A sense of relief runs through Senegal. The country’s president, Macky Sall, announced Monday night in an address to the nation on national television and radio that he will not stand in the February 2024 elections. The surprising words of the Senegalese leader—it is the first time that a president organizes elections without running for re-election – they were the first step towards calm after months of protests and social tension that resulted in one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the African country, with more than twenty dead at the hands of the police, hundreds injured and arrested or the looting of dozens of public buildings, petrol stations and French interests.
The founder and director of the Center Afrikajom think tank, Alioune Tine, summed up the feelings of many Senegalese minutes after the head of state’s speech ended. “A huge bomb has just been defused with this historic decision. Its impact is regional and global. Now he must continue working to strengthen peace and stability.”
The possibility of Sall, at the head of the nation since 2012, opting for a third term, an extreme prohibited by the Senegalese constitution which limits the five-year term in power to two, had fired the tension. Two weeks ago, the political analyst Saiba Bayo drew a dire scenario in this newspaper. “If the president doesn’t take a step back in his intention to run, I’m afraid we’ll end up in a war,” he said.
Last night, Sall wanted to make it clear that his step aside is a gesture for social peace, but that the law protected him, since the change in the Magna Carta to limit presidential terms to two did not have retroactive effect and was made in 2016, therefore his first five-year presidential term should not be counted. “My decision, after long and mature reflection, is not to be a candidate in the next elections… even though the Constitution gives me the right to do so,” he stressed.
Despite the fact that Sall had said several times that the current one would be his last mandate, the rumors that he had changed his mind had been gripping a very young Senegalese society for months and disenchanted by the economic crisis and rampant unemployment. Sall stood up yesterday. “I have a code of honor and a sense of responsibility that push me to preserve my dignity and my word (…) Senegal goes beyond me and is full of leaders capable of pushing the country and overcome emergencies”, he announced.
Beyond Sall’s political aspirations, at the center of social tension is also the two-year prison sentence for opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, very popular among young people and the diaspora for his pan-Africanist, anti-colonial and anti-capitalist speech. Sonko was found guilty of a strange crime of “corruption of youth”, which de facto served to prevent his candidacy in the 2024 elections.
The case is an inheritance in addition to the complaint for rape that a young worker of a massage parlor launched in 2021 against Sonko. Although the court acquitted the opposition leader for lack of evidence, the forced turn to accuse him of “attempting against morality and facilitating the debauchery” of the young woman was for his faithful a clear sign that the goal was remove from the middle the popular former Treasury official and current mayor of Ziguinchor, capital of the southern region of Casamance.
Although he did not quote him expressly, Sall referred to the calls for chaos by Sonko, who hours before his speech had asked the youth to take to the streets “to end the fight”.
“The aim of the instigators – pointed out Sall – was clear: to sow terror in the country”. The president called the demonstrators “organized crime against the Senegalese nation” and being an “insurrectionary machine”.
The signs of recognition of Sall’s political maturity multiplied from the final point of his speech. The musician Youssou N’Dour and one of the most popular people in Senegal, applauded him publicly. “A president of the Republic who will organize, without participating in, the election of his successor, happens for the first time in our common history. You are a great president and you will be remembered as an incomparable head of state. You have honored your people and all of Africa.”
A similar echo spread throughout the region. The former president of Niger between 2011 and 2021, Issoufou Mahamadou, celebrated the decision of his former colleague, which he described as “proof of great political intelligence”. “In this way – he added – Senegal continues to be the bearer of a torch that illuminates our continent with its flame”.
