Macky Sall and Ousmane Sonko have constituted the two main political figures of the country, since the presidential election of 2019. The head of State was re-elected in a very good manner, but the prowess of his fierce young opponent, who came third in this poll, augured a duel in perspective of the following electoral contests. This was the case, especially since the candidate who came second in this election, Idrissa Seck, ended up joining the majority camp again, leaving the place of leader of the opposition to the leader of the Pastef party.

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This same party will be the driving force behind a Yewwi askan wi (Yaw) political coalition which has weighed on the political debate and imposed a real balance of power on the majority, particularly in the local and legislative elections of 2022.  But the ultimate duel or the final fight, between Macky Sall and Ousmane Sonko, which was predicted for the next Presidential election, the first round of which is scheduled for February 25, 2024, will not take place, at least not directly through the ballot boxes.  Both will resign themselves to sharing the same fate, cruel for a politician, of being condemned to remain a spectator of epic battles which will be officially fought over by candidates who will have more or less imposed themselves on them.

Macky Sall, a “lame duck”

History has proven him right for waiting until the last moment to announce his decision not to be a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Indeed, as soon as the announcement was made, on July 3, 2023, when he definitively confirmed his commitment not to ask for a third term as President of the Republic of Senegal in 2024, Macky Sall observed reactions that he must have been far from imagining. Acts of rebellion or defiance were committed by many of his collaborators who, previously, showed him too excessive a zeal to be sincere. Certainly, had he announced his decision earlier not to seek re-election, he would not have governed Senegal in recent years. It is as if from now on, everyone could afford disobedience, casual presumption, simply because Macky Sall could no longer play in an obvious way on the destiny or future of people. The most tragic thing in the story is that such behaviour and attitudes are only observed by people who bite the hand that feeds them.

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We observe in fact that they were all “fabricated” by President Sall who brought them out of anonymity. Frankly, what was the political depth or substance of a Mahammed Dionne, an Abdoulaye Daouda Diallo, a Moustapha Diop, a Mame Boye Diao, before benefiting from a decree from President Macky Sall? What were the records of service that they could claim to legitimize their positions in the institutional apparatus of the State? And even when appointed to high positions, these different people have not revealed any real skills that would legitimize or justify a posteriori the choices of the head of state. The surprise is that none of these people have ever had to show character before the same Macky Sall, in any political or administrative situation. In truth, their common qualities remained blind obedience, platitude or spinelessness. No doubt the boss wanted staff of this ilk. But he pays a high price because we observe that Moustapha Diop did not deserve that Macky Sall would go to such lengths to present a flat apology to the magistrates of the Court of Auditors, offended by his minister; just as he would have to realize that he had gone seriously astray, if he imagined that the zeal shown by Mahammed Dionne reflected a desire for redemption, to give pledges for his betrayals and other low blows of 2008!

With Mame Boye Diao, Macky Sall must also have learned that the alerts, warnings or objections formulated, to lead him to better mature his decision before elevating him to certain high functions, did not amount to culpable ostracism. 

He must also have realized that during twelve good years of presence at the highest levels of the State, Abdoulaye Daouda Diallo will find it difficult to exhibit a public position to defend the Macky Sall regime. However, to all these people, Macky Sall will have given everything he could offer in terms of favours and advantages. He will not fail to finally realize that the Convergence With Moustapha (Cam), initiated with women’s groups, since the time when the latter was Minister Delegate for Microfinance, was in pursuit of a long-term political objectives. To think that we laughed at the presidential ambitions that we could attribute to Moustapha Diop! President Sall, who defended and protected these different people more than necessary, can therefore consider himself poorly paid in return. But never mind, he only has himself to blame! Although he will have elevated all these people to the dignity of president and will have offered them media exposure, when he allowed them, in a desire for inclusion, to stand as candidates for the candidacy of the Benno bokk yaakaar Coalition. The story is even more appalling as all these Macky Sall rebels appear very rich and make a very indecent display of such fortunes and that each of them would put themselves into a logic of using it, certainly believing that it could allow the purchase of a chair for the President of the Republic of Senegal. Find out what the status of their assets or heritage was before they accessed high positions in the state apparatus, thanks to appointments decided by Macky Sall! “There are these services that can only be paid for through ingratitude,” Dumas professed. For his part, Aly Ngouille Ndiaye maintains the decency not to insult Macky Sall. No doubt its intrinsic value does not yet authorize it.

But all things considered, Macky Sall’s personal fate appears less painful than that of Ousmane Sonko who, as we can well guess, must be, from the depths of his prison cell, full of resentment and frustration. Indeed, “it is better to be lame than sitting”.

Ousmane Sonko, the torture of realizing that he was not that essential!

He pays for his mad headlong rush and the naivety of believing that without him the sun would no longer rise in eastern Senegal. It is a truism to say that Ousmane Sonko did not imagine that the country would not be in fire and blood, as indeed he threatened the whole of Senegal, in the event that he was arrested for his bravado and pranks. He has exhausted all artifices, schemes or manoeuvres so that his situation will not have changed. He is cloistered in a dungeon, although he could consider himself lucky or privileged to be treated better than any other detainee in Senegal, but without any prospect of release in the short term.

All his allies who swore to him, with touching sincerity, to accompany him to prison, continue to go about their business, as if nothing had happened. Worse, they even seem to be taking advantage of his unfortunate situation to try to steal the spotlight from him, to steal his electorate. So, they compete in impatience to let their ambitions come to light. The candidacies for the 2024 presidential election, of Déthié fall, Khalifa Ababacar Sall, Aïda Mbodji, Habib Sy, Dame Mbodji, Aminata Touré and we forget, reveal that all these allies have finished conjugating Ousmane Sonko in the past; after the dynamics of their Yaw Coalition had nevertheless enabled most of them to obtain elective mandates or major political positions.

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But it is the frantic race of the activists of the Pastef party of origin, Birame Soulèye Diop, Abass Fall, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Guy Marius Sagna, to stand as candidates, in place of their leader who himself would still seek to be, which must make Ousmane Sonko even more incredulous. All those who claimed to never consider a candidacy other than that of Ousmane Sonko in the presidential election, are entering the race for their own purposes and have insisted on already withdrawing the documents necessary for collecting sponsorships. Ousmane Sonko does not fail to experience a personal tragedy, but this situation reveals a notorious fact that we have continually highlighted through these columns. Indeed, the Pastef party remains made up of a conglomerate of allegiances, currents or interests that are the most opposed or antagonistic possible; their only bond was that the person of Ousmane Sonko could be the battering ram that would force the doors of power into their hands.

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Thus we find, side by side, separatists from the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (Mfdc), Salafists and other outspoken Islamists who advocate the advent of a theocratic state in Senegal, even at the cost of armed violence, proven democrats, misguided or abused, small-time revolutionaries, nourished and maintained by foreign interests who are openly working to supplant Senegal’s traditional allies: France, the European Union, the United States of America and Muslim countries whose religious practice is close to that of the majority of Senegalese and, finally, a band of businessmen at all costs, so eager to carve up the Senegal beast and devour it with their teeth. “Ousmane Sonko was able to be a perfect client for all these beautiful people. He was a big scarecrow raised against the regime of President Macky Sall. Opponents of all kinds found in him the person who could say anything without scruples, such as lying, slandering, fabricating, and thus arousing the aversion of the populations and turning them against Macky Sall. The end justifies the means.”