Uruguay’s president least paid but happy

African leaders are often maligned for opulent lifestyles in midst of abject poverty most of their electorate endure.

They might, at least to improve image, take a leaf, albeit modestly, from a leader of a country hemmed by Argentina, Brazil, and the Atlantic Ocean.

A visiting BBC correspondent in 2012 described the then 77-year-old man’s “hacienda” this way: “Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a well in a yard, overgrown with weed.

“Only two police officers and Manuela, a three-legged dog, keep watch outside.” If the correspondent found servants and hangers-on, he didn’t mention it.

This is Jose Mujica’s residence, and he’s president of the Republic of Uruguay. Not far away is a palatial official residence. Mr Mujica and senator wife have shunned it since he was elected in 2009 for a constitutional one five-year term.

NOT POOR

I’m called ‘the poorest president’, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more,” the BBC quoted him saying.

When not on official duties, the Mujicas grow chrysanthemum flowers. As he once told Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, “people have a habit of dying” and “there’s always a need for chrysanthemums.”

Mr Mujica earns $3,000 (Ksh267,000) a month. He donates 90 per cent to his political movement and charities, leaving him with $775, about the average monthly salary in his homeland.

As the law requires civil servants do, last year Mr Mujica, who has described a necktie as a “useless rag” and hardly wears a suit, declared personal wealth: $322,833.

The 74 per cent increase over the previous year, the Associated Press reported, was due to putting his money, about $104,000, apparently for the first time in a bank.

His assets, other than a share of the farm, are three tractors and two aged Volkswagen Beatles.

HEART ATTACK CANDIDATE

Compare President Mujica’s wealth and lifestyle with those of councillors in a modest African town, members of parliament and governors and you wonder. By the time you get to presidents, you are candidate for a heart attack.

Uruguay, a country with an area of 176,000 square kilomemetres—the second geographically smallest in South America—has a population of about 3.3 million.

Uruguay was The Economist magazine’s country of the year in 2013. Space here doesn’t allow enumeration of the reasons. Suffice it to say Uruguay scores highly on international indexes that rate freedoms of social, economic, political, and legislations on many issues.

Not all this is due to leadership of Mr Mujica, a former Tupamaro urban guerrillas leader in 1970s and 1980s and spent 14 years in jail.

However, he has contributed his share to what makes Uruguay the most liberal in South America. His lifestyle, however, makes African leaders look reckless.

Of all African states, only eight had a higher nominal GDP than Uruguay last year, most oil exporters. Yet Mr Mujica, who reportedly travels economy, commands his peers’ respect and from a large section of the electorate. His philosophical thoughts get attention.

The lesson is that ostentatious consumption and lifestyle, pomp and gluttonous pursuit of power aren’t prerequisite for leadership.

So, a little scaling down by African Excellencies wouldn’t hurt.

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