There is a saying in my native Kuteb, “afu chiyi fey”, meaning you nicked it, or you won it without stress or you did it so easily. Well, you may also say this of the young man Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, who won Senegal’s presidential election March 24 with a landslide and was inaugurated last Tuesday.
The delayed vote was to have taken place in February. However, days before campaigning was set to start, Macky Sall, the former president, postponed the poll, the first this had happened in Senegal’s history. He accused constitutional judges with drawing up the list of candidates of corruption, but critics saw it as as last ditch attempt by Sall to cling to power. His decision was, however, overruled by the Constitutional Council that ordered the president to organize elections before the end of his tenure April 2. So on March 24, 66 percent of the seven million Senegalese eligible to vote went to the polls – a high turnout for a high-stakes election. Large crowds gathered at the ballot boxes, some out of a desire for justice, others out for revenge.
Sall’s 12 years in office had been overshadowed by the political turmoil of the final few. In 2020, COVID-19 restrictions badly affected the informal economy and people’s livelihoods. The following year, the attempted arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko ignited widespread anger towards the government, which was accused of ignoring the struggles of common people in favour of clamping down on political opponents. From March 2021 to February this year, thousands of people were arrested – among them Faye. The former tax inspector had taken to Facebook to protest, writing a post in February 2023 that accused magistrates of being in the pocket of the state while overlooking actual crimes. The authorities deemed the post threatening to state security and, therefore, illegal. That April, Faye was arrested and sent to prison, where he stayed for 11 months before being released just before last month’s vote. At the time of his arrest, Faye had been working for Sonko, also a tax inspector.
They were figureheads of the union of employees of the tax office upset with injustice and disparities at the tax department.
In 2014, Sonko, a firebrand with a soft tone and a sharp tongue, created the political party PASTEF (African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity). The party attracted middle management civil servants who felt frustrated and powerless as they watched their superiors steal money and receive kickbacks with impunity. In 2018, Sonko, in an interview, lashed out at the government’s then-new law to control social media. Little did he know then that the law passed that year would be used five years later to arrest his deputy and the future president of Senegal, Faye.
On March 6, 18 days before the election, Sall passed an amnesty bill approved by parliament to release and pardon all those involved in crimes during the political violence that took place from 2021 to 2024. Rights groups criticized the amnesty law, seeing it as a guise to protect the security forces and hired men involved in police brutality and the killing of protesters – crimes that will now no longer be investigated and, therefore, go unpunished. But the amnesty also ensured the release of Sonko and Faye, who were freed less than two weeks before the election, bringing their presidential campaign to life.
They crisscrossed the country, surrounded by bodyguards holding back frenzied crowds of young people wanting to get a glimpse of the men – as if the two were rock stars and not former tax inspectors. The crowds sang the anthem to their campaign: “Sonko is Diomaye, and Diomaye is Sonko.” Largely unknown to the public, Faye was until then riding the wave of Sonko’s popularity. But Faye stepped into the limelight. Broom in hand, he promised “sweeping” change from a new currency and the renegotiating of oil and gas contracts to changing Senegal’s relationship with France and the French language. Faye speaks flawless English. Under Sall, critics viewed Senegal’s government as a puppet to Western interests and one that put France’s interests above Senegal’s.
From political prisoner to president in fewer than 20 days, Faye is now Africa’s youngest leader at 44. He may be the president, but in his shadow is his mentor Sonko. Tight friends, for now, at least, but what role will Sonko play? Especially since Faye would likely have never won without him. Some see uncertainty ahead. Others see hope for a new beginning. But what is clear is that there will be change. Before the handover of power, Sall met his successor. Sall, in a suit and tie, shook the hand of president-elect Faye and opposition leader Sonko, both dressed in traditional attire. To some it may just be a symbol, but to the Senegalese who voted for Faye, it is a cataclysmic shift.
This Faye cataclysm may well start off a wind of generational power change across Africa that will sweep away the gerontocrats now still in power in some countries. The Biyas, the Nguessos and Kagames must be scratching their heads, asking how soon the typhon started in Senegal will reach their fortified presidential palaces. Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, who was in Dakar for Faye’s inauguration, is in his 70s. He celebrated his 72nd birthday last Friday March 29. He may be the last of his generation to grab power. The Nigerian Constitution sets 40 as the age requirement for anyone aspiring to the presidency. In 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari approved a law “Not too young to rule” which opens up the political space the more for the nation’s youth. They didn’t immediately leverage that legislation in the 2023 elections but who knows, the next presidential vote is 2027.
