In this article, journalist Assanatou Baldé, director of the AP21 newspaper, gives an uncompromising assessment of the policies of the Senegalese head of state, Macky Sall, and takes stock of the recent chaos in this West African country, after which Senegalese youth set the record straight.
« This is a new era for Senegal. Together we will get to work, » Macky Sall had announced in his first speech following his victory in the presidential election on 25 March 2012. Nine years later, it is disillusionment, while the people had carried their hopes in him … Not only has there been no new era, but the country has even regressed on several levels.
Ousmane Sonko, the opposition politician who has been questioned too much!
Never have democratic gains been so violated as under the regime of Macky Sall, where all serious opponents are abused: On 3 March 2012, Karim Wade, son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, was arrested and then imprisoned for illicit enrichment. On 3 March 2017, it was the turn of the mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall, suspected of financial misappropriation, to go to prison, and four years later, on 3 March 2021, the leader of Pastef, Ousmane Sonko, suffered the same fate. He was arrested for « disturbing the peace » as he went before the judge after being accused of rape by an employee of a massage parlour. This was clearly one arrest too many that the youth could not swallow, leading to a popular uprising throughout the country.
Some people even wonder whether Macky Sall is governing for Senegal or for the foreign investors who are finally winning the day in the country’s political arena, each putting forward their best card to make more profit. It is no coincidence that French retailers have been particularly targeted during the uprising of the youth, who know they will never benefit from the huge profits made by Auchan, Total or Orange.
Ahead of its leaders, the youth has restored the balance
But can we blame foreign investors, whose main objective is to make a profit, for holding on to Senegal like the apple of their eye? The question is why African leaders like Macky Sall are incapable of defending the interests of their country and their people, rather than thinking only of keeping themselves in power by any means necessary, even if it means selling it to foreign interests. In Senegal, even « the sea has been sold » to the point that fishermen have no more fish to catch. A situation that forces them to fish in Mauritanian waters, where on arrival they are killed in the strictest anonymity. The youngest among them prefer to leave the country by boarding pirogues to reach the European coast! No less than 480 migrants, mainly fishermen, drowned in the space of a few days last October.
From now on, a new era embodied by the youth, who demand a different way of doing politics, is on the march and nobody will be able to stop it. By revolting against a power that suffocates them, they have restored the balance to save their future.
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