With the general public fearing the worst for 15 July 2024, a date which coincides with the fiftieth birthday of Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and his threats to plead the case of his, er, Project, the President of the Republic, before a popular jury, Bassirou Diomaye Faye chose the day before to defuse the firecracker by meeting the local press.

Exclusively. Representatives of the press accredited in Senegal will have to wait.

It’s a way of breaking with the Senegalese tradition of granting exclusivity to foreign media.

In fact, at the height of the turmoil that Pastef experienced in the face of the exactions of the Faye-Sall dictatorship, the dilemma is becoming Cornelian: one minute, the (putative) President of the Republic Ousmane Sonko, alias Pros, decides not to give any more interviews to these corrupt media of Franco-Africa; the next, he dresses up like a tropical nabob, displays portraits of Sankara in the background and tweaks his local accent to respond nicely to two Toubab journalists.

We get lost.

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Here, just a stone’s throw from the celebration of Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s hundred days in office, the debate turns to the Declaration of General Policy that Ousmane Sonko owes to the People and their MPs. There’s no sign of the chief’s surprise, a face-to-face meeting between the President himself and the local press. We are all absorbed in the debate that is raging: is the current Parliament worthy of receiving Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, who’s boss describes as the best ever?

And so, the country is reconciled with itself: modesty itself, made President of the Republic, meets Senegalese journalists… A gentle game of questions and answers during which no one loses face. The journalists ask questions and the President answers.

At least 54% of adults of voting age have nothing against it.

Of course, the new President understands his compatriots: life is expensive and he is determined to reduce consumer prices, even if it means substituting the State for importers, in order to control costs. The journalists in front of him are speechless in the face of such clear-sightedness.

They haven’t seen anything yet…

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President Diomaye Faye is a model of humility, virtue, loyalty and detachment from the pomp and circumstance of the Republic. The proof is in the pudding: you practically have to force him to move into the Palace, because his rough and rugged Serer manners from Ndiaganiao are indispensable to him. The cheerful pounding of millet in mortars at dawn, the howling of muezzins accompanied by the cackling of gallinaceous birds, the din of cooking pots and fights over taps, the nagging of sisters towards sisters-in-law, the domestic scenes of polygamous uncles and jealous aunts, the cries of little ones with their butts in the air, bursting out at the drop of a hat, what can one do without them?

Imagine, a sunset facing Gorée, under the badamiers with the whole tribe. Nothing to do with the austere atmosphere of a Palace occupied by black-skinned toubabs. He’s rough around the edges and brags about it.  Bassirou Diomaye Faye is a family man, with a natural humility.

 

He’s not the type to look down on you, even if he is the boss. Look at the way he caresses his Prime Minister… He makes Pros his son’s godfather even though he’s just a groupie. According to him, it was in prison, while they were sharing their ‘banc diakhlé’, that he offered him a hand of friendship and brotherhood in anticipation of the bright future that the smoke and mirrors could jeopardise by putting them back-to-back.

It’s so simple, he is now his friend…

It’s not clear when their unwavering affection began, but it’s a fact. Some argue that it dates back to Methuselah, since Ousmane Sonko is the godfather of a child of Diomaye, which is why the Prime Minister took the liberty of nicknaming him ‘Serigne Ngoundou’ in front of an audience of supporters.

Not the kind that awaits him in Parliament, with furies attacking him at close quarters, and enemies watching for his missteps.

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When it comes to his antics in relation to Parliament, which are causing an institutional crisis, the President doesn’t think for a second of chastising him, doesn’t slap him on the wrist, quite the contrary: he puts out his fires with a touching indulgence. Diomaye understands all this: this Parliament is of the lowest order and his Prime Minister, the best of all time, whom he knows to be worthy of occupying the presidential chair, is right to sidestep the difficulty by a pirouette.

That’s why, he says, he took it upon himself to approach his constitutional successor, the timid Amadou Mame Diop, to suggest that he tidy up the mess in Parliament. Make no mistake, we’re not talking about kicking a pregnant MP in the stomach, or the striptease of one of their number who was nearly emasculated by a grenade as he was planning to marry a second time, still less the attempted ballot box hold-up under the eyes of the gendarmes.

He wants this band of ignoramuses to add a primordial chapter to their internal de-rules so that his Prime Minister and future successor will be welcomed there with the honours due to his rank.

Oh, you didn’t know? Diomaye is encouraging Ousmane Sonko to fixate on his seat. He couldn’t care less. On the contrary, he’s almost in a hurry to give him back this chair, this house that’s too tidy, run with the manners of a circle commander’s auxiliary.

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It’s true that he doesn’t pay for anything anymore: water and electricity bills, fuel and economy class plane tickets are long overdue. He barely pays for the fertiliser to sow millet in one of his fields, and he has to be forced to do it. His little walk around Tabaski could even have ended badly: the tefanké would have preferred to give him the two fattest sheep in the foirail.

You never know what can happen when the Head of State finds you sympathetic… His opponents, those chagrined spirits, already doubt the declared price. So imagine if it was free… No, he paid.

And he was right to do so: Abdou Mbow, the new leader of the opposition, has been waiting since the hundred days expired to sound the charge. First of all, draped in his parliamentary immunity, he denied that the President knew nothing about it and had initiated less than nothing. It is the parliamentarians who are taking the bull by the horns by urging their translucent President to have a chat with the head of the executive and not the other way round, among other things…

So here we are, hostages in an infernal circus: Diomaye, hiding behind his courageous Prime Minister, facing Abdou Mbow, the tailor-made incarnation of the republican opposition, while Bougane takes the radical route. Thierno Bocoum is trying to get his head around it, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

We’ll take comfort in the fact that Doudou Wade is interfering in this tug-of-war… he is keen to shed light on the corruption of two constitutional judges that has tipped our fate towards Ndiaganiao, instead of the bright lights of Doha.

Ah, if he had shown as much determination to unravel the mystery of who ordered the murder of Mr Babacar Sèye… I’m just saying.

By Ibou FALL

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH