Jibrin Ibrahim, Head, West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF)
Delegation to the People's Square
At 11 a.m. this 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.
Jibrin Ibrahim PhD
Director
Centre for Democracy and Development
4,Kikuyu Close,
Off Nairobi Street, Off Parakou Crescent
Off Aminu Kano Cresent
Wuse II
P. O. Box 14345, Wuse
Abuja, Nigeria
Tel - +234 (0)9 6716454/ 2731445
Fax - +234 (0) 9 6703292, 6726090
-:
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Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
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