The poorest President ever!

 Meet Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara, president of Burkina Faso. Thomas Sankara believed that his own example was vital for the success of the revolution. President lived from the salary, which he received as an army captain (450 dollars per month), his presidential salary of $2000 was transferred to the orphans. After Sankara was overthrown and killed, it turned out that his personal belongings consisted only of an old Peugeot car, which he had bought before he came to power, a fridge with broken freezer, three guitars and four bicycles. One of his government's first political innovations was public disclosure of incomes and accounts of all state officials.
Furthermore, Sankara refused to install air conditioning in his study, as he was ashamed to do it when people didn't have means for such luxury. He also refused to sanction putting up his portraits in the publics places and institutions because, as he stated, "there are seven million people like me in our country",

Sankara sold the fleet of Mercedes cars in his government and made the Renault 5 the official service car of his ministers. He also reduced the pay of all public servants, including his own and ordered a stop in the use of government chauffeurs and 1t class airline tickets. Sankara who was a Pan-Africanist to the core redistributed land from the warring landlords and gave ownership directly to peasants.  Wheat production rose in three years from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare, making the country food self-sufficient. He was completely opposed to foreign aid. In his words ''he who feeds you, controls you.''  He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against continued neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance also calling for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. Sankara argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting.  "Thomas knew how to show his people that they could become dignified and proud through will power, courage, honesty and work. What remains above all of my husband is his integrity", said his widow,  Mariam Sankara.

In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country). He forced civil servants to pay one month's salary to public projects.  He 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.  As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer.  A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-women motorcycle personal guard.  He was known for jogging unaccompanied through Ouagadougou in his track suit and posing in his tailored military fatigues, with his mother-of-pearl pistol.

Improving women's status was one of Sankara's explicit goals, and his government included a large number of women, an unprecedented policy priority in West Africa. His government banned female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy; while appointing females to high governmental positions and encouraging them to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant. Sankara also promoted contraception and encouraged husbands to go to market and prepare meals to experience for themselves the conditions faced by women. Furthermore, Sankara was the first African leader to appoint women to major cabinet positions and to recruit them actively for the military.

Sankara's administration was also the first African government to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa.

He was assassinated on October 15, 1987.

Obama Declares Nigeria As World's Next Major Economic Giant

The President of the United States of America, Senator Barrack Obama has declared Nigeria as the world's next economic success story, stressing that the discovery was one of the major reasons why his government is committed to helping the country build strong democratic institutions and as well remove constraints to trade and investment through the African Growth and Opportunity.

Making this declaration at the ongoing US-Nigeria Trade and Investment Forum, an event organised by the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDOA) in Washington DC, yesterday, President Obama who was represented by Ambassador Eunice Reddick, a top official of the US Department, said that his country expanded opportunities for Nigeria to effectively access its neighbor's market, and diversify its economy beyond a narrow reliance on natural resources as a result of the discovery that the West African nation will emerge as the world' next economic giant.

"As we support these efforts, the Diaspora can play an important role in contributing to a strong, vibrant, and economically prosperous Nigeria" he noted.

President Obama pressed further that his country invests in Nigeria's success because it recognizes Nigeria-s as a strategic center of gravity, stressing that the country's success will as well be Africa's success if the US can help Nigeria chart a secured, prosperous, and democratic course.

The US leader also make it known that his government will encourage Nigeria in the area of private investment in the power sector as well as other sectors to help seal the promise of growth and opportunity for all Nigerians.

He continued that the US government will also work to strengthen Nigeria's agricultural sector, which employs nearly 70 percent of the country's population, by encouraging improvements to infrastructure that would facilitate agricultural growth.

He also said that his government will help Nigeria to iberalize trade policies to foster regional trade, reform the customs system to bring it in line with global best practices, and as well encourage policy reforms to enable private investment in agriculture.

Speaking on the US-Nigeria Bi-National agreement, Obama said that the joint Commission has grown into a forum for frank, high-level concersations, in which both nations have seen substantial reforms and mutually reinforcing initiatives implemented in Nigeria.

His words: "Some key outcomes of the Binational Commission so far have been successful integration of civil society into the electoral process prior to the 2011 elections, sustained and elevated dialogue with energy sector officials on energy policy, reforms to increase investment, and agreement to support the development of a civil affairs training center in the coming year"

"Energy and Investment, the subject of one of the four working groups of the Binational Commission, is critical to Nigeria-s present and future"

Who made my baby cry (African edition)

If you are African, black, and probably come from one of the poor, unstable African countries, you've got the odds stacked against you. As an African child, you need to have the spirit of resilience. Your struggle starts on the day of your birth and ends when you go to your grave. As an African child, the day of death is the day of rest. You have to be resilient, perseverent and hardworking. If you are from the land where the sun never sets and never rises, you have to simply give your best. No government is there to save you. Your governments are corrupt and selfish. You have to struggle for acceptance wherever you go: East, West, North or South. Your various governments have sabotaged your future with greed and corruption. They don't care about you. All they care about is to sit in their cozy edifices, globe-trot in these government jets and watch the poor masses die of hunger and starvation.

As an African child, success isn't synonymous with your destiny. You have to fight and fight all your life for what you must own. You are regarded with suspicion everywhere you go. That's what your forefathers and ancestors created. As an African child, you never can have it easy. You toil and toil in the African sun and have little to show for it. You start running the race from your bubbly teenage years and will be surprised you're still running when you go grey in the head. That is the African child.

An African child understands the importance of hardwork and endurance. You have received the baton and have to keep running the race for survival. The glitz and glamour of the world can be yours but it'll take going an extra mile to achieve that. The top rung of the success ladder is almost a pipe dream to you, but still with hardwork and perseverance, it could be yours for the taking. As an African child, all your hopes lie in the life thereafter. Ask the dying children of Sudan and Somalia and they'll tell you death is going to be easy for them as living has turned into a living hell. Ask the mother who lost three children to drought in Chad and Niger and you'll know exactly what I mean. Talk to the women in the Congo who get raped every now and then and my words will make sense to you. Sit with the wives and children of the miners killed in South Africa and their wails and anguish will give you some hint. As an African Child, you are special. Although you have to cope with toils of hard labour and struggle for acceptance all your life, you know the true meaning of life. You have seen poverty and watched people die due to lack of medicines. You appreciate the life you have and you don't consider failure as an option. Even though the first time you step into an office you're greeted with suspicion and cold indifference, you know you have to hold your head up and square your shoulders to make your friends and family proud.

As an African child, you have all it takes as hard as it seems and when next you catch yourself thinking why you are an African child, don't blame the creator, blame your governments and ancestors. At least, all men were born equal!