Filed in by Olando Testimony Zeongar
George Weah, a former world-class soccer player made history, when he was sworn in on 22 January 2018, as the first former African footballer to become president of Africa’s first black republic – Liberia.
Delivering his inaugural address at a jam-packed football stadium, the same arena where he initially showcased his football artistry before climbing the international ladder to have stunned the world, becoming World Best, Europe Best and Africa Best footballer, all in 1995, Weah told a mammoth crowd made largely up of his supporters and throngs of international guests that he was assuming Liberia’s presidency and taking same as a dutiful responsibility to deliver to the Liberian people the change they deserve.
Weah, himself, an individual who rose from a bleak background, with poverty staring him in the face on his way to stardom and then onto Liberia’s Executive Mansion added in his inaugural address that for him and his administration, it was imperative that the change so needed by the vastly impoverished Liberian society is delivered, in order to transform the lives of the people of the country for the better.
Similarly, prior to his inaugural address, in his acceptance speech delivered at a media gathering in Monrovia, Weah told the world that he was of the conviction that the best way forward for all Liberians is to improve their lives through the instruments of pro-poor public governance, publicly vowing that the transformation of the lives of all Liberians would be a singular mission and focus of his presidency.
But, six months on, since he was sworn into office as Liberia’s 25th president, Weah’s pronouncement of his administration’s aim for a pro-poor governance, is nothing more than a mere pronouncement, as the actual definition of what a pro-poor administration, which should be primarily national policies to stimulate economic growth for the benefit of poor people, largely in the economic sense of poverty is lacking – Weah and his administration has not even presented the people of Liberia with a single plan, detailing as to how he intends bringing about his much heralded “Change for Hope” mantra in the governance process of a country battered by war and rampant corruption.
So, under President Weah, as Liberia’s economy becomes synonymous with poverty and helplessness, it has become more compelling, like never before, to offer to the Liberian leader, some tuition-free ‘pro-poor tutorial’ – hence, lessons from a dead man for President Weah; Why the former footballer must pay heed if his ‘pro-poor bid’ is to lift Liberia.
He may be dead and gone now, but as far as pro-poor governance and the economic emancipation of a people burdened by heartless and greedy leaders, who milk the country’s coffers dry and leave the people they misgovern to suffocate and get dehydrated in the desert of abject poverty are concerned, Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s slain youthful revolutionary leader left some real good lessons for Liberia’s President Weah.
On 15 October 1987 Sankara was assassinated in a military coup, yet the late president of Burkina Faso remains a hero for many in his country and across Africa. Sankara’s image, to date, is idealized as a committed, self-sacrificing leader, who, unlike Weah, who has already begun amassing wealth, accepting fabulous gifts and is either constructing or reconstructing deluxe structures in several locations in the country, during a very short period as leader of a small, impoverished nation, Sankara on the other hand, sought to improve the lives of ordinary people while at the same time projecting the country onto the international stage.
President Weah, let it be known to you that just within a brief period under Sankra’s leadership, Burkina Faso shone brightly, a spectacular example of what can be achieved even in one of the world’s most underprivileged countries.
Though, unlike Weah, who just got off the soccer pitch with little or no tangible political priming, Sankara, was a junior officer in the army of Upper Volta, as his country was then called, and as a student in Madagascar, he was radicalized by waves of demonstrations and strikes taking place. In 1981, he was appointed to the military government in Upper Volta, and at age 33, he came to power as president of his country in August 1983, and he saw his government as part of a wider process of the liberation of his people.
Sankara nipped corruption in the bud from the government, adopting a simpler approach to life and slashing the salaries of officials of government realistically, and not as was done in President Weah’s cosmetic pronouncement of officials’ wage cut, yet in the first national budget under his rule, the wage bills of other government institutions have been cut, while many others have been increased. The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning’s personnel payment is set to increase inordinately, this is my singular biggest example.
President Weah, Sankara “rode a bicycle to work before he upgraded, at his Cabinet’s insistence, to a Renault 5 – one of the cheapest cars available in Burkina Faso at the time. He lived in a small brick house and wore only cotton that was produced, weaved and sewn in Burkina Faso,” according to Paula Akugizibwe, a journalist.
In fact, your Excellency, President Weah, instead of showing up at local eateries along with some of your officials and the next minute inundating social media with photos and insisting that your ‘pro-poor bid’ is working, central to Sankara’s economic strategy to break the country from the domination of the West, was the adoption of local clothes and local foods, with the former leader of Burkina Faso even famously saying: “Where is imperialism?” Look at your plates when you eat. These imported grains of rice, corn, and millet – that is imperialism.”
Sankara’s solution was to grow food, saying: “Let us consume only what we ourselves control!” President Weah, no doubt, through this, the results were incredible; Burkina Faso swiftly attained self-sufficiency just within the span of Sankara’s administration that was short-lived.
Sankara’s visionary leadership turned his country from what one writer describes as a sleepy West African nation with the colonial designation of Upper Volta to a dynamo of progress under the proud name of Burkina Faso (“Land of the Honorable People”). President Weah, Sankara led one of the most ambitious programs of sweeping reforms ever seen in Africa. It sought to fundamentally reverse the structural social inequities inherited from the French colonial order.
These inequities left a majority of marginalized, mostly rural, poor and women, at the bottom of society, often under the exploitation of a minority of bureaucrats, businessmen, military officers and traditional chiefs. He focused the state’s limited resources on the marginalized majority in the countryside. President Weah, when most African countries depended on imported food and external assistance for development, Sankara championed local production and the consumption of locally-made goods. He firmly believed that it was possible for the Burkinabè, with hard work and collective social mobilization, to solve their problems: chiefly scarce food and drinking water.
President George Forky-klon Jlaleh-gbah-ku-gbeh Tarpeh Manneh Weah, in Sankara’s Burkina, no one was above farm work, or graveling roads–not even the president, government ministers or army officers. Intellectual and civic education were systematically integrated with military training and soldiers were required to work in local community development projects.
Under Sankara, President Weah, similar gains were made in the areas of health and education, basic infrastructure was built to connect the country, resources were nationalized, local industry was supported – Burkina built for the first time scores of schools, health centers, water reservoirs, and nearly 100 km of rail, with little or no external assistance. Total cereal production rose by 75% between 1983 and 1986. In 1984, Sankara’s government, defying skepticism from donor agencies, organized the vaccination of 2 million children in a little over two weeks. He also championed environmental conservation with tree-planting campaigns and greening projects. All of these involved a huge mobilization of Burkina Faso’s people, who began to build their country with their own hands, something Sankara saw as being essential to the wellbeing of his people and country.
But President Weah, unlike you who say we should not count on you for making good speeches, although the other day your supporters were gloating over your ‘oratory prowess’ when in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during your debut at the Extraordinary Summit of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government held on the margins of the 30th Ordinary Session of the General Assembly of the African Union (AU) you addressed that body, Sankara was more than a visionary national leader – perhaps of most interest to you now in this tutorial is the way he used speeches at international conferences as platforms to demand leaders to stand up against the deep structural injustices faced by countries like Burkina Faso. In the mid 1980s, that meant speaking out on the question of debt.
Sir, I mean Mr. President, George Forky-klon Jlaleh-gbah-ku-gbeh Tarpeh Manneh Weah, Sankara used a conference of the African Union (AU) which was then the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1987 to persuade fellow African leaders to reject their debts. He told delegates: “Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa. It is a reconquest that turns each one of us into a financial slave.” Seeing these same leaders go off one-by-one to Western governments to get a slight restructuring of their debt, he urged common, public action that would free all of Africa from domination. “If Burkina Faso alone were to refuse to pay the debt, I wouldn’t be at the next conference,” he said. Unfortunately, he wasn’t to be, as he was assassinated in a coup led by Blaise Compaore, the man, who I understand is the godfather of your friend, Mahamadou Bonkoungou, who gave you or should I say ‘borrowed’ you your first ever jet to boost your morale whenever you make presidential travels – Interestingly, President Weah, I heard the other day that your administration has also sealed a Pre-financing Loan Agreement in the tone of US$426 million entered into between the Government of Liberia (GoL) and Bonkoungou’s company, the Group EBOMAF, while at the same time, Mr. president, the news is that amid heightened criticisms from citizens and financial experts, you and your government have also finalized another loan deal totaling the sum of US$536 million, with a privately-run Singapore-based investment company, that reportedly has some shady records.
President Weah, it would be difficult to find a less corrupt, self-serving leader than Thomas Sankara anywhere in the world. He was clear on the role of Western aid, just as he was clear on the role of debt in controlling Africa. He’s on record as saying: “The root of the disease was political. The treatment could only be political. Of course, we encourage aid that aids us in doing away with aid. But in general, 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.”
Indeed, the improvement in the lives of the people of Burkina Faso was astounding as a result of Sankara’s policies. Perhaps today, Sankara’s words are most relevant to our own economic hullabaloo in Liberia. Of course, taken away by death, his words still reverberate today, and perhaps, President Weah, you need to listen well at what the dead man’ voice is saying: “Those who led us into debt were gambling, as if they were in a casino… there is talk of a crisis. No. They gambled. They lost… We cannot repay the debt because we have nothing to pay it with. We cannot repay the debt because it is not our responsibility.”
President Weah, Thomas Sankara had great belief in people – not just the people of Burkina Faso or Africa, but people across the world. He believed change must be creative, nonconformist – indeed containing “a certain amount of madness”. He believed radical change would only come when people were convinced and active, not passive and conquered. And he believed the solution is political – not one of charity, where you move in a select environment and offer to reroof dilapidated buildings of just a handful of the total number of your people who are actually feeling the pinch of the economic squeeze being exacerbated by the day due to the lack of clear vision to redeem them economically.
President Weah, like you, who desires to exude a ‘free-style’ leadership module, Sankara’s leadership was somewhat like that, only that his style of leadership was in a league of its own. Sankara was an idealist, demanding, rigorous, and an organizer. This discipline and seriousness started with himself. President Weah, unlike you, Sankara was the first among the top leadership of Burkina Faso under his rule to voluntarily declare his modest assets and hand over to the treasury cash and gifts received during trips. Sankara told family members not to expect any benefits from him because he is president. In fact, by the time of his death, his kids attended the same public school, his wife was reporting to the same civil servant job, and his parents lived in the same house.
Indeed, the Thomas Sankara ‘leadership tutorial’ is a wonderful lesson from a dead man to you President Weah – But to teach one a lesson is one thing, and for one to absorb and duly implement same, is a totally different matter. As to how you do the latter, President Weah, remains squarely your choice – But what is obvious is that posterity will surely judge us kindly for freely offering this tutorial – A hint to the wise is quite sufficient.
