Sangoulé Lamizana: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Lieutenant-Colonel Abubakar Sangoulé Lamizana (born January 31, 1916) was the second president of Upper Volta (since 1984 renamed Burkina Faso), in power from January 3, 1966 to November 25, 1980. He held the additional position of Prime Minister from February 8, 1974 to July 7, 1978.

After Upper Volta achieved complete independence from the French Union in 1960, opposition parties either merged with the governing party, now called the Union Démocratique Voltaique (UDV), or were banned, transforming Upper Volta into a single party state, headed by Yameogo as President. Yameogo's one-party regime elicited much unrest- student strikes and mass demonstrations by students, labor unions, and civil servants, until in 1966, a military coup, backed by the powerful labor unions, dissolved the national assembly and put Lt.-Col.Lamizana in power. He served (at first as Foreign Minister, 1966 - 1967) then asnominal head of a "provisional military government," until a new constitution ratified on June 14, 1970, provided for a four-year transition to fully civilian elected leadership. Elections under the new constitution delivered a clear majority of the assembly to the UDV.

In the early 1970s the effect of a five-year drought and increasing desertification in the Sahel brought the threat of famine to several nations including Upper Volta. The resulting economic dislocation encouraged factionalism in the government, headed by Gerard Ouedraogo, the Prime Minister who had been appointed by Lamizana. Again military intervention and dissolution of the assembly brought Lamizana back in control, essentially now as dictator. His personal party following was styled the National Movement for Renewal A new constitution was written and approved in 1977, and Lamizana was reelected by open elections in 1978.

With the support of unions and civil groups, Col. Saye Zerbo overthrew President Lamizana in a bloodless coup in November 1980.