Africa

Reforms on the horizon as Senegal's youngest president Faye takes office

Senegal President-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