Since his appointment as head of government, Ousmane Sonko seems to prefer confrontational sequences, putting on a show to drown the expectations he has raised in a fog of controversy. Even if his supporters maintain that his statement on the veil was decontextualised, the Prime Minister has just revived a debate that was settled in 2019 after the Sainte Jeanne d’Arc affair.

What is there to say? Since his appointment as head of government last April, the Prime Minister has spoken publicly very few times: and every time he speaks, the next day there is shock. This time, he’s got his feet stuck in the veil. He has unleashed a monumental controversy: it also reinforces the impression of a Prime Minister whose decisions are erratic, impulsive and often have disastrous consequences. While this issue was settled in 2019 following conciliations and compromises, the Prime Minister has decided to revive a sensitive, but above all pointless, debate.

National Police: The big shake-up

Since his controversial statement, he has received a volley of criticism. Will it be enough to shake the Prime Minister? That’s a good question! But he risks absolutely nothing, as he is the guarantor of the stability of the two-headed Executive that Senegal has been experimenting with since the election of Bassirou Diomaye Faye. The President was elected in the name of his Prime Minister. Had it not been so, he would no doubt have lost his position after the statements he made at his public conference at the Grand Théâtre last June. On that day, the Prime Minister had fun settling scores in public: without putting on any gloves, he lashed out at the President of the Constitutional Council and other judges, threatened the media…

Dancing around the void

After this exercise, the Prime Minister seems to have grown more feathers. He has obtained a licence for impunity, ignoring the shocked comments of some people. Then there was the conference at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar with Mélenchon, the show in Colobane in front of street vendors, stunned by their eviction, to which he claimed to be a stranger… How did we come to this?  If Sonko finds himself at the heart of the management of power with a decomposed political order that he has above all provoked, everyone could imagine that this rather extravagant figure in politics would be content to fulfil the traditional specifications associated with his primatorial function: to advance cautiously along the tightrope of balances, imposing new political and economic orientations without offending too much the convictions of his most zealous supporters, or offending the progressive and conservative sensibilities of society.  This is in contrast to his behaviour, which is considered to be harsh in public, and his asceticism, which stands in stark contrast to the bonhomie and restraint of his predecessors in the Prime Minister’s office. While Yoro Dia asserts that « the State cannot ennoble Sonko« , former presidential candidate Boubacar Kamara adds that « nobody can change Sonko ». So, the Prime Minister is driving his destiny towards a wall. Confident of his political weight, he is behaving like an elected official who is going to shake up the country’s entire political and social architecture.

Read the column – The art of diverting public debate with counter-fires

Sequenced like a film, Sonko’s scenes are set against a sombre backdrop, but above all around a great emptiness… Will he make his mea culpa in the face of the widespread rebellion in private Catholic schools? That, however, is unlikely. As on many occasions, the economic and social situation would have to deteriorate significantly for the emotional base that supports the Prime Minister to begin to turn away from him. At that point, we could see Ousmane Sonko’s ability to blow hot air.

By Bocar SAKHO / bsakho@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH