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Senegal President Names Opposition Leader, Sonko As Prime Minister

Published

2 months ago

April 3, 2024

Editor

Left-wing pan-Africanist, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, on Tuesday became Senegal’s youngest president, pledging systemic change after years of deadly turmoil and announcing his mentor, opposition figure Ousmane Sonko, as prime minister.

Faye, 44, has never previously held an elected office. He swept to a first-round victory on a promise of radical reform just 10 days after being released from prison.

He took the presidential oath in front of hundreds of officials and several African heads of state at an exhibition centre in the new town of Diamniadio, near Dakar.

He then returned to the capital, with his motorcade greeted by hundreds of jubilant residents who lined the roads leading to the presidential palace.

His predecessor, Macky Sall, symbolically handed Faye the key to the presidential headquarters before leaving the palace.

“Before God and the Senegalese nation, I swear to faithfully fulfil the office of President of the Republic of Senegal,” Faye had said earlier in the day.

Just hours later, his new administration appointed firebrand opposition leader Sonko prime minister.

“Mr Ousmane Sonko is named prime minister,” said Oumar Samba Ba, the general secretary of the presidency, as he read out a decree on the public television station RTS.

Sonko, 49, was at the centre of a two-year stand-off with the state that triggered bouts of deadly unrest. He was disqualified from running in the most recent race and picked Faye as his replacement on the presidential ballot.

The former tax inspector is Senegal’s fifth president since independence from France in 1960 and the first to openly admit to a polygamous marriage.

“I am aware that the results of the ballot box express a profound desire for systemic change,” Faye said in a brief speech after taking the presidential oath.

“Under my leadership, Senegal will be a country of hope, a peaceful country with an independent judiciary and a strengthened democracy,” he added.

Faye and Sonko were among a group of opposition politicians freed from prison 10 days before the March 24 presidential ballot under an amnesty announced by former president Macky Sall, who had tried to delay the vote.

“I have painful memories of the martyrs of Senegalese democracy, the amputees, the wounded and the former prisoners,” Faye said Tuesday, referring to the past three years of political unrest that left dozens dead and hundreds arrested.

“I will always bear in mind the heavy sacrifices made in order never to disappoint you,” he added.

Faye also reiterated to foreign partners “Senegal’s openness to trade that respects our sovereignty and meets the aspirations of our people, in a mutually beneficial partnership”.

Commonly known as Diomaye, or “the honourable one”, his promise of radical change won the election with 54.3 percent of the vote.

Reconciliation, sovereignty

Working with his populist mentor Sonko, Faye’s campaign set out priorities of national reconciliation, easing the cost-of-living crisis and fighting corruption.

He has also vowed to restore national sovereignty over key assets such as the oil, gas and fishing sectors.

Senegal is due to start hydrocarbon production later this year.

Faye also wants to replace the CFA franc, which he sees as a French colonial legacy, with a new common regional currency, and to invest more in agriculture with the aim of reaching food self-sufficiency.

After three tense years in the traditionally stable nation, his democratic victory has been internationally hailed, by Washington, Paris, the African Union and the European Union.

On the international stage, Faye seeks to bring military-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger back into the fold of the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc.

On Tuesday, he urged “more solidarity” between African countries “in the face of security challenges”.

The military regimes in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea all sent representatives to Diamniadio, including Guinean president General Mamady Doumbouya.

Burkina Faso’s leader Captain Ibrahim Traore wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Faye’s mandate represented a “symbol of a new era for an uninhibited, free and sovereign Africa”.

He added he was ready to work together on “the renovation of sub-regional and international cooperation”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the inauguration “a testament to the Senegalese people, that they fought for their right to vote”.

New generation of politicians

A practising Muslim from a humble background with two wives and four children, Faye represents a new generation of youthful politicians.

He has voiced admiration for US ex-president Barack Obama and South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.

However, Faye and the government he will shortly lead face major challenges.

The biggest appears to be creating enough jobs in a nation where 75 percent of the 18-million population is aged under 35 and the unemployment rate is officially 20 percent.

Faced with such dire economic prospects at home, many young Senegalese have chosen to risk their lives to join migrants trying to reach Europe.

AFP

Headline

Iran Gets Interim President After Raisi’s Death

Published

3 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assigned vice president Mohammad Mokhber to assume interim duties after the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash a day earlier.

“In accordance with Article 131 of the constitution, Mokhber is in charge of leading the executive branch,” said Khamenei in a statement, adding that Mokhber will be required to work with the heads of legislative and judicial branches to prepare for presidential elections “within a maximum period of 50 days”.

Recall that President Raisi was confirmed dead on Monday after his helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of the country.

Raisi was travelling with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who also died in the accident.

Rescue teams had been scouring the area since Sunday afternoon after a helicopter carrying Raisi, the foreign minister and other officials had gone missing.

Early Monday, relief workers located the missing helicopter, with state TV saying the president had died.

“The servant of Iranian nation, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi has achieved the highest level of martyrdom whilst serving the people,” state television said Monday, with Mehr news agency also saying he was dead.

State television broadcast photos of Raisi, with the voice of a man reciting the Koran playing in the background.

Iran’s vice president for executive affairs Mohsen Mansouri posted on X a Koranic verse used to express condolences.

Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has announced a five days of mourning for President Raisi.

“I announce five days of public mourning and offer my condolences to the dear people of Iran,” said Khamenei in an official statement a day after the death of Raisi and other officials in the crash in East Azerbaijan province.

Headline

UK Threatens To Deport Physically-challenged Nigerian After 38 Years

Published

4 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

The United Kingdom has threatened to deport a physically-challenged Nigerian man, Anthony Olubunmi George, over an alleged forged entry stamp in his passport.

George who has lived in the UK for 38 years, after he left Nigeria at the age of 24 in 1986, according to the Guardian UK.

The 61-year-old Nigerian has no criminal convictions and made several applications for leave to remain in the UK, which the Home Office has rejected, most recently on 7 May.

George’s case became the second African facing a huge disappointment with the UK Home Office after spending several years in Britain.

Vanguard reported last week that a 74-year-old Ghanaian Nelson Shardey, who has resided in the UK since 1977, was refused indefinite leave to remain despite being in the country for most of his adult life.

As the case of the Nigerian, he has never left the UK and has no criminal convictions, with the reports of having two strokes, which left him with problems with speech and mobility in 2019.

When George arrived, Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and Rishi Sunak is the ninth to hold office since George has lived in the UK.

He has endured many periods of homelessness and disclosed he has lost count of the number of friends who have given him shelter over the years, adding that he no longer has any close family in Nigeria.

The Guardian UK said in 2005, his previous solicitors submitted a forged entry stamp in his passport and have subsequently been reported to the police and the legal regulatory bodies.

George told the Guardian he knew nothing about the passport stamp until many years later. His current lawyer, Naga Kandiah of MTC Solicitors, cited his poor previous legal representation as the reason for George’s problems.

In his most recent refusal, Home Office officials said: “Unfortunately this is not something that is considered an exceptional circumstance.”

Kandiah has lodged an appeal against the latest refusal.

A previous Home Office rejection of his case states: “It’s open to your family and friends to visit you in Nigeria.”

George said, “I don’t know how many different sofas I’ve slept on – too many to count. I don’t have my life, living the way I’m living now. My health problems since I had my stroke are my biggest worry. All I’m asking for is some kindness from the Home Office.”

Headline

JUST IN: ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Hamas Leaders

Published

5 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza for war crimes.

According to BBC, Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from at least 7 October 2023.

The ICC, based in The Hague, has been investigating Israel’s actions in the occupied territories for the past three years – and more recently the actions of Hamas as well.

Mr Netanyahu recently called the prospect of senior Israel figures joining the ICC’s wanted list “an outrage of historic proportions”.

Last week, 13 Western countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Japan and others cautioned Israel over its resolve to launch a full-scale operation in Rafah.