Prisoner to president as Senegal elects Africa's youngest president

From prisoner to president, Senegal elects Africa’s youngest president after delayed elections saddled with the arrest and imprisonment of major opposition leaders.

On Sunday, March 24, 2024, the people of Senegal went to the polls to elect a new president out of 17 candidates. In the end, they elected Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who became Africa’s youngest president.

Faye, who is just 43 years old, will take over as president of Senegal after beating 16 other candidates. Nearly a year ago, no one knew Bassirou Diomaye Faye and no one gave him a dog’s chance to make history.

Today, he is the newly elected leader to replace Sall, the outgoing Senegalese president. Faye’s extraordinary rise to the occasion during the sealing ceremony gave the nation’s young people hope they had never had before. His message and approach to campaigning soon caught up with the masses, both young and old, in a way that also caught many off-guard.

He was even imprisoned along with his ally and kingmaker, Ousmane Sonko, by the ruling government and only released just a week before the elections.

Today, the people of Senegal have nick-named him Mr. Clean, and he is expected to get to work and clean up all the mess of previous governments and bring about the needed reforms. Senegal elects Africa’s youngest president, which is expected to be Africa’s new benchmark.

Now Mr. Clean, as he’s nicknamed, must get to work on the sweeping reforms he has promised. Faye is a tax expert by profession and turns 44 on Monday, April 1, 2024. As a tax expert who has articulated his vision for the people of Senegal, he has also been famous with words such as “methodical” and “modest.”.

He was born and raised in the village of Ndiaganiao. According to him, he goes back to the village every Sunday to farm.

This is the first time he is going to hold any political office since he has not been a minister, member of parliament, or statesman before.

According to Faye, those who have led Senegal since 1960 have made fundamentally costly mistakes that have made the people suffer; hence, it is time to put the nation on track.

Issues he raised during the election campaigns include the need to fight poverty, injustices, and corruption.

Mr. Faye and Mr. Sonko are on record as having worked together to halt all kinds of illegalities at the Treasury after they created a union task force to tackle graft.

He promised that if he is elected president of Senegal, his government will champion the re-negotiation of gas, oil, and defence deals in the best interest of the masses.

He is ushering in an era of “sovereignty” and “rupture” as opposed to more of the same, he told voters, and that is especially true of ties to France.

Changes are expected when he takes office as president.

Wage a fight against corruption in the public sector.
Replace the CFA franc with a different currency because the current one is associated with French colonial power.
The CFA franc currency will be replaced with a new Senegalese or regional West African currency.
To strategically create jobs for the teaming youth of Senegal towards fighting poverty, inequality, and unemployment.

The newly elected President of Senegal, like Ghana’s Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, spent 11 months in prison before his election. We expect President-elect Faye of Senegal to realign and correct Senegal’s ailing democracy.

According to reports and expectations, “Senegal is in the process of confirming that democracies can self-correct and come out stronger and more resilient.”

Can Faye be the right person to truly clean up the democratic systems and put things right to give African youth a voice and a benchmark in the area of leadership? Well, his win will serve as the true test for Senegal’s clean-up. His job has only just begun.

READ: 2024 Senegal presidential election: Millions vote in hotly contested polls