The Football World Cup is the most popular trophy. Before each competition, this work by the Italian artist, Silvio Gazzaniga, cast in gold weighing 6.175 kg, goes around the world to be shown in the different countries qualified for the next competition. The stay of the trophy attracts crowds and crowned heads, especially in countries that do not yet have the great honor of having won it. President Macky Sall has just welcomed the trophy, which was brought to him on 7 September 2022 by a FIFA delegation in which we will have particularly noticed our compatriot, Fatoumata Samoura, Secretary General of the world sports organization. The Head of State of Senegal declared his love for this magnificent and sublime trophy that everyone would like to win. President Sall was not shy to give it a kiss. On the contrary, he proclaimed his ambition to win this coveted jewel, to take it away from all other countries. It is not the audacity or the nerve that impress in this case! What leaves you speechless is the fact that no one dared to say that Macky Sall was for no reason too pretentious or that his statement is misplaced. For good reason! If his ambition has appeared very legitimate, it is because he has good reasons to display this objective. For us Senegalese, it was no longer a dream to play in the « Field of the Greats », to copy the title of the album of the duo Youssou Ndour and Axelle Red (2003). This hit was first sung at the opening ceremony of the 1998 World Cup in France.

Senegal had been incrusted in this « big league » since the World Cup co-organized by Korea and Japan in 2002. With the zeal of the neophyte, Senegal had offered itself from the outset, the scalp of the outgoing world champion, France. Since then, we have convinced ourselves that impossible is not Senegalese! Senegal had particularly shone on the occasion of this competition and can now allow itself to consider that « the main thing is no longer to participate », but to seek to win. Also, Senegal can now boast an enviable track record. On 7 February 2022, we won the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon. This trophy is the most coveted in Africa. In addition, the Senegal team has the opportunity to present at all lines, in all positions, players who are among the best in the world. Talents have blossomed and confirmed themselves and others are knocking on the door. The spirit of « this Senegal that wins », which aspires to be the best and which would like to impress the world, should inspire in all areas of national life, especially in the conduct of public affairs.

A government, some sort of national skills team
Albert Camus wrote: « Really, the little morality I know, I learned on the football fields and theatre stages that will remain my real universities. » It’s a certain mystique of board play. A winning team relies very much on a good « coach », a good selectioner who knows how to develop relevant game plans. But the coach does not score goals in place of the players nor stop penalties in place of the goalkeeper. It is therefore necessary, for the coach, to know how to find the best talents, motivate them and put them in confidence to get the best out of them. Only victory is beautiful and when success is at the rendezvous, no one seeks to know if this player comes from this region of the country or the Diaspora, or that he is of this ethnicity or this or that other religious denomination. When Senegal won the African Cup, no one wanted to know who among the players was born in Dakar, Bambali, Poissy, Matam, Thiès or Saint-Louis! Everyone jubilated and sang in chorus that « it is Senegal that wins! » Certainly, there are in Senegal as many coaches of players for the National Team as there are citizens and just as many coaches and potential ministers. But, the fact remains that « el tactico », Aliou Cissé, could inspire the President of the Republic, Macky Sall, who baptized him with this complimentary nickname.

Indeed, this allegory of football is just to say, that on the eve of the formation of a new government, at a pivotal period in the trajectory of our country which is strongly courted everywhere, especially for its fabulous discoveries in hydrocarbons, the logic will have to be to constitute « a national government team of skills, if not to say the best talent ». To aspire to win a cup, we do not line up novices, neophytes, nickel-plated feet. It is probably at the foot of the wall that we see the mason, but the first of the rules remains that to deserve one’s place in a team, it would be necessary to have previously proven oneself, revealed talents and aptitudes. Aliou Cissé could not aspire to win a cup and would also be rudely hounded, if he presented a selection ignoring the players already recognized for their talents and aptitudes, to prefer them perfect strangers or lame players because they are his friends or relatives. The same will be said of President Sall, who is more than ever, in a situation where he should, choose in his next government casting, what the country has best in terms of profiles, know-how, people who have proven their skills and merits recognized. The focus will have to be to bring together the best profiles to make Senegal win. He cannot claim to convince or satisfy everyone about his choices, but he would be recognized for having ignored small calculations or subjective divisions to draw up his government. Any choice stems from a renunciation and it will be necessary to renounce, at the cost of being violent to oneself. In the same manner, the coach can get angry with a talented player, as he may not like his moustache or his dreadlocks or his way of putting his jersey in his shorts, but he continues to call on him. The coach will have to keep the authority and the power of decision to replace any player who no longer gives him satisfaction. The rules of football have evolved in this direction to increase the number of possibilities of substitution during the match.

