Wade calls for calm and addresses Macky: « I refused to arrest Abdou Diouf as some people advised me ».

Abdoulaye Wade reacted to the national situation and addressed President Macky Sall, inviting him to give up some weight to safeguard the stability of Senegal. In a statement he received, he calls on his successor and calls for appeasement. Here is the full statement of the former president and founder of the Pds.

In the Sonko affair, my party has already spoken out and defended Sonko by proclaiming our active solidarity and opposing the lifting of his parliamentary immunity.

Sonko has been called by the Dean of the investigating judges, from whose office he can leave with a dismissal of the case, a committal order or provisional release, or release on probation.

Given the tension in the country and the willingness of both sides to fight, it is my duty as Patriarch to appeal for calm and to help ensure that this matter is resolved democratically in accordance with the presumption of innocence.

That is why I call on President Macky Sall to uphold the law which prescribes that every citizen is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a fair court, through a public, adversarial trial with full respect for the rights of the accused and those of the defence.

I remind him that several times in my life as an opponent of my opponent President Abdou Diouf had the opportunity to destroy me because the up to the point of bastards who surrounded him knew only force and pushed him to destroy me to prevent me forever from taking power from him in democratic elections.

If it is true that Abdou Diouf has arrested me several times and put me in prison, he never wanted to destroy me; he has always refused to follow his up to and including boutists who, with the drunkenness of power, are generally incapable of earning an honest living through work and have chosen to take advantage of power to get rich.

I can quote the late Mody Coumba Bâ who refused to carry out the will of the power to convict me so that, as President of the court, he simply acquitted me. At the time, marches had to be authorised and it was I who, when I came to power, passed a law declaring that peaceful marching was part of the right of freedom of expression and did not need authorisation. I abolished the authorisation to march and replaced it with the freedom to march, which just needed to be declared to the Prefect to enable the executive to take steps to regulate it, not only to prevent excesses but also to prevent intolerant opponents from attacking marchers who were exercising a right recognised by the Constitution.

President Macky Sall, you also have around you some up to the bumpy as there always are around all Presidents. It is your duty to listen to them, but do not follow them, because they have nothing to lose; as soon as things heat up, they will betray you and surrender to the adversary in order to safeguard their interests.

Don’t listen to lying magistrates like Antoine Felix Diome in the case of Karim Wade. Some magistrates try to guess what may please the President and do so with zeal but they lack sincerity. Abdou Diouf had refused to follow his advisers who wanted to destroy me. I myself refused to arrest Abdou Diouf as some advised me to do. In the past, magistrates have done their duty by refusing to follow the executive to arrest opponents. I can quote the late Mody Coumba Bâ, President of the court, who refused to carry out the will of some in power to convict me. He simply acquitted me.

I hope to be followed by the two parties who, beyond taking passionate positions, will, I hope, have at heart to give priority to the law and avoid confrontation with its procession of deaths, destruction of state property and the heritage of peaceful citizens.

You will have enabled our country to make a difficult pass and to show once again that it can overcome the most difficult trials, especially those resulting from the passion of political adversity.

Dakar on 07 March 2021

Abdoulaye Wade

Former President of the Republic

Leader of the Senegalese Democratic Party, liberal.