The other fact little known to Zimbabweans is that Trudy Stevenson is our ambassador there. As we speak she is — according to a post on her Facebook — “going on a long-booked luxury cruise up the Senegal River tomorrow for a week — Mauritania on one bank and Senegal on the other, Saint Louis to Podor. My treat to myself!” Enjoy yourself, Trudy!
What we may not know is that Senegal is experiencing a bit of a problem. For the past 10 years it has been ruled by a gentleman named Abdoulaye Wade. He is now aged 85. President Wade has defied the constitution which limits the presidential term to 10 years in office. He has used the argument employed by all African presidents who wish to cling to power, namely that the constitution was written when he was already in power so does not apply to his first term in office.
The Senegalese people are sick and tired of him; signs of senility and dementia have been evident in the octogenarian for the past few years. His opponents accuse him of corruption and nepotism. They also resent him for curtailing freedom of the press and other civil liberties.
Wade’s folly is the African Renaissance Monument that he caused to be built on a hill in the capital, Dakar. Fashioned in the mould of the Statue of Liberty in New York, the monument stands more than 50m tall. It cost US$25,5 million to erect. It’s definitely going to attract tourists because of the sheer madness of the idea behind it. But Wade claims it as his intellectual property and would like to get 35% of all tourist revenue arising from it.
In 2009 he gave a visiting IMF official a bulging bag as a goodbye present. It turned out the bag contained US$200 000. He was also criticised for apparently grooming his son Kassim to succeed him.
When Wade last year declared he would stand in last Sunday’s presidential election, Dakar erupted in protest. Citizens were angry that he had violated the constitution by seeking a third term. He unleashed the security forces onto them leaving several civilians dead. But a street movement arose to spearhead the fight against Wade’s candidature. He stood in the election anyway winning 34,8% of the vote. His closest rival Macky Sall won 26,6%.
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So, Wade fell short of the majority needed for victory necessitating a run-off later this month against Sall, who at 50 is 35 years his junior.
The mention of the word run-off would send a chill down the spine of any Zimbabwean. Senegal has generally been known as a peaceful country so a genocidal wave such as the one seen in Zimbabwe before the June 2008 presidential election run-off is hardly likely. But violence cannot be dismissed entirely considering that Wade used the military in an attempt to crush the Fed-Up and M23 street movements which led the campaign against him.
Now Wade faces humiliation; a consensus has built up against him. Almost all the losing presidential candidates are encouraging their supporters to vote against Wade in the run-off. Co-founder of the Fed Up movement Fadel Barro has led the way.
Showing his support for Sall he said: “We are calling all young Senegalese to vote en masse in the second round and to ignore the Wade ballot because for us he is not a candidate.”
Another civil rights activist Alioune Tine who leads the M23 movement has also supported Sall. “We always said Wade’s candidacy was anti-constitutiion. Since he used tricks to force it through we will use the ballot box to make him leave,” he said. The “M23” movement was named after the June 23 anti-Wade protests last year that ended in fierce clashes with security forces.
But does Wade have to go through all this?
He has ruled for 10 years and is well past his prime considering his advanced age. There is evidence to show that he is rich which means he can live a fine retirement. African dictators deposed last year either in the Arab Spring revolutions (Gaddafi, Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak) or through elections (Ivorian Laurent Gbagbo) all had the chance to retire peacefully but clung to power against their people’s will. They had disgraceful ends. Wade is also facing an ignominious end if he refuses to go after the run-off or if he uses violence to retain power; Senegalese civilians have shown that they are ready to fight to the bitter end to get rid of him.
At home President Robert Mugabe is ready to have another go at the presidency in the next elections which he wants held this year. They are however likely to be held next year when he will be one year short of being a nonagenarian. He has said there is no one in his party, Zanu PF, who can replace him and win an election. But consensus has built up in the party that he should leave office. Recently senior people in the party had let slip through into the draft constitution a clause that would have barred anyone above 70 — meaning him — to stand in a presidential election.
Also, last year leaked cables had revealed that people who had been deemed close to him were tired of him. These included his two vice-presidents and other senior people whose support he must have taken for granted. In the March 2008 elections he lost to Morgan Tsvangirai because his own people “kicked the ball into the bush” by campaigning for themselves while de-campaigning him. The writing is therefore on the wall that time is up for the old man. It is highly unlikely he will win a free and fair election as things stand.
There are lots of lessons to be learnt from the Senegalese experience.