However, the chosen players have the duty and obligation to show deference to the coach and respect for his game instructions. Each of them also has a duty of loyalty to their teammates. The team would not be the best if everyone plays with a selfish spirit, a pronounced individualism or seeks to steal the spotlight from the rest, favoring their personal success or their own image to the detriment of the group. In his book, « A Lion Never Dies », Djibril Cissé recalls a comment by Zizou: « In football, individual performances are not the most important. We win and we lose as a team. »

Senegal transforms into a « Banana » republic
Since the year 2000, with the governance of President Abdoulaye Wade, we have developed very bad habits in this country. Senegalese started to put on a show, to complain, to protest, to burn the national flag, to block roads, to ransack urban street fittings, because one of the executives of their territories was not appointed to the government. Never in the time of Léopold Sédar Senghor or Abdou Diouf has there been such a situation and yet the governments were tighter and narrower each time. President Wade systematically gave in to such blackmail, which may have explained, for example, the catch-up appointments to the government of a Kansoubaly Ndiaye (Pikine), Dr. Issa Mbaye Samb (Kébémer) or a Bécaye Diop (Kolda). It is from this Wade episode that the lists of members of the government are scrutinized to look for surnames, ethnicities, confessional affiliations or geographical origins. Abdoulaye Wade added a layer by taunting his fellow citizens with some controversial appointments, even saying that he could name who he wanted and compared himself to Caligula, a ruler of ancient Rome, who thought of naming as Consul, his favorite horse, « Incitatus », as if to thumb his nose at the Senators. Former Prime Minister Mamadou Lamine Loum, in a procession of a march with Ousmane Tanor Dieng, Abdoulaye Bathily, Amath Dansokho and Jean-Paul Dias, among others, made us laugh, saying with amused spite, « we will not measure the damage of Wade until 20 years after his departure from the head of state ».

In 2012, President Macky Sall seemed to break with this bad trend. In the first government of Abdoul Mbaye, with a list of twenty-five members, he proceeded to a dosage probably respecting certain major balances between his various political allies, but there were some recriminations. President Sall wanted to hear them and had committed himself to a logic of seeking to compensate for the frustrations by series of appointments. Sometimes it was said that this cohort of appointments from the Council of Ministers was for Fouta or for Fatick or for this other region. Executives from other regions eagerly awaited their turn. This is probably what has made the bed of a certain stigmatization of several appointments to public jobs. Republican ideals have suffered, especially since the custodians of these public jobs believe themselves to be more indebted to their home or territory than to their merits or skills, to the entire Nation or even to the Head of State. Cases of discrimination are legion in the distribution of resources and opportunities that the State can offer. The authority of the head of state is eroded, with the prospect of sanction votes, religious and customary authorities also claimed from the hair of the beast to have pretensions or requirements in some appointments.

We have bigger fears to feed for our common will to live together because of the stinking balls thrown against the beautiful tunic of the Republic by Ousmane Sonko and some of his supporters. The leader of Pastef regularly accuses the State authorities, and in particular the Head of State, of negative discrimination and ostracism against the populations of the natural region of Casamance and especially of the Diola ethnic group. Such hate speech should be attacked and punished, especially since its author has no scruples to the point of bringing it to the international scene by dint of fabrications (see our article of July 12, 2022: The ICC rejects Sonko’s complaint against Senegal). The Republic should not forgive such ignominy.

By Madiambal DIAGNE –  mdiagne@lequotidien.sn