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Despite his problems, Sankara is widely admired at home, in part because he has reformed the country's judicial system by introducing what he calls "people's courts." Says a Western diplomat in Ouagadougou: "He means it when he says he is for social justice for all." Sankara believes his goal of "two meals a day and safe drinking water" for all of Burkina Faso's people can be achieved. The main hope for economic development lies in the exploitation of natural resources, which include gold, copper and diamonds. One instance of Sankara's example-setting parsimony: when the electrical system at the presidential residence needed repairing, he paid for the work by selling the contents of the well-stocked wine cellar accumulated by his predecessors.
Inevitably, Rawlings and Sankara have acquired enemies. At the end of last year, Sankara antagonized Burkina Faso's landlords, many of whom are military officers, when he decided to aid the poor by decreeing a yearlong moratorium on the payment of rent. Rawlings has also been criticized, particularly by expatriate Ghanaians who have demanded free elections and a return to , civilian government. Nonetheless, Frances Ademola, who owns an art gallery in Accra, speaks for most middle-class Ghanaians when she says, "We have learned to love Jerry Rawlings. What we fear most is that he will be assassinated."