Owusu on Africa: Why Senegal’s leadership is putting the country at an “avoidable” risk

By Fidel Amakye Owusu

In 1980, Senegal’s first president, Léopold Senghor, voluntarily stepped down from power and handed over office to his prime minister, Abdou Diouf.

This was unprecedented at the time. Most independence African leaders were entrenched in power and many of them, were removed by force – via coups.

While Senghor’s example reinforced the country’s democracy, his successor became more entrenched and used various tactics to suppress the opposition. A major victim of such suppression was the then-opposition leader Abdoulaye Wade. Eventually, Wade overcame years of political persecution and was elected to office in 2000.

Wade had also made serious attempts to stay beyond the constitutionally mandated limit. In 2012 he was defeated in a controversial bid for a third term – the current president of Senegal, Macky Sall, was also a victim of the heavy-handedness that resulted from Wade’s attempt at overstaying his mandate.

Like a spell, the vicious cycle of political persecution of opposition actors continues in Senegal. In the last several months Macky Sall’s persecution of Ousamne Sonko has threatened the stability of one of only two countries in West Africa that have not had military rule since independence.

The Sall-led government is determined to stop by all means the candidature of Sonko in the next elections in February. The “see-saw” case that has seen various courts and institutions clearing the opposition leader and banning him at different times has many in the country sitting on tenterhooks.

Intriguingly, more recent history that has been experienced by President Sall suggests that the more you persecute the opposition, the higher the probability of them taking over from you – they become more popular.

Furthermore, although the country has impressively avoided military rule since independence, the current wind blowing in the region concerning coups d’états calls for a meticulous handling of domestic politics.

Also, it was reported a couple of days ago that some personnel of the Senegalese army have been killed by a mine in the south. This is a result of decades-old separatism in the Cassamance region. With such heightened centrifugal activities of sub-state actors, political chaos is the last thing Senegal needs.

After the latest court ruling that cleared Sonko a few days ago, his supporters are optimistic about exercising their right to vote for him. Nonetheless, the space for the state to pursue an appeal still makes some ambivalent about the future.

If anything has made the young politician popular, one of them would be his consistent and superfluous persecution.

After discovering hydrocarbons offshore in the last few years, Senegal’s economic potential has been touted by many. Stability is a prerequisite to any development that makes an impact.

Fidel Amakye Owusu is an International Relations and Security Analyst. He is an Associate at the Conflict Research Consortium for Africa and has previously hosted an International Affairs program with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). He is passionate about Diplomacy and realizing Africa’s global potential and how the continent should be viewed as part of the global collective.