Pape Mahawa Diouf, deputy spokesperson for the APR, protests against the alleged fight against corruption being transformed into a tool for settling scores. Faced with political leaders pilloried in the media before any judgment and republican institutions under attack, he believes that this deleterious climate weakens the rule of law. Between sovereignty and dependence on the IMF, between membership in ECOWAS and sympathy for the ESA, between rejection of France and calls for enhanced cooperation, the line is blurred, sometimes contradictory: such ambiguity reflects, according to him, a lack of vision. Seneweb provides you with his full statement so as not to distort his thinking.

"Almost two years have passed, and the Bassirou Diomaye Faye - Ousmane Sonko duo seems to be navigating by sight, unable to chart a clear course for Senegal. Beyond the sensational declarations and revolutionary promises, where are the tangible actions? Where is this much-vaunted agenda, constantly evoked but never revealed? Governmental wandering has become the rule, and the course, an enigma that no one can solve.

In the name of the “Project”: the great illusion

We are presented with a bloodless Senegal, found in the "red zone," in the "fourth basement," in the words of the Prime Minister. The fault lies exclusively with past regimes. Some, with boundless arrogance, dare to assert that if all the leaders since independence had governed like the PASTEF in power, the country would be developed today. A dizzying pretension! Do we live in the same country?

In the name of a "project" that no one has ever seen, whose contours no one knows, should we remain silent? Accept without flinching that the work and actions of figures who built this nation are erased with a stroke of the pen: Léopold Sédar Senghor, Cheikh Anta Diop, Mamadou Dia, Abdou Diouf, Abdoulaye Wade, Macky Sall, and so many others? This attempt to rewrite history through vulgar shortcuts is unacceptable. Senegal is the fruit of great compromises, of statesmen, intellectuals, and religious leaders who patiently built this democracy—the same one that allowed you to come to power.

In the name of debt: the announced shipwreck

The ultimate argument to justify failure in advance, debt serves as a pretext for widespread renunciation. However, audits by national institutions such as the IGF and the Court of Auditors were not enough; it was necessary to commission a private firm, Mazars, to try to convince partners who had become suspicious.

The government's disastrous communication about our finances has panicked the markets. Through tactlessness and incompetence, it has in just a few months destroyed a reputation for seriousness built over decades. The consequences were immediate and scathing: Standard & Poor's downgraded Senegal's rating to "B" with a negative outlook, a historic precedent. The IMF suspended its $1.8 billion program.

Tired of convincing and after accepting the harshest injunctions (austerity, end of subsidies), the government is changing its narrative and is now attacking the IMF, now accused of complicity in a "hidden debt." In the name of this debt, the Senegalese are being asked to support the tax bludgeoning, the end of social safety nets (BSF, CMU, CESAME, student scholarships), and the removal of subsidies on hydrocarbons and basic foodstuffs. While an economic crisis threatens the stability of the country, it is the very capacity of the state to govern that is at stake.

The reality behind the rhetoric: a stalled economy

The talk of debt masks an insidious reality: an economy stifled by risky decisions.

· The agricultural world in crisis: The agricultural season promises to be disastrous. Prices of inputs have skyrocketed, seed distribution is delayed, and state support is nonexistent. Faced with the destruction of agricultural land, as in the Anambé Valley, the state has remained disconcertingly silent and inactive.

Touba under water: The holy city is flooded like never before, and the Caliph's call for help is met with the authorities' refusal to activate the ORSEC plan. The abandonment is staggering.

· Construction industry suffocated: a pillar of employment, the sector is at a standstill. Construction sites are blocked, government arrears exceeding 300 billion CFA francs, an exodus of labor, and strangled businesses that are laying off workers and closing. Another act of indelicacy with dramatic social consequences.

· Media assassination: Under the guise of restructuring, 381 media outlets are being threatened with death, throwing thousands of workers out of work. Slashing media funding is a low blow to Senegalese democracy. History will remember this.

But the heist of the century would not succeed without the sacrosanct accountability

Behind the announcements and the spectacular staging of political trials lies an unavowable design: to subjugate the rule of law and muzzle freedoms.

In the name of transparency, political figures have been handed over to an overheated public opinion without any fair trial having yet taken place. Worse, in the name of this same surrender, it is now the republican institutions themselves (the Presidency, Supreme Court, Constitutional Council) and their representatives (the magistrates), the press, and civil society who are being attacked. The opposition's insurrectionary reflexes have survived the accession to power. This is unacceptable.

Conclusion: The “at the same time” imposture

Nothing seems to stop them in their headlong rush. Arbitrary purges, the muzzling of dissidents, the imprisonment of columnists, public insults: everything is there.

And meanwhile, the country is navigating a complete artistic limbo. We are neither in a liberal economy nor in a state of endogenous development. We are no longer anti-FCFA sovereignists, but neither are we in an assumed partnership with the Bretton Woods institutions, even though they are solicited. We are members of ECOWAS while sublimating the putschists of the AES. France is being asked to "get out" while demanding an intergovernmental seminar.

This political schizophrenia is not a strength; it is a symptom of a glaring lack of vision. Senegal, for its part, is paying the price.

This is why it is both urgent and necessary for the country's vital forces to rise up to build an alternative to the chaotic destiny they promise us."