Occupy Senegal, First Report, 27th January 2012, 7 p.m.

SENEGALESE PRESIDENT ABDOULAYE WADE

At 11 a.m. on Friday morning, the Senegalese government lifted the order issued earlier banning the demonstration organised by the June 23 Movement (M23). They had no choice, the people were already there. It will be recalled that on Thursday, 23rd June 2011, tens of thousands of Senegalese – the political opposition, civil society and religious leaders marched on the Senegalese Parliament to stop President Wade’s constitutional reform proposals. The response of the state was to get the gendarmes to beat, tear gas and shoot the protestors. At the end of the day however, the force of the people was too much and the President was forced to withdraw the proposals to change the constitution to get tenure elongation.
 
In spite of the massive show of opposition to his tenure elongation, President Wade still submitted his name as presidential candidate and from this morning, the Constitutional Council has been sitting to determine the legality of his candidature having already done the two terms he is allowed to have in the Constitution. His argument is that after his first term, the Constitution was amended so he is allowed two terms under the new Constitution so the first term should not be counted.
 
The people of Dakar did not go to the mosque this afternoon. Friday prayers were conducted at “People’s Square” (formerly known as Place de l’Obelisque) and the sermon was on the Qur’anic injunction for Muslims to struggle against injustice. After the prayer session, I asked my good friend, Aliune Tine, President of the leading human rights organisation RADHO, who was brutally assaulted by security agents on 23rd June and had to undergo emergency surgery in the hospital why he was still on the barricades. His response was “they can even kill some of us but cannot kill all the people. Whether or not I am here, the Senegalese people will continue the long term struggle for the restoration of democracy”.
Professor Penda Mbow of the University of Dakar explained that women were massively present at the “Occupy Dakar” demonstration because they suffer most from the corruption and bad governance of the Wade Administration. A also discussed with Cheikh Gueye, the Deputy Mayor of Dakar who explained that he had come to make plans for temporary toilets because the occupation of People’s Square could be a be a permanent activity, depending on the decision of the Constitutional Council.
 
The two inventors of the anti Wade slogans for M23 were also there, Ahmadou Gueye created the slogan – TERMINUS 2012 to demonstrate the resolve of the Senegalese people to force President Wade out of politics. Fou Malal (mad Malal) slogan YEN A MARRE (WE ARE FED UP) was there and told me they will remain there until President Wade vacates office.
 
Part of the people’s anger is that President Wade who is 85 years old is planning to context the Presidential election to install his son Karim Wade as Vice President who will succeed him. To prepare his son’s political career, he had made him the major contractor for all major contracts in the country over the past five years. He was also the organiser of the Conference of Islamic Organisations (OIC) meeting a couple of years ago and received all the foreign donations to prepare Dakar for the conference. Immediately after the OIC conference, Karim Wade with his fat war chest contested to be the Mayor of Dakar. He was disgraced at the polls and lost his deposit. His father then compensated him by merging five ministries together and appointing Karim as super minister. The constitutional proposal aimed at making Karim Vice President was therefore aimed at preparing the father to son political succession.
 
Part of the reason of Karim’s unpopularity is that he does not even speak Wolof, the country’s lingua franca and speaks French with his mother’s French accent. This is no fault of his but it does make it difficult to him to generate a constituency to support his political ambition. His father has not helped matters by making public statements that he does not support Karim because he is his son but for the simple reason that he is the most competent and organised man he has met in his life.
 
It is incredible the extent to which President Wade had lost touch with reality and there is a real question about creeping senility. It is gratifying that M23 is ready and willing to keep the struggle for democracy alive. I end the journal at this point to return to the great live music that is on-going at the People’s Square.
 
Contributed by Jibrin Ibrahim, Head, West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) Delegation to the People’s Square.