Which president was the most morally upstanding?

Ezeugo

 

Which president was the most morally upstanding?

He is frequently referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara or Robin Hood" by fans who see him as a charismatic and legendary figure in his country, Burkina faso.

1. He vaccinated 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles in a matter of weeks.
2. He initiated a nation-wide literacy campaign, increasing the literacy rate from 13% in 1983 to 73% in 1987.
3. He planted over 10 million trees to prevent desertification
4. He built roads and a railway to tie the nation together, without foreign aid
5. He appointed females to high governmental positions, encouraged them to work, recruited them into the military, and granted pregnancy leave during education.
6. He outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy in support of Women’s rights
7. He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers.
8. He reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets.
9. He redistributed land from the feudal landlords and gave it directly to the peasants. Wheat production rose in three years from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare, making the country food self-sufficient.
10. He opposed foreign aid, saying that “he who feeds you, controls you.”
11. He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against continued neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance.
12. He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. He argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting
13. In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army’s provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).
14. He forced civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-women motorcycle personal guard.
18. He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen. (The reason being to rely upon local industry and identity rather than foreign industry and identity)
19. When asked why he didn’t want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, Sankara replied “There are seven million Thomas Sankara's.”
20. An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself.

Won't tolerate nasty comments.

Courtesy: www.thomassankara.net

Images from google

Edit: Oh my, 10k+ upvotes.

Here's a little more about him from Wikipedia.

Thomas Isidore Noel Sankara (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military officer, Marxist-Leninist revolutionary, and Africanist who was President of Burkina Faso from 1983 until his deposition and death in 1987. Supporters regard him as a captivating and iconic figure of revolution.

Sankara was imprisoned after being chosen Prime Minister in 1983 due to disagreements with the ruling government. Later that year, while he was under house arrest, a gang of revolutionaries seized power on his behalf in a popularly supported coup. Sankara was elected President of the Republic of Upper Volta at the age of 33. He quickly initiated social, ecological, and economic development programmes and renamed the country from the French colonial name Upper Volta to Burkina Faso ('Land of Incorruptible Inhabitants,' with its people known as Burkinabé ('upright people'). His foreign policy was anti-imperialist, and he refused funding from institutions like the International Monetary Fund. Sankara accepted international aid from various sources while attempting to lessen reliance on aid by increasing domestic resources and diversifying aid sources.

As a follower of the Cuban Revolution, Sankara established Committees for the Defense of the Revolution in the pattern of the Cuban Revolution. As a result, he prioritised gender equality, reduced the pay of his top officials, and established Popular Revolutionary Tribunals to investigate public officials accused of political crimes and corruption, deeming such parts of the state counter-revolutionaries. Amnesty International and other non-governmental organisations criticised the latter programme for human rights violations, alleging a number of extrajudicial executions and arbitrary detentions of political opponents.

His domestic policies prioritised preventing famine through agrarian self-sufficiency and land reform, prioritising education through a nationwide literacy campaign, and promoting public health by immunising more than 2 million children against meningitis, yellow fever, and measles, saving the lives of 18,000 to 50,000 children each year. With little or no outside assistance, his government focused on building schools, health centers, water reservoirs, and nearly 100 kilometres of rail. Between 1983 and 1986, total cereal production increased by 75%. His national goal also included planting over 10 million trees to battle the Sahel's expanding desertification, redistributing land from private landowners, suspending rural poll taxes and domestic rents, and initiating a road and railway development programme. On a more local level, Sankara urged every village to construct a medical dispensary, and pharmacies were erected in 5,384 of 7,500 villages. Between 1982 and 1984, the infant mortality rate fell from 208 per 1,000 births to 145. Under Sankara, school attendance increased from 6% to 22%. He also prohibited female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and polygamy. He appointed women to high-level government positions and encouraged them to work outside the home and continue their education.