Ofeibea Quist-Acrton
6 February 2001
interview
Dakar — President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal has been in power for almost one year, since defeating Abdou Diouf in March 2000. Diouf had been president of Senegal for 20 years and was leader of the Senegalese Socialist Party (SP) which had been at the helm of the country since independence in 1960.
Wade served twice as a minister of state in previous Diouf governments. He has strong views on a range of issues and is outspoken about what he wants for his country and for Africa.
Legislative elections loom in the near future. Friday president Wade gave a comprehensive and wide-ranging bilingual interview in French and English to a group of local, continental and international journalists -- including Ofeibea Quist-Arcton of AllAfrica.com -- at the presidential palace in the capital, Dakar.
In the interview the Senegalese president presented his views on a diverse array of subjects that included his architectural vision for the city of Dakar, Senegal's perceived success in its campaign against AIDS, and his wider hopes and plans for Africa.
In the past week,however, president Wade has had to face the wrath of university students, who have been boycotting lectures in protest at conditions and subsidies at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar. In clashes with the police on Wednesday 31 January, one student was killed and the president has been trying to soothe an angry student population. Wade met with a student delegation earlier today. In this first part of his interview President Abdoulaye Wade announces that an inquiry into that death and the police use of force has been ordered. He also discusses Senegal's politics.
Q: Talking about the unfortunate events at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, it is rather a problem for you, isn't it, that the very students who supported you during the election last year are now protesting?
A: Absolutely. Unfortunate is not the word. I think it’s tragic, especially as I have enshrined in the republican constitution the right to march. This is the first time in the constitution that you see the right to march. You no longer need to get authorization for a march in Senegal. You just need to inform the Minister of the Interior, who does not have the right to ban it, unless in very serious circumstances, but who must make sure that there is basic security.
The timing is even more cruel you know, when you think that I was in St. Louis last week and met the university students. There was a faction that was contesting the cost of my visit. I didn’t know how much it was costing. It was afterwards I was told that it cost CFA 25m. You know, I don’t look into all the details of all my visits. Some students requested that I go and see them. They were in an office and I went to meet them before going into the lecture theatre to speak to all the students.
I had no problem with that and I went to see them. We were seated around a table, the atmosphere was good, it was a nice meeting. We chatted. They wanted to let me know, from the start, that it wasn’t a case of demands they were making, but suggestions that would help resolve the problems of the students. They thought that the president couldn’t be aware of all the details about the conditions.
It went very well, and when I went into the lecture hall in St Louis (Senegal's second university) to talk to everyone assembled there, I said to them that there were even some demands that they had forgotten! And then before you know it, look what happens (at the university in Dakar).
Of course, I have ordered an inquiry into the whole affair, from the police and from the judiciary, so that we have two independent enquiries and I cannot pre-empt their findings. But let me say that there are some worrying aspects to these troubles. The police is not armed. I regret to have to remind people, who assume that the police has weapons, that our police are not armed.
There were very few police officers at the university and they were overwhelmed. Anyone who knows the area will know that the local police station is quite far from the university campus. So, how could a shot have been fired all the way from there, because it’s been established that the shot was fired at very close range? This sort of thing has happened in the past, but we’re in a new era now.
I have even banned the use of teargas. But, as I said I cannot pre-empt the conclusions of the inquiry, but we have all the reasons to believe that it was not the police. But if the inquiry reveals who was responsible, then the person or persons will certainly have to face the law, because in our country, no one has the right to use firearms.
Q: You said last Wednesday that you are prepared to meet the students, when do you expect that will be?
It depends on them. Now, I have just buried their fellow student (Balla Gaye). It depends on the students, but I am ready to meet them.
Q: Students have accused you of not keeping your electoral promises.
A: Which electoral promises? Have they told you that? Well, they’ve said nothing to me about it. I was right there in front of all the students and they didn’t say anything about that. Today is the first time I’m hearing about not honouring electoral promises from you. No student has said that to me. Never. What did I promise? What promises? We were all there during the election campaign. What did I promise during the elections? You are Senegalese, I am Senegalese, you were there during the campaign. What did I promise that I haven’t respected?
Q: But I am not the spokesman of the students...
A: Oh yes, you are speaking on behalf of the students. I want to remind you of something. During the election campaign, I did not make any promises to the youth. Everyone here knows that. I did not make any election campaign promises. I did not say I was going to create a thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand jobs. You never heard that.
The phrase that you heard me repeating over and over again was “ With you, I’m going to build Senegal”. I never promised anything, although yes I am going to try to create jobs, that’s exactly what I’m doing.
The commitments I made, I’ve stuck to. Voting in a referendum of a new constitution, dissolving the National Assembly, fresh elections. All those have been or are being done.
You know, when you, the journalists, say things like that, in the international milieu, people can take it to heart, whereas there is nothing true about it.
You mean you met one student who said that I hadn’t kept my promise, but I met all the students, and it is not right. I’m sorry, but what you’re saying is not just.
Q: You have said that you acknowledge the grievances of the students, how to you assess the situation at the universities and do you think you can meet the students’ demands?
A: I have said that I am prepared to meet the students. They have expressed the need to see me and I will meet them to study their demands. I know what their grievances are. I have documents and reports from the ministers and from the prime minister etc. I know the students are reasonable and, of course, they can have demands. And let me say that, in general, the Senegalese are reasonable people. What Senegalese people don’t like though, is that you don’t take the trouble to talk to them. But when everything is explained, they understand. So I’m ready to receive them and talk.
Whether I can meet their demands, I cannot say, but we can talk about it. But what I want to tell you is that some of their demands I can satisfy. That I’m sure of.
Q: Now, what about the perennial strikes that have paralysed Senegal from time to time for the past thirty or so years, including student boycotts? It seems that we are living with what I could call a cycle of strike action. How can we can get this behind us? People thought that with a change of government, with a new dispensation, we could turn the page and get over this, but…
A: I don’t think that we can change habits and a certain mentality just like that. It’s not possible. But we have voted in a constitution that everyone agreed the political parties and ordinary Senegalese people, everyone voted in the referendum on the constitution. But not everyone has yet digested the contents of the constitution.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
