The first dirty trick of this new mechanical majority of Pastef is to strip Barthélemy Toye Dias of his mandate as deputy. While the Senegalese await the first measures to improve their conditions (Amended Finance Law, Finance Law 2025, General Policy Statement), the National Assembly, which promised a break, has just started the cycle of tyranny of the overwhelming majority of Pastef.

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The Ndiaga Diouf case involving the current mayor of Dakar (until when, by the way?) is an example of a judicial case with an eminent political treatment. Indeed, it was in 2011, on the eve of the investiture congress of Abdoulaye Wade, that a convoy of thugs left the headquarters of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) to attack the mayor of Mermoz-Sacré Cœur. Gunfire ensued, and the young Ndiaga Diouf lost his life. Dias-Fils was then arrested by the prosecutor Ousmane Diagne who, ultimately, would be, at the beginning and end of this story, his executioner, with two different regimes. As if to say…

When Macky defended Dias before trying to convict him

When he was put in prison for voluntary homicide, Macky Sall, opponent, expressed a « reaction of indignation » in front of the cameras of 2sTv. « Sadness at the death of the young Ndiaga Diouf who lost his life in a commando operation in which he was dragged in the face of the aggression against Barthélemy Dias and his municipal institution », said candidate Sall in front of Pape Alé Niang and Momar Diongue. Before adding: « But, the Barthélemy Dias affair must be taken in the overall context of the chain of events since June 23 (2011). Everyone has noticed that in the face of the citizens’ refusal to validate the imposture of the constitutional law that sets the (presidential) ticket and the suppression of the second round, the (Wade) government decided to move up a gear and to resort to mercenaries. (…) Today, it is clear that people have been paid to shed blood and create a climate of terror in the country. And that is the government’s doing. The PDS government has installed institutional violence, verbal violence. Now, the violence has become physical and deadly (…) All of this is what led us to witness violence by an armed gang in front of the stunned police, who were there, powerless. They came to attack. The real people responsible for this affair are those who ordered and financed this operation. (…) The State has full and complete responsibility for what happened in front of the office of the mayor of Mermoz-Sacré Cœur. (…) I also take this opportunity to demand the release of Barthélemy Dias since the investigation is stalling. For peace and stability, the government has an interest in releasing Barthélemy Dias…”

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Dias-Fils will have spent 6 months in detention  was able to breathe the air of freedom granted by the power of Macky Sall who decided to make him an MP. Because the son of Jean-Paul Dias, who was in all the fights to bring down the Wade regime, should not under any circumstances remain in prison. It was like a political reward, like revenge, even revenge against the outgoing regime, which satisfied its desire to keep the thunderous leader of the Socialist Youth away from the anti-« Wade » revolution.

Ousmane Sonko, the «doomou ndey of Barth’», who denounced the instrumentalization of Justice

Having become a member of parliament, Dias found himself in the good graces of Macky Sall and his case was strangely forgotten by the Justice system. From 2012 to 2016, in the perfect love that the Socialist Party and the Alliance for the Republic (APR) lived within the framework of BBY, the Ndiaga Diouf case was forgotten by the Justice system. But after the Khalifa Sall clan refused to vote Yes in the referendum of March 2016, the case was suddenly reactivated, and Dias’ parliamentary immunity was lifted.

This was followed by a first trial at the Criminal Court, during which he was convicted of a « fatal blow resulting in death » and ordered to pay 25 million in civil interest to the family of the deceased. A verdict that satisfied neither the prosecution nor the defense. And, both appealed.

In the meantime, the political arena saw the birth of a political party called Pastef and a leader called Ousmane Sonko, the “doomou ndey of Barth’”. Macky Sall having opened too many fronts with his opponents (Karim Wade, then Khalifa Sall), a (sordid?) alliance was quickly formed between all the opposites. And Barth’ will benefit from this alliance because, when he is summoned in November 2021 for his appeal trial, he will be accompanied by Ousmane Sonko, who denounced an instrumentalization of Justice to eliminate their candidate for mayor of Dakar. After the trial was postponed until after the local elections, the Pastef leader accused Macky Sall, during a public demonstration, of using the Justice system to make Dias ineligible, in order to snatch the mayorship that the people of Dakar had given him. « If he (Macky Sall) snatches the Dakar mayor from Barthélemy Dias, we will snatch the Palace from him, » threatened Sonko. In another video, the same Sonko warned Sall about his desire to « snatch Barthélemy Dias’ mandates as mayor of Dakar and member of the National Assembly through the instrumentalization of the Justice system. »  He said that it was the People who thought carefully before choosing Dias, despite the accusation of assassination that weighed on him. So, for Sonko, from the moment that the mayor of Dakar is a « choice of the People of Dakar » who made him their mayor and MP, no one has the authority to question that. Not even Justice.

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Today, it is Sonko who is questioning the choice of 220,000 Senegalese citizens with appalling cynicism. Indeed, saying that Dias is excluded from the Chamber « following a request from the Ministry of Justice » is only the administrative procedure to dress up a political will of Ousmane Sonko. Didn’t he tell us that the Minister of Justice obeys what he wants? When we tell you that the Prime Minister is in the settling of scores, here is the proof. What interest does the Pastef party have in voting for the delisting, apart from simply allowing Sonko to take his revenge on Barth’ who, at the time of the perfect love affair with Pastef, even admitted to having committed for the current PM “something punishable by the Criminal Courts”? Even if he will not say what exactly he committed as a crime for Sonko, the fact remains that Madiambal Diagne, in his book “Adji Sarr”, clearly stated that the two went to see the rebel leader César Atoute Badiate in Guinea-Bissau, to see how to destabilize the Senegalese capital. And, faced with this serious accusation of collusion with the enemy, neither Dias nor Sonko denied it.

Barth made a pact with the devil. He fed the beast

Today, the citizen is stunned by the behaviour and nature of our politicians who change according to the interests of the moment. Goodness and integrity are guaranteed as long as the person incriminated is on my side. If he is distant, all the superlatives will be used to fleece him. No guiding line, if we combine the words of Ousmane and the act perpetrated against Barthélemy, consisting of disavowing the popular anointing, the mandate of the citizen voters.

What do you want? That is cynicism. And cynicism is part of politics. But what is unfortunate is to see the Constitutional Council participating in Pastef’s cynicism. Indeed, when the Coalition And liggey sunu reew/Alsr asked the political judges to reject Barthélemy Dias’ candidacy, the 7 « Sages » took refuge behind the fact that it was up to the Minister in charge of Elections (Minister of the Interior) to refer the matter to them, while the decision was in the public domain for a year. Three days after his installation, the Minister of Justice requested his dismissal due to a final conviction, known to the Ministry of the Interior during the examination of his candidacy file.

If the eligibility criteria were not a problem before his election, why question his right to sit now? The lawyers are being challenged, but already the credibility of the Ministers of the Interior and Justice has taken a big hit. Why wait until now to apply a court decision that dates from December 2023? Why not, from the beginning of their installation, if they really wanted to apply the Jub-Jubal-Jubanti? In the same vein, why did Macky Sall not apply this decision? Are we heading towards the dismissal of Dias as mayor of Dakar? Are we heading towards his arrest for criminal association, possession and carrying of weapons during the election period, and group violence resulting in serious assault and battery to others in the Saint-Louis violence case?

Somehow, we are sad for the mayor of Dakar, but we have to recognize that they made a pact with the devil. Should we feel sorry for those who contributed to the emergence of the beast? Isn’t it true that the first blows of the ram’s horn are intended for the one who fattened it? Today, everyone knows that Sweet Beauté is a brothel. And yet Barth’, Khalifa Sall, Bougane and others have all said that it is a place of therapeutic care and that the Adji Sarr affair was a plot hatched by Macky Sall.

By Bachir FOFANA

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH / Serigne S. DIAGNE