Less than a year from the 2024 presidential election, the socio-political atmosphere is one of the most electric and most deleterious in Senegal. And the knives already seem drawn between the power and the opposition which is on a war footing and which sees in the legal troubles of its mentor, the fiery leader of Pastef, Ousmane Sonko, a political cabal aiming to eliminate him from the presidential chair race. How can it be otherwise when, a stone’s throw from the official opening of his succession, President Macky Sall continues to keep his intentions vague? And it is certainly not his recent media outing in which he asserts that there is no constitutional obstacle to his running for a third term, which risks easing tensions. This is to say if the temptation of the third term seems deeply rooted in the mind of the Senegalese president. And everything suggests that with such a declaration which tends to clarify his intentions a little more, and which does not fail to create controversy, he is advancing with calculated steps, waiting to drop the mask at the appropriate time.
There is a great risk that Senegal will fall into the controversy over the legality and legitimacy of its candidacy
An attitude which is not without risks nor dangers as it is not likely to reassure those of his compatriots, and God only knows that there are many of them, who think that at the end of his second term, he is constitutionally disqualified to run for another. The debate is therefore open. And there is a great risk that Senegal will fall into the controversy over the legality and legitimacy of its candidacy, with all the risks of slippage and violence that we have seen elsewhere, in similar circumstances. It is in this context that a hundred intellectuals, including, among others, academics, writers, journalists from Senegal and elsewhere, challenged the Head of State, through a platform, on there ” violation of rights » et « the instrumentalization of justice “. A way, like any other, to challenge President Macky Sall on the excesses of his power while calling on him to respect the individual and collective freedoms of his compatriots. Coming from such a category of citizens who, moreover, say they express beyond their ideological, political and cultural divergences and differences is a message that President Macky Sall would benefit from taking seriously. Because there are reasons to believe that it rests on foundations that go beyond certain partisan considerations. In any case, insofar as this interpellation is devoid of any political calculation, we cannot reproach these intellectuals for not having sounded the alarm bell. An alert which is not far from resembling a free warning for the native of Fatick. Because, everything suggests that all these frenetic agitations of the Senegalese opposition, which contribute to the tension of the socio-political atmosphere in the country of Terangaderive their source from the intentions that the opposition lends, rightly or wrongly, to the successor of Abdoulaye Wade, to seek to extend his tenure as head of the Senegalese state.
The Senegalese head of state must know reason to keep
But when we know how Gorgui* broke his teeth in his desire to trick his people, one wonders if Macky Sall would not benefit from learning from the disappointment of his predecessor. Because, even if the Wade case law were to play in his favor for the validation of his possible candidacy, in the silence of his conscience, Macky Sall should first question himself about the scope of his act and measure the consequences to which he exposes his country, in addition to the risk of swelling the ranks of its critics. Because, nothing says that Senegal will not relive the same scenes of violence which had seen the place of the Obelisk of Dakar ignite in 2012, when the Constitutional Court had validated the candidacy of Abdoulaye Wade for a third mandate. The sequel speaks for itself since Abdoulaye Wade had suffered the humiliation of defeat, beaten soundly in the second round of the presidential election by his former Prime Minister, a certain…Macky Sall. This is to say if the Senegalese head of state must know how to keep reason. Because the same causes often produce the effects and it does not only happen to others. And then, he cannot have led such a fight by denouncing in passing with his opposition comrades at the time, the “ constitutional tampering of his predecessor and wanting to take the same tortuous path today, which is none other than that of the gravediggers of democracy. In any event, the Senegalese people are far from having amnesia. And he has already proven that he knows how to take his responsibilities when the situation recommends it, to assert his sovereignty. On good terms…
” The country “
*Gorgui : ” the old “ in Wolof. nickname given to Abdoulaye Wade.