In Senegal, the new President Fay appointed Ousmane Sonko as Prime Minister

Left-wing pan-Africanist Bassirou Diomaye Fay replaced Ousmane Sonko as prime minister on Tuesday, April 2, pledging “regime change”, sovereignty and peace by becoming Senegal's fifth president. Presidential Decree.

“Mr Ousmane Sonko appointed Prime Minister”, refers to the decree read by the Chief Secretary Oumar Samba Bâ on public television (RTS).

“I measure the importance of the trust he (President Faye) has placed in my person,” declared RTS Ousmane Sonko, 49, who proposed Bassirou Diomaye Faye's candidacy after his resignation. He announced that a new government would be formed “in the coming hours”.

Hours earlier, new President Fay, 44, confident in his words, looking smart in a blue suit and tie, took the oath of office in front of hundreds of Senegalese officials and several heads of state and African leaders at the exhibition center. In the new city of Diamniadio near Dakar.

He then returned to the capital, a mounted guard opening the way for his procession of cars among the hundreds of Dakar residents who came to greet him on the roads leading to the gates of the presidential palace. There, his predecessor, Mackie Sall, after brief and warm greetings, symbolically handed him the keys to the President's seat before heading through the gates in the opposite direction.

Bassirou Diomaye Faye became the unelected West African nation's youngest president within three weeks of his release from prison after independence in 1960.

After three years of tensions and a final crunch ahead of the 2024 election, his universally accepted arrival at the end of an express campaign was “almost a miracle,” Constitutional Council president Mammoth Badiou Kamara said before being sworn in.

Raising his right hand, Bassiro Diomaye Fay swore “before God and before the nation of Senegal, I will faithfully fulfill the office of President of the Republic of Senegal.”

Breach of promise

In a brief speech, Bassirou Diomaye Faye said he “knows” that his landslide victory in the first round of presidential elections on March 24 demonstrated a “deep desire for systemic change”. “Under my leadership Senegal will be a country of hope, a peaceful country with independent justice and a strengthened democracy,” he said.

Bassirou Diomaye Faye succeeds Macky Sall, 62, who has led the country of 18 million for 12 years and has maintained strong ties with the West and France while diversifying partnerships. The past three years have been marked by unrest that has led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests.

The promise of a breakthrough, the anointing of the popular Usman in the front row on Tuesday and the apparent humility of this personality who hails from a modest and educated background led him to a resounding victory with 54.28% of the votes.

Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a senior official at the top tax administration prudently shadowing Ousmane Sonko, has listed cost-of-living cuts, the fight against corruption and national reconciliation as his priorities.

Bassirou Diomaye Faye's plan calls for withdrawing from the CFA franc, renegotiating agreements with foreign companies for oil and gas exploitation, as well as renegotiating mining and fishing agreements.

Political and Social Front

Paschiro Diomaye Fay, a Muslim intern, married to two women who attended his inauguration and father of four children, represents a new generation of politicians.

Nelson Mandela, an admirer of former US President Barack Obama and a South African hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, calls himself a “leftist” pan-Africanist.

He wants to work for the return of the West African states of ECOWAS, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, led by juntas who faced jihadism and broke with France and turned to Russia. The rulers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea sent their representatives to Diamanteau, including Guinean President General Mamati Doumbouya.

Captain Ibrahim Drare, head of the Burkinabe military regime, congratulated Bassirou Diomaye Faye as “a symbol of a new era for an unfettered, free and sovereign Africa”. He said at X that he was ready to work with him on “the restructuring of sub-regional and international cooperation”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the inauguration as “testimony to Senegal's struggle for the right to vote,” said his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

Brought to power by a desire for change, Bassiro Diomaye Fay is particularly hopeful about employment, a country where 75% of the population is under 35 and the unemployment rate is officially 20%, pushing young people away. Poverty and making the perilous journey to Europe.

With AFP