Did Macky Sall decide on his own like a grown-up to give up a third candidacy in 2024? Did he coerce and force him under the double pressure of the international community and the Senegalese democratic forces? Never mind ! From the flood of comments, mostly laudatory, that this decision aroused, it was once again Alioune Tine, former president of Raddho (African network for the defense of human rights) and fine connoisseur of the African political quagmire who has the right word: “deliverance”. Deliverance for Senegal, which has a unique opportunity to return to a peaceful political life, deliverance for all those in Africa who, despite the embers of the moment, still believe in the triumph of democracy!
The country of Senghor confirms, despite the violence it has just suffered, the refinement of its political mores and saves in extremis its reputation as an exception in a region ravaged by the persistence of dictatorships.
Deliverance, of course, but punctual deliverance, momentary deliverance which should not make us forget that the salutary departure of Macky Sall does not solve the root of the problem. The question of alternation in power, this cancer of Africa, remains unresolved and it would be dangerous to see it as a mere administrative formality. Election after election, we find that we are faced with a serious problem, what am I saying, a Gordian knot that we must cut as soon as possible. It will no longer suffice to mention in the Constitution the limitation of the number of presidential terms. It will have to be accompanied by a battery of safeguards. To begin with, the President of the Republic must be deprived of the sovereign right to amend the Constitution. This privilege should go to another institution, or even follow a more complex procedure where the system of checks and balances would play a full role.
Ideally, the outgoing president should not deal with any electoral issues. In this regard, Madagascar had a brilliant idea: the president leaves at the end of his term, which makes the potential candidate a candidate like any other. The election period is then administered by a neutral personality, which considerably reduces the risk of repeat offenses and fraud.
Africa’s monumental failure has a name: personal power. No one will be able to assess its economic and human cost. To fight it, it will not be enough for us to prescribe institutions a bit like the doctor prescribes prescriptions. We need to find the coercive means to enforce them. Institutional tampering must be criminalized. Changing the Constitution like changing your shirt is not just an act of indignity, it is a crime against the state, justiciable in the highest courts and punishable by the heaviest penalty. Sacralize our institutions! They are the true State and not the effigy of this or that individual.
After having maintained a vagueness that was very damaging to his country, Macky Sall finally left through the front door, especially since, even in the opinion of his opponents, his economic record was not bad. In Abidjan, Alassane Ouattara’s record isn’t bad either (the Ivorian president is even one of the best we’ve ever had) but basta, that doesn’t give him the right to exercise a third mandate. Third term is madness, third term is the plague; the third term is nothing even for excellent presidents!
* 2017, Grand Prix de la francophonie for all of his work; 2013, Palatine Grand Prize and Ahmadou-Kourouma Prize for The Black Terrorist; 2012, Erckmann-Chatrian Prize and Grand Prix for Métis Novel for The Black Terrorist; 2008, Renaudot Prize for The King of Kahel; 1986, Literary Grand Prix of Black Africa tied for The Scales of the Sky.
