Rédaction Africa Links 24 with pierre Dieme
Published on 2024-02-28 18:05:47
In June 2022, following the scandalous cancellation by the Constitutional Council — which had a tendency to recidivate in such matters — of the national list of candidates of the Yewwi Askan Wi coalition in the legislative elections of July of the same year, Laye Bamba Diallo and I jointly wrote an editorial. The objective was to ask the President of the Republic, as the master of the game, not only to correct the injustice that had just been done to the most radical component of the opposition, but also, more generally, to take measures to calm the situation. To rise to the occasion, or above the fray, to play his role as an arbiter. We gave him the example of the French king Henri IV who, in order to put an end to the French bloodshed caused by the religious wars, converted to Catholicism exclaiming, “Paris is well worth a mass!”
Implicitly, we suggested to the President to reach out to the opposition to resolve all disputes through dialogue. We recalled the Round Table organized by President Abdou Diouf in 1992 to define new consensual rules of the electoral game. Rules that, for the most part, still stand. I even reproduce in this newspaper this joint editorial that earned us the President’s wrath. He did not express it directly to us, but the feedback I personally received regarding this text was that Macky Sall had become extremely angry, particularly towards me, and exclaimed, “Don’t talk to me about him anymore!”
In fact, since the publication of that famous editorial, I have never had any contact, either direct or indirect, with him. Personally, I worsened my situation, so to speak, by subsequently writing several articles urging him to negotiate directly with Ousmane Sonko!
THE SECUROCRATS TAKE CONTROL!
At the time, the President did not want to talk about negotiations, dialogue, consultations, or even meetings with Pastef and Sonko. He intended to crush this party and its militants, with its leader at the forefront, like flies. On the advice of his securocrats, he went on a shopping spree — spending tens of billions — buying sophisticated weapons, state-of-the-art law enforcement equipment, and cyber surveillance tools, recruiting police officers and gendarmes in abundance, retaining the military who were supposed to be released, recalling retired soldiers to duty, granting all sorts of bonuses to maintain or boost troop morale. Inflated by courtiers who told him he was a “thieddo,” meaning a descendant of a lineage that preferred war to anything else, Macky Sall donned the garb of Samba Guélaguédji, that fabulous hero who grew bolder in the face of gunfire. He saw himself as a fearless and blameless Bayard knight and multiplied, or attempted to multiply, military expeditions throughout his reign. In the name of this warrior concept of history, he sent our army to fight in Gambia to restore… democracy. He also wanted to enlist it in the international coalition formed by Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia to combat the Houthi rebels in Yemen. More recently, he had already mobilized a contingent to oust the Nigerian coup plotters!
Returning to the topic of this article, after President Macky Sall armed himself to the teeth, a real hunt for opponents opened up, a pursuit of young people who committed the “crime” of being active in Pastef or expressing any sympathy for its leader. Once again, instead of finding a political solution to an eminently political crisis, the President sought to resolve it through repression and on security and judicial grounds. Obviously, tension entrepreneurs and fear merchants took advantage of this situation to amass billions…
More than 50 deaths, around 1800 political prisoners, billions of francs in material damage, and a struggling economy later, the President realized at the end of his reign the dead end he had entered. With the encouragement of his securocrats and hawks, who, in the end, were the only winners in this mass crackdown that engulfed our country for two years. Yet, it must be said that the President could have avoided the crisis we have been experiencing since 2021 and all the human and material damage resulting from his showdown with Pastef! Also, that intangible balance that darkens his reign. Two years wasted to realize the vanity — even the pretentiousness — of reducing the opposition to its simplest form. Better late than never, and President Macky Sall learns, two years late and with a huge waste, that it is through dialogue, as he is engaging in with Ousmane Sonko today, that he should have started. Ah, if only he had listened to the “wise” ones that we are and refrained from dismissing our June 2022 editorial with disdain!
Mamadou Oumar NDIAYE
PS: I did not discuss this article with Laye Bamba Diallo and therefore take full responsibility for it. Since he works for the public service, my writings should not in any way harm him!
Read the original article(French) on Dakar Matin
