The former head of state chose a Bloomberg journalist to challenge the Prime Minister’s statements. He is even surprised to have been judged based on an audit that neither he, nor any of his ministers, ever heard of, according to him.

Yesterday, President Macky Sall forcefully responded to Ousmane Sonko on the issue of Senegal’s macroeconomic aggregates, through the Bloomberg news agency. « The statements of the Prime Minister are false, totally false », the former head of state deplored the downgrading of Senegal’s sovereign rating by the Moody’s Agency, following the statement by Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko who spoke of a « scandal » concerning “the falsification of economic figures by the regime of the former head of state.”

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President Macky Sall was surprised by the conclusions of an audit that neither he nor any of his ministers had ever heard of or were questioned over.  Surprised that « even the ministers in question never had access to this information », he was even sadder for Senegal, which has seen its rating downgraded following statements by its head of government. For his part, Diomaye Faye’s predecessor recalled that when he left the government last March, the economic indicators were in the green, as highlighted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He also indicated that the results of the investments initiated by his government are so visible that there should not even be a debate on the issue. Macky Sall was invited yesterday to the International Forum for Investment in Great Britain, from where he spoke with the Bloomberg journalist. The economic situation of the Kingdom is so dramatic that the country hopes to raise more than 800,000 billion CFA francs approximately, from investors. And no one is making a drama out of it, or crying scandal.

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It must be said that the sovereignty of Western countries does not reside in borrowing money from abroad to invest in development. There are probably only poor countries, in which everything is urgent, that allow themselves to be picky by claiming that they can do without debt for their development projects.

Macky Sall also retorted yesterday to his detractors in power that it was insane to think that we could develop without resorting to debt. This debate could probably calm down if Ousmane Sonko’s government made public the results of the audit that allowed it to make serious accusations about the management of the regime it replaced. We could thus, once and for all, know where the truth lies.

By Mohamed GUEYE / mgueye@lequotidien.sn 

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH