Long after the presidential election, the country should be receiving its first barrels of oil and trucks of liquefied gas in the last quarter of the year at the latest. When the foreign currency from sales of these products starts to flow into the economy, the average Senegalese will no doubt realise that we have switched to a different economy. The question will then be whether this shift will bring bliss to the country happy, or, as is the case in most African countries, misfortune.

Senegal, despite all its efforts, has not yet been able to train a critical mass of people qualified in oil and gas issues, which means that on platforms and in all logistics chains, national companies will continue to turn to foreign companies. Even in the areas of oil and gas-related services, such as staff accommodation, food and a number of other small services essential to the comfort of these staff, companies based in Senegal find it easier to turn to customers with whom they are used to working. The law on local content is easily circumvented, even before operations are in full swing. And all this in full view of the public authorities.

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On a theoretical and legal level, the Senegalese government has passed all the laws needed to set up a network of companies capable of playing their part in ensuring that the economic benefits of our raw materials do not escape nationals. But in practical terms, the economic commitment of Senegalese entrepreneurs is more of a mirage. Before talking about hydrocarbons, a sector that the Senegalese still know little about, we should look at the other extractive industries. What has Senegal done to preserve its share in the exploitation of its resources, and even to strengthen it?

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Today, our phosphate goes first to India before coming back to us at prohibitive rates. Chemical Industries of Senegal was sold for a symbolic franc after going bankrupt. Senegal has gone from being a net exporter of phosphates to an importer. This failure is not the only one. In the cement industry, where we are trying to accredit other operators, only one is Senegalese. All the others are foreign-owned. And since the State wants to have a commercial relationship with them, it doesn’t allow them to moderate their products so that the average Senegalese, who sees his environment deteriorating, finds some consolation in the purchase price of his bag of cement. On the contrary, as with gold, zircon or fish, the general feeling is that the state is letting foreigners come and plunder our resources, leaving us with a polluted and impoverished environment, just for the interests of a small group of privileged people. This mindset has to change, and the state has to be at the forefront.

The Senegalese people must take charge of exploiting our resources and, above all, derive as much benefit from them as possible. These ambitions will not be achieved by empty rhetoric, but by a concerted economic policy. This is what our political class should feel called upon to do, and to organise a dialogue on objectives that are attainable in the long term. We may not agree on political objectives, but all players should be able to agree on the pursuit of well-being for a large majority of our fellow citizens. If we work together to measure what nature has given us, we should be able to know how to use it.

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Countries as poorly endowed as Switzerland, Belgium, Mauritius or the Cape Verde Islands didn’t just wave a magic wand and claim to have affluent populations. The Chaebols, conglomerates of Korean companies that have become industrial giants envied the world over, even though their country was less wealthy than Senegal in 1960, only took on this dimension because their State decided, despite all other political or social considerations, to bring them to this level. The Senegalese people, led by their leaders, alongside those who aspire to lead them, should know the best way forward.

We have reached a level of political and intellectual maturity that makes it no longer acceptable for a leader who comes to power to seek to impose his policies without consultation. The days when the incumbent government was elected under the economic slogan of Yoonu yokkuté, only to change tack after a while and impose the Emerging Senegal Plan (Pse) against all odds, can no longer exist. Because, if new leaders arrived at the head of the country, they would be quick to erase them. There is therefore a need for consultation, or dialogue, or even a meeting of minds if you like. Not to talk about the electoral calendar or the powers of the Constitutional Council. It should be about the economic vision, and the ambitions to improve the living conditions of the citizens of this country. Putting things in place that no new government would upset in order to discredit its predecessors. To set the country on a course that politics will not derail.

By Mohamed GUEYE / mgueye@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH