Senegal and the 3rd term syndrome

This week, I am in Senegal leading a delegation from the West African Civil Society Forum in solidarity meetings with

Senegalese civil society engaged in stopping President Wade from try- ing his plans for tenure elongation. At 11 a.m. on Friday, 27th January, 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 politi- cal 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, who is 85 years old, still submitted his name as presidential candidate. The Friday demonstrations were organised in antici- pation of the deliberations that day by the Constitutional Council to determine the validity of candi- dates for the Presidential election as there were fears that they would accept Wade’s candidature although he had already served the two terms he is entitled to under the Constitution. His own argument is that after his first term, the Constitution was amended so the first term he served does not count under the principles that Constitutions cannot act retrospectively. He therefore insists that as he has served only one term under the new Constitution, he is entitled to another term. The Senegalese are however angry at this interpretation as it makes nonsense of term limits if all a President needs to do is to change a word in the Constitution and it becomes a new one. The implication is that after his third term, he can change the Constitution again and be qualified to run again.

In anger, the people of Dakar did not go to the mosque Fri- day 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 and leader of M23, 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 dem- onstrate the resolve of the Senega- lese 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 Presi- dential 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 sup- port Karim because he is his son but for the simple reason that he is the he has met in his life.

The Occupy Dakar protest was broken up Friday night by the gendarmes firing rubber bullets and tear gas. This was moments before the Constitutional Council provisionally announced that President Wade is on the list of validated candidates. This led to immediate anger as youth groups set up barricades around their quarters burning tyres. One group was reported to have ambushed a gendarme and killed him.

Between Friday night and Saturday morning, the police arrested and detained leaders of the M23 Movement all over the country, including Aliune Tine, the leader. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Council gave candidates just 24 hours to appeal their decision. As politicians hurried to appeal and civil society leaders are put behind bars, Dakar is calm this Sunday afternoon as I write this column. The situation is however very tense as youth groups have started barricading their quarters. It might very well be the calm before the storm.

The musician and independent presidential candidate Yous- sou Ndour was disqualified from contesting for the Presidency by the Constitutional Council. As an independent candidate, he needed ten thousand signatures supporting his nomination. The Council claimed some of the people on his list did not answer when their telephones were called for verification. Youssou remains defiant and went to the police station to see the M23 leader, Alioune Tine, arrested by the police. There are reports that he was beaten up by the police.

President Wade appears to be confident that he will resist the demonstrations, contest and win the Presidency for a third term. His belief seems to be based on the fact that the opposition is fragmented and they have been unable to agree on a single candidate. Mean- while, Wade’s party has sent petitions to the Constitutional Council run by his friends and appointees that the three leading opposition candidates should be disqualified as they have not fully paid up the taxes. This is a high risk game given the level of anger in the land.

It is incredible the extent to which President Wade seems to have lost touch with reality. Be that as it may, he is a wily politician with no scruples about what he needs to do to retain power. He remains focused on getting his son to succeed him unless the people are able to devise ways of stopping him