These days, videos have been circulating on social media, showing me standing in Ngor, surrounded by a group of four excited youths who were yelling at me and challenging me not to carry out a construction project on the site.They claim to have carried out embankment work on the beach and therefore claim ownership of the land, without any title or document that can attest to anything.Those who were able to see the video observed my stoic silence in the face of grotesque accusations of land grabbing, especially since the mind of these people already provides sufficient information about their marginality.Still, we hear them say that if I do not give them money to compensate them, they would vilify me through social networks because the land was given to me by my « friend » MackySall.Media that are only serious when it is not about MadiambalDiagne, hastened to relay such nonsense without trying to verify or have my version.However, the land in question has a title deed, in due form.The land has been the subject of several notarised transactions and the last one concerning me was carried out in the offices of the notary MoussaMbacké.The sale price was settled in the hands of the notary and all relevant duties and taxes were duly paid.The transfer of the land title was made in my name since September 2020 and subsequently I applied for and obtained a building permit, after a regular journey before all the competent services of the State.I even took the initiative to undertake environmental risk assessments and management diligence that none of my neighbours who have been there for decades have undertaken.No doubt it would no longer be useful to remain legalistic in this country!I also requested the services of the Ngor Gendarmerie Brigade to enforce my rights by providing all the requested documents.For the same purpose, I also referred the matter to the Directorate for Land Use Monitoring and Control (DSCOS).The authorities of the National Gendarmerie nevertheless took a « precautionary measure of suspensionof my work », in the name, they say, of the protection of public order.Meanwhile, the town hall of Ngor wanted to get involved in the dispute.The new municipal team, controlled by the Yewwiaskanwi (Yaw) coalition, would like to arrogate to itself the right to who knows what wrongs.Even faced with the reality of my title deed and the regularity of all my steps, the municipal team, which had sent « goons » on the site, did not want to admit such a situation and defied the gendarmes dispatched to the scene and still stands on the position that no construction by an ally of MackySall will be carried out on the spot.I continue to ask the State of Senegal for the protection and preservation of my rights, without any pretentious claim.Indeed, I consider that the cowardice and lethargy of the State will constitute the greatest risk for the imbalance in relations between citizens and it is precisely this state of affairs that constitutes the most serious threat to public order and the constitutional right to property.Is it necessary to indicate that I too have the means to pay security guards to defend myself and my property?It is frustrating to feel so unfairly a collateral victim of political struggles, especially since those for whom one would be stigmatised and ostracised are so casual.Next to my land of 403m2, a European is developing a real estate project on 6000 m2 but this does not seem to bother anyone, although this developer is not yet awarded any title on the site.Some Did Not Wait for Macky Sall to Build ThemselvesThe political class is in such inanity or political actors have a predatory relationship with the public good that they end up believing that anyone supposedly close to or sympathetic to a political regime would use it greedily.Thus, a pretentious woman, who owes her place on the political chessboard neither to assets of competence, nor to a professional or academic profile, even less to a political representativeness, allowed herself, on the platform of PapaNgagneNdiaye of the Tfm, to show photos of one of my real estate projects to ask where this investment came from, especially given that I was not known in economic activities and insinuated that I would have benefited from state land.The land, subject to a title deed, was acquired in 2018 in the offices of the notary Lawyer NdèyeLikaBâ.I would add that I have declined offers from investors who would like to align themselves with the project.This means that when you have a good project and a good signature, the financial partners run after you.Two real estate projects larger than mine are being developed in the same area, by foreigners, on the same model as Sale in the Future State of Completion (vefa), without anyone being disturbed.But since it is a Senegalese good complexion (Nioulkouk*(Dark skin in wolof), a species that we do not like too much in Yaw)!This is precisely what I call(ed) in these columns, « self-hatred ».It is all very well to choose to live one’s little life discreetly, without worldliness or other extravagances, but sometimes I am obliged to speak for myself, because few will have the honesty or probity, or generosity, to testify to what they know about the person and his activities.Indeed, KhalifaSall would be well placed to whisper in the ear of this lady that MadiambalDiagne was made before MackySall or Abdoulaye Wade.When I realised, in the early 2000s, two luxury real estate projects at the CitéDjilyMbaye in Yoff, to ensure a real estate