West African tradition has it that Presidents (and every chef) has to present the veoux and sum up the year etc.  So Blaise did that, and I thought it would be a good occasion to see what he and his speechwriters see as the major concrete accomplishments.  Not the vague stuff about “everything is better and we are working hard and there are a lot of challenges” (the speech is full of that) but the real nitty gritty.  The speech is here at lefaso.net.  Here are the specifics of his government’s accomplishments:

• Pôle de croissance de Bagré.  Big agro-electric-industrial complex that has been underway for many years, with funding from Taiwan and now the World Bank ($120 m).  I don’t know that there has been any good evaluation of effectiveness of the massive investment.
• Programme spécial de promotion de l’énergie solaire et l’électrification des chefs-lieux de communes.  I only care about Béréba where we have our house and programs, and no progress there at all.
• Bio-digesteurs. No details given.  Really?
• Universités de Dédougou, de Fada N’Gourma, de Ouahigouya.  Great news for me in case I get fired from SCU three new universities in Burkina. Higher education is growing gangbusters, far faster than libraries. Hmmm.

For 2013:

• “la construction de la portion burkinabè de l’autoroute devant relier Ouagadougou à Yamoussoukro, le prolongement du chemin de fer jusqu’en territoire nigérien, le démarrage des travaux de réalisation du nouvel aéroport international, l’interconnexion des réseaux électriques et gaziers, constitueront les projets phares de la période qui s’ouvre à partir de 2013”

And that is it.  Pretty awful.  Maybe it took them 10 minutes to write the speech?  The comments are wonderful.  Half of them note the lack of specificity.  One notes “Vraiement nul comme message.aucun plan de creations demplois pour la jeunesse.”  I think Blaise’s speechwriters don’t “get it”….