It is undeniable that Ousmane Sonko embodies a political reality, materialized by his meteoric rise and the crowds he attracts, as well as the length of his arc of support, which ranges from committed activists to intellectuals and members of civil society who, although not included, support him against all odds. The vacuum left in the opposition by the traditional political apparatuses and the rallying of Idrissa Seck to the majority in 2020, as well as the desire for thousands of Senegalese to have an alternative to the regime of Macky Sall, to whom ambitions were attributed to run for a third term, have strengthened Mr. Sonko in the public space.

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Mr. Sonko is popular within precarious strata, particularly urban ones. He embodies hope for thousands of young people whose ill-being and lack of perspective generate anger and push them to rally to a demagogic discourse filled with miracle recipes and promising a solution to everything. Despite the robustness of Senegalese democracy and the good growth figures for a decade, there is a malaise observed among young people, linked in particular to the question of the future. The numerous material achievements do not hide the distrust vis-à-vis the republican institutions and the symbols of the State from which they claim to be excluded. The ransacking and burning of faculties at the University of Dakar is an example of the horror of which a youth is capable, whose frustrations can be captured and transformed into a source of violence by irresponsible political leaders.

If populism walked on two legs, they would be obscurantism and precariousness. Ousmane Sonko finds in these two aspects fertile ground to strengthen his position and produce a political discourse which, while aggregating massive support, does not shrink from manipulation and violence. The warlike purpose, the criticism of the “system” and its representatives, the excitement of anti-French sentiment, the popularization of complex issues related in particular to natural resources, the excess and the outrage and the discredit of all republican institutions, constitute the political base of Ousmane Sonko.

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That a populist whose imagination comes from extremist currents can reach this level of popularity and obtain support from republican parties and progressive Senegalese intellectuals, should question us not about him but about our country.

Mr. Sonko’s ideas can only thrive in a morally and spiritually broken society. The Republican opposition has supported by political calculation all the verbal abuses and calls for violence of the Pastef party. I have not seen a single leader of this opposition condemn Mr. Sonko’s remarks of July 5, 2022, in Bignona, accusing Macky Sall of hating the Diolas (Senegalese ethnic group). Nor has any opposition leader denounced his call for the murder of the President of the Republic during a meeting in the suburbs of Dakar on January 22, 2023.  No reaction was noted either when he called for mobilizing 200,000 young people to “dislodge Macky Sall from the Palace”. As a reminder, Mr. Sonko’s party called in a press release on June 1, following his conviction in the Sweet Beauty case, for a coup. I did not see a reaction denouncing this serious act. When Mr. Sonko called Miss Adji Sarr a  » guenon victim of stroke », only a movement of young feminists denounced these unspeakable remarks. The rest pretended not to have heard anything.

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Many moral dikes have collapsed through opportunism or extreme opposition within the political class, the press, trade unions and civil society. These bodies, arbiters of the political game, have failed because they prefer camouflaged political support to the demand for truth and responsibility to preserve the general interest, peace and stability.  Politicians strive in each camp to defend their small interests, but civil society and the press cannot morally collapse to the point of losing credibility that allowed them to be equidistant from the political machinery and to be the voice of reason in a context of passion and political excitement. The mixing of genres is detrimental to the strengthening of democracy and the rule of law.

Senegal is a democracy whose citizens are attached to the transmission of political power through the ballot box. But democracies everywhere are threatened by the populist winter whose springs are difficult to fight, because they draw their source from anger and use the language of the People. Populism instrumentalizes the fears and aspirations of the People by summoning conspiracy and the indexation of the other – here France – as the source of the misfortunes of our country.

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Populism finds fertile ground where politics faces growing mistrust and fails to satisfy the concerns of the greatest number by effectively fighting against inequalities in the distribution of the fruits of the national wealth created. Corruption and the indelicate management of public funds by those who govern, justify for some the adherence to the speeches of Mr. Sonko, who promises to imprison the corrupt and to ensure that Senegalese resources serve the Senegalese.

Ousmane Sonko’s processes have been successful in the United States with Donald Trump, in Brazil with Jair Bolsonaro, and can achieve the same results if the cultural fight is not waged to oppose him with a radically republican discourse, in order to flush out his impostures and fabrications.

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I don’t know whether Mr. Sonko will come to power or not. It is in truth only a symptom of something more serious, which is related to a Senegalese evil and which must be tackled. This work goes beyond electoral mandates and concerns the future of Senegal, now a hydrocarbon producer and located in an area of multiple security tensions. Our country cannot face the challenges of violent extremism, illiberal temptations, rising political Islamism among the elites and growing distrust of politics without inventing a new republican pact. Alongside infrastructure, we need to propel an imaginary of hope in a country where the youth constitute the overwhelming majority. This is how we write a narrative in which this youth fits to get away from manipulation and dangerous adventures.  The 2021-2023 window, which has seen young people die on the basis of the instrumentalization of political conflicts, must nourish reflection and lead to new consensus on the Republic, democracy, secularism and living together. This work will require new coalitions, no longer built on yesterday’s logic but around new paradigms that call on Republicans from all sides to imagine together a new democratic, social and ecological project. This project will have to make school and culture emergencies, because they constitute the most powerful ramparts against conspiracy, ignorance and fanaticism, the main ferments against the populist peril.

In the meantime, some obvious facts seem useful to me to be recalled. You don’t negotiate with a fascist, you fight him. We do not negotiate with people who summon the threat of civil war if they do not achieve their political ends, we fight them. We do not negotiate with individuals who have used the weapons of separatism and Islamism to attack the Republic, we fight them. Politicians can change according to circumstances, alliances and interests. A republican is honored in all circumstances to fight fascism whatever the cost. I laugh at their insults, slanders and threats which I proudly wear like medals. I ignore the « fears » and « advice » of friends who invite to sacrifice my convictions on the altar of calculations in case Mr. Sonko comes to power. To all of them, I say this: I cannot help hating what Ousmane Sonko and the Pastef party stand for. What coats and feeds their political identity, I have made a sacred promise to myself to fight all my life. Alone, without a camp, without allies, I will still honor myself to defend the Republic which, with people like me, comes from an intuitive mysticism.

POST-SCRIPTUM : Here ends the third season of “Traverses”. The return of the column is scheduled for September.

By Hamidou ANNE – hamidou.anne@lequotidien.sn