The first President of Independent Burkina Faso was Maurice Yameogo, amended the constitution , soon after taking office,to ban opposition poltical parties. His Govt. lasted until 1966,when the first of several military coups placed Lt. Col.Sangoule Lamizanaat the head of a Govt.of senior army officers.Lamizanaremained in power throughthe 1970s, as president of military and then elected Govt.
With the support of unions and civil groups , Col.Saye Zerbo overthrew President Lamizana in 1980. COL. Zerbo also encountered resistance from trade unions and was overthrown two years later by Maj.Dr.Jean Baptisteouedraogoand the council of popular salvationFactional infighting developed between moderates in the CSP and radicals led by Capt. Thomas Sankara, who was appointed Primeminister in Jan. 1983, but was subsequently arrested.Efforts to bring about his release, directed by Capt.Blaise Compaore , resulted another coup led by Sankara and Compaore ion Aug. 1983.
Sankara established the national Revolutionary Committee with himself as President and vowed to mobilize the masses.But the committee's membership remained secret and was dominated by Marxist-leninist military officers. In 1984 , Upper volta changed its name to Burkina Faso ,meaning "the country of honourable people." But many of the strict security and austerity measures taken by Sankara was assassinated in a oup which brought Capt.Blaise Compaore to power in Oct. 1987.Compoare pledged to pursue the goals of the revolution but to "rectify" Sankara'sdeviations from the original aims . In fact , Compoare reversed most of Sankara's policies and combined the leftist party he headed with more centrist parties after the 1989 arrest and execution of two Colonels who had supported Compaore and Governed him up to that point.