rent, Abdoulaye Wade was not yet in power so that we could know even on the public scene the name of MackySall.The titles had been acquired before the notary PapaSambaréDiop.Many politicians in Yewwi, tax inspectors, knew me, before the arrival of MackySall in power, as an important taxpayer, both in respect of personal property and in respect of the economic activities of my companies.Jacques Habib Sy, another Yaw official and my neighbour of about 20 years, could also testify that Madiambal was in that line of work before MackySall came to power.I took risks and invested in my country.I am reminded of a reflection of the notary, SerigneMbayeBadiane, who was preparing in 2006, an agreement for the financing of some of my projects by an international financial institution and, measuring the risks taken on my personal assets as a mortgage, could not refrain from saying: « Too bad people cannot know how much courage some entrepreneurs have to expose themselves to such risks! »In truth, I did not succeed in everything but I was able to achieve some small things worthy of respect.I was born poor, but if I died today, I would leave an enviable legacy.How facetious fate can be!If I had been appointed to a public office or won a public contract, I would probably have no merit and I would have given some people more things to talk about.When I had hundreds of millions of francs in my accounts, certainly this lady who seeks to make a name for herself by stigmatising me, could not buy a pair of shoes for herself.I owned one of the busiest urban taxi fleets in Dakar as well as buses for intercity transport, and a fleet of trucks for logistics and transport to Mali.My participation in the educational project of the YavuzSelim Group of 27% of the shares allowed me to actively participate in developing a flagship of private education in Senegal.Our momentum to set up a private university of excellence in Diamniadio was stopped by the government.I continue to invest in real estate and my new hobby is to invest in Thienaba in agriculture and aviculture.Yet, as I have already said on many television platforms, I have never obtained a square metre of land that would be offered to me by the regimes of AbdouDiouf or Abdoulaye Wade or MackySall.If, on June 8, 2020, I had been able to write a resounding column on the predation of the State’s land heritage, it is precisely because I could not be mentioned among the beneficiaries.Moreover, when this famous paper was published, people who had felt sluggish, belonging to the camp of power as well as the opposition, had exhibited copies of letters of assignment of two lots that were part of some severance operations and that would be given to me.People who know me know that the simple misspelling of my name can indicate that the « generous » donor did not have my ID.Better still, I have never signed a lease agreement on any of the said goods; therefore, they cannot belong to me.I must point out that some of my critics in the media were won over by a desire for repentance and had the delicate humility to apologise to me in private.A famous architect also showed such bad faith by participating in the kill/catch to mention my residence in Ngor.He had stressed it among properties that my proximity to MackySall would have allowed me to acquire.He thought he was bringing me contradiction in a public political debate, thus striving to give pledges to his political ally at the time OusmaneSonko.The land, subject to a title deed, was acquired in 2004 before the notary AïssatouGuèyeDiagne.I have lived in this house since June 2005 and yet, in 2004-2005, this architect had twice visited the construction site, the work of his former trainee, architect ThiaoKandji.My proximity to President MackySall, who came to power in 2012, has not yet allowed me to have a more sumptuous villa to develop.One wonders if the slightest position of proximity with President MackySall should prohibit anyone from having something of his own, or that anyone close to a head of state would be a thief of public property and should seek to hide his assets?The occupant of an apartment owned by my wife did not pay rent for eight months.With formal notice to leave the premises, the unscrupulous occupant had nothing to say other than refuse to pay the rent and will remain on the premises as long as she wants because the property would have been built with Senegalese taxpayers’ money.The bad payer also allowed herself to threaten to vilify us on social networks.I asked my wife to throw her out, dragging her on the floor if necessary.At the time of the relocation of the headquarters of Le Quotidiennewspaper to Diamniadio, « informed » minds had wanted to make believe that President Sall had offered, at the ministerial towers, offices to the newspaper.The newspaper occupies a building in Diamniado acquired as part of a housing program for the benefit of its employees.I pushed the requirement to the point of preventing my older children from holding positions in public institutions.I put their foot in the stirrup and they develop their own activities in various fields such as agribusiness, transit, construction and communication.Is this how MackySall‘s relatives will have to live in this country!No doubt when one is reputed to be close to a head of state, « one inevitably has friends and enemies.Friends to teach us our duty, enemies to force us to do it. »By Madiambal DIAGNE / mdiagne@lequotidien.sn

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