms
curtailed. Striking teachers were fired and
replaced by young people with no experience.
The people became suspicious of his political
philosophy. Sankara was caught off guard when
gunmen burst into his office and gunned him
down along with 12 aides. His body was
unceremoniously dumped in a makeshift grave in
the dead of the night, which quickly became a
shrine for thousands of people who filed past it to
pay their respects. There has been popular
feelings that the new regime should give Sankara
a decent burial.
Exiled Compaoré, has always denied involvement
in the killing, insisting that the “facts are known”
and he has “nothing to hide”.
But whatever the outcome of the exhumation, a
deeper, more troubling mystery will remain:
whether Thomas Sankara’s revolution would have
survived.
Fear of Domino effect
Watchers of international politics have argued
that Sankara led one of the most creative and
radical reforms in Africa from 1983 to 1987. There
were fears that the success of his revolution
might be followed in the other African countries.
Many believed that this led to his early death
which France was suspected to have spearheaded
using Houphouet Boigny as the arrow head.
In 1985 Sankara said”‘I would like to leave behind
me the conviction that if we maintain a certain
amount of caution and organization we deserve
victory… You cannot carry out fundamental
change without a certain amount of madness. In
this case, it comes from nonconformity, the
courage to turn your back on the old formulas,
the courage to invent the future. It took the
madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act
with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of
those madmen. We must dare to invent the
future.’
Legacy of an incorruptible man
A major anti-corruption drive began in 1987. The
tribunal showed Captain Thomas Sankara to have
a salary of only $450 a month and his most
valuable possessions to be a car, four bikes, three
guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer. He was the
world’s poorest president.
Sankara refused to use the air conditioning in his
office on the grounds that such luxury was not
available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabes.
When asked why he had let it be known that he
did not want his portrait hung in public places, as
is the norm for other African leaders (and as
Blaise Compaoré does now), Sankara said ‘There
are seven million Thomas Sankaras’.
Landmarks of Sankara revolution
Feb 1984 Tribute payments to and obligatory
labour for the traditional village chiefs are
outlawed.
4 Aug 1984 All land and mineral wealth are
nationalized. The country’s name is changed from
the colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, words
from two different local languages meaning ‘Land
of the Incorruptible’.
22 Sept 1984 A day of solidarity: men are
encouraged to go to market and prepare meals to
experience for themselves the conditions faced by
women.
Oct 1984 The rural poll tax is abolished.
Nov 1984 ‘Vaccination Commando’. In 15 days
2.5 million children are immunized against
meningitis, yellow fever and measles.
3 Dec 1984 Top civil servants and military officers
are required to give one month’s pay and other
civil servants to give half a month to help fund
social development projects.
31 Dec 1984 All domestic rents are suspended for
1985 and a massive public housing construction
program begins.
1 Jan 1985 Launch of a campaign to plant 10
million trees to slow the Sahara’s advance.
4 Aug 1985 An all-women parade marks the
anniversary of the Revolution.
10 Sep 1985 The mounting hostility of the
region’s conservative regimes is revealed at a
meeting in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire.
Feb-Apr 1986 ‘Alpha Commando’. A literacy
campaign in nine indigenous languages involves
35,000 people.
End of 1986 A UN-assisted program brings river
blindness under control.
15 Oct 1987 Sankara is assassinated in a coup
d’état along with 12 aides.
Culled from Vanguard 

LET ME NOMINATE YOUR MINISTER, FAYOSE URGES BUHARI

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has urged
President Muhammadu Buhari to give him the
privilege of nominating an Ekiti State indigene for
appointment into Buhari’s cabinet.
Fayose, who was one of Buhari’s biggest
opponents in the run-up to the March
presidential election, said this in a statement on
Tuesday.
The governor said he had written to Buhari and
was hopeful that the President’s reply would be
favourable.
Fayose said, “I shall be happy to nominate a
worthy and competent professional, who can
always oblige Your Excellency and your cabinet
the benefit of a second opinion in the serious
business of governance.”
He noted that he wrote the letter based on the
declaration made by the President that he would
put the overall interest of the country above
every other particularly political partisanship and
bias.
He said even former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, who was a member of the Peoples
Democratic Party, appointed the late Chief Bola
Ige as the Minister for Justice despite Ige being a
chief of the opposition Alliance for Democracy.

The governor also hinted that his letter was on
the strength of Section 147 sub (2) and (3) of
the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, which states: (2) Any appointment to
the office of the Minister of the government of
the Federation shall, if the nomination of any
such person to such office is confirmed by the
Senate, be made by the President. (3) Any
appointment under sub-section (2) of this
section by the President shall be in conformity
with the provision of section 15 (3) of this
constitution provided that in giving effect to the
provision aforesaid, the President shall appoint
at least one Minister from each state, who shall
be an indigene of such state.
Fayose, who noted that Ekiti is a PDP state,
where the governor, the National Assembly and
the state Assembly members are all PDP
members, said in the spirit of putting in place an
all inclusive government with capacity for
national integration, the President should accord
him the honour and privilege to name the
minister that would come from Ekiti State.

YOU CAN'T PROBE ME ALONE ~ Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has advised
the incoming president, Muhammadu
Buhari, not to single his administration
out for probe.
He said if Mr. Buhari must investigate
him and his administration, he should
do the same for the past governments.
A probe centred only on the Jonathan
administration will amount to a “witch
hunt”, the president said Wednesday at
a valedictory cabinet meeting attended
by ministers ahead of his handing over
to Mr. Buhari on Friday.
Mr. Jonathan said his comments
followed calls from different quarters
for his administration to be
investigated.

“Some people are even calling for the
probe of the government, but I think in
Nigeria, there are a lot of many things
that will be probed, very many things,
even debts owed by states and debts
owed by this country from 1960 up to
this time.
“They say it is Jonathan’s administration
that is owing these debts. I believe that
anybody that is calling for probe must
also ensure that this probe is extended
beyond the Jonathan administration.
“Otherwise, to me, it will be witch-hunt.
If we are very sincere, it is not only the
Jonathan administration that should be
probed,” he said.
He said his government has had to
operate under the harshest of conditions,
some of which were politically
motivated.
Mr. Jonathan attributed the just abating
fuel scarcity and the strike action by the
oil union to sabotage.
He noted that as a cabinet, all ministers
had done their best despite the
challenges faced during their tenure.
Noting that Nigeria has twice sat on the
Security Council during the life of the
outgoing administration, the president
said it was obvious that the rest of the
world appreciated the little contribution
of Nigeria under his leadership.

FUEL PALAVER :: FUNKE AKINDELE RIDES ON BICYCLE

Star actress, Funke Akindele rode a bicycle to
church on Sunday due to the fuel crisis in the
country. This is according to her post on the
social media.
Nigeria has been brought to a virtual standstill by
fuel shortages, caused by a row between the
outgoing government and importers, as well as
strikes by petrol tanker drivers and oil and gas
workers.

Despite being Africa’s biggest oil producer,
petroleum products have to be imported to
Nigeria because of a lack of functioning domestic
refineries.
The government keeps the price at the pumps
below the market rate for consumers and pays
the difference to importers and marketers.
But they say they are owed $2 billion in arrears
and have shut fuel depots until the balance is
paid.
The government maintains the money has been
paid and the importers are holding the country to
ransom by demanding losses from the slump in
the naira currency caused by the global drop in
oil prices.

THOMAS SANKARA remains :Burkina Faso Begins Exhumation.

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Nearly 30 years after President Thomas
Sankara was killed in a coup as he strived to make his West African country an
egalitarian one, his purported grave is being dug up to answer lingering questions
about his death.
Sankara was a Marxist, anti-imperialist revolutionary who in four years in power in
Burkina Faso doubled the number of children in schools, reduced infant mortality,
redistributed land from feudal landlords to peasants and planted 10 million trees
that still help shade Ouagadougou, the capital. His style was different from other
African presidents, ordering ministers to trade in Mercedes for more humble
Renaults.
Sankara's death at 37 in October 1987 after a coup staged by his once best friend
Blaise Compaore has remained shrouded in secrecy.
Sankara and his followers were hurriedly buried, and his family and many others in
Burkina Faso have for years wanted to know how he was killed, and if, in fact, his
body is really in the Dagnoen Cemetery, on the eastern outskirts of Ouagadougou.
"We want the truth," many people chanted Monday outside the cemetery, urging the
gendarmerie to let journalists in.
"We are here to see who is in the grave and we won't leave until we know the
truth," said 20-year-old mechanic Ismael Sawadogo among a crowd of people
waiting on dark brown earth outside the cemetery. "I was not born when Sankara
died but I heard that he was righteous and loves justice."
Medical experts from Burkina Faso and France are overseeing the exhumation of
the site where Sankara and the 12 others killed alongside him are said to be
buried. They will conduct DNA tests to identify the bodies.
At the time of the 1987 coup, Compaore said troops loyal to him uncovered a plot
by Sankara to arrest and then execute Compaore and two other members of the
ruling National Revolutionary Council.
When troops entered the government compound, Sankara pulled out a light
machine gun and a pistol and died in an exchange of fire, Compaore said in reports
from that year. Compaore has denied being a part of Sankara's killing.

Workers with pickaxes and shovels were seen starting the exhumation Monday
morning under tents.
"The exhumations have started," Benewinde Sankara, the lawyer for Sankara's
family, who is not related to the former president, told The Associated Press by
telephone from the cemetery.
He said that in principal they might begin exhuming Sankara's grave on Monday,
but "the process is going to take time." Sankara's family will not attend, he said.
Sankara's widow, Mariam Sankara, has long been fighting for the right to have
DNA tests on Sankara's body to prove the remains are really his, but until last year
she was blocked in the courts. The family long has doubted that the Ouagadougou
cemetery holds his remains.
The impoverished West African country's name was changed from Upper Volta to
Burkina Faso when Compaore and Sankara staged a coup in 1983 and ousted a
moderate military faction to launch a leftist revolution. The country had gained
independence from France in 1960 and had been under military rule since 1966.
Compaore then staged his own coup in 1987. The reasons for his split with
Sankara were never fully explained.
A new constitution that was supposed to restore democracy was adopted in 1991.
Compaore ruled from then until he was driven from the country by large-scale
violent protests in October amid resentment over his bid to remain in power.
Interim President Michel Kafando last year said investigations into Sankara's death
would go forward "in the name of national reconciliation." The exhumation was
authorized by the interim government in March.
On Monday, hundreds gathered outside the cemetery as the exhumations began.
Serge Bambara, a musician known as "Smokey" who is a leader for an activist
group called The Citizen's Broom, said it was an important day. He said he hopes
that this will help prove who killed Sankara, so that they can be brought to justice.
"This should have been done years ago," he said. "We are here because we are
concerned about the truth ... there is hope."
___
Associated Press reporter Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this
report.

BUHARI TO INHERIT #8.1 BILLION ASO VILLA DEBTS

Nigeria’s president-elect, Muhammadu
Buhari will be inheriting a debt
of N8.185,575,211.50 for the Aso Rock
Presidential Villa alone. On the 28th of
May, President Goodluck Jonathan will
conduct Buhari round the villa and in a
report submitted to the Federal
Government Transition Committee by
Vice President Namadi Sambo,
about N3,647,793, 305.76 is needed to
fix the infrastructure at the Villa. They
say the infrastructure is ageing.
The committee is expected to submit its
report today to the Ahmed Joda-led APC
Transition Committee.
The report has it thus:
“The President had on December 3 last
year approved the release of
N3,394,168,460.95 for the payment of
recurrent/overhead debts and capital
debts due to other contractors,
consultants and service providers. This is
yet to be released by the Federal Ministry
of Finance…President Jonathan on April
15 directed the Coordinating Minister for
the Economy/Minister of Finance, Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to look into the
State House appeal for the release of at
least N4billion to make part-payments
out of the total outstanding debts of
N8,185,575,2111.50 “to sustain the
existing mutual and cordial relationships
with the owed firms. This is still being
awaited”.

“The bills for these transition programme
works are yet to be received and will be
additional to the 2015 annual Service
Level Agreement for the State House
Facilities with an annual average
commitment of N3,531,793,631.77
certified for 2014,” the report added.
“The primary challenge facing the State
House has been the inadequacy of
successive budgetary appropriations. The
State House annual appropriations do not
match its actual activities, thereby
leading to regular recourse to additional
funding from Intervention Fund from the
Federal Ministry of Finance.
“About 283 of the temporary staff not
found eligible for regularisation were
with the approval of His Excellency, the
President given contract. appointments
renewable annually based on performance
and fitness.
“ However, payment of their salaries(an
average of N8million per month) is from
State House overheads provision, which
remains a huge challenge to State House.
“The existing infrastructure for
mechanical, electrical and associated
components have aged and are
performing well beyond their design lives.
“The proposal for their replacement/
upgrade has been reviewed and certified
by the Bureau of Public Procurement in
the total sum of N3,647,793, 305.76.
However due to paucity of funds, phased
implementation is being adopted for the
most vital and critical works, starting
with Phase I in the sum of N693,
119,509.55
“Inadequate office space to accommodate
staff of the State House and inadequate
operational vehicles for the efficient
discharge of the activities of the various
departments and units of the State House,
including shuttle buses within the State
House Complex and between the State
House and the State House Medical
Centre.”

I 'II PROBE AMECHI - Wike

THE Rivers State Governor-elect, Chief Nyesom
Wike, has indicated his readiness to probe the
Rotimi Amaechi administration after being sworn
in as the chief executive of the state.
Wike, who gave this hint while receiving the
interim report of the Transition Committee in
Port Harcourt on Monday, declared that his
administration would carry out a forensic audit
of all government accounts.
He explained that the measure would enable him
to recover funds that might have allegedly been
stolen by top officials of the outgoing
administration in the state.
Wike specifically said that those who
participated in the use of N4.5bn to conduct a
local government election by the Rivers State
Independent Electoral Commission, even when
the court had stopped the exercise, would be
made to account for their actions.
The governor-elect maintained that RSIEC
embarked on an illegal local government election
despite the court’s position on the matter.
Explaining that the days of impunity and
corruption were over, Wike noted that Rivers
would be a test case in the fight against
corruption.
He added that his administration would adopt a
comprehensive approach in fighting corrupt
elements in the outgoing administration in order
to entrench fiscal discipline in the state.
“I am not going to be intimidated. The only way
we can work together is to check the ills of the
past. The right thing must be done. Those who
have stolen the resources of the state must be
made to account for them.

“I have the political will to drive the process to
its logical conclusion. The massive stealing of
government resources was a deliberate attempt
to create problems for the incoming
administration,” Wike said.
The governor-elect declared that all backdated
appointments and certificates of occupancy
being hurriedly issued by outgoing governor
would be set aside.
“All the top officials of Amaechi administration
who have refused to cooperate in the interest of
Rivers State during the transition period will
soon cooperate whether they like it or not.
“Those who have closed the courts will be the
same persons rushing to the courts when we
open the courts,” Wike further declared.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Transition
Committee and state Deputy Governor, Mr. Tele
Ikuru, had recommended that the new
administration should carry out forensic audit of
all accounts in view of an alleged looting by
officials of the outgoing administration.
Ikuru pointed out that Amaechi and top officials
of his (Amaechi) administration refused to
cooperate with the committee for a smooth
transition.
The deputy governor urged the governor-elect to
work towards restoring basic services in the
state.
Reacting, the Chief of Staff, Government House,
Port Harcourt, Chief Tony Okocha, told our
correspondent that Amaechi was not afraid of
probe and added that the governor had been
transparent and sincere in governing the state.
Okocha argued that there was nothing wrong in
probing any administration, but stated that the
exercise would only becoming a vice should it
(probe) be done with mischief in mind.
“No government that is transparent and sincere
like that of Amaechi will be afraid of probe. It
(probe) is good to do except if it is originally
intended to be a witch-hunt,” Amaechi aide said.
On Wike’s claim that N4.5bn was used to
conduct the council election, Okocha disagreed
with the governor-elect, saying, “He (Wike)
should also understand that he who lives in a
glass house should not throw stones.”

Copyright PUNCH.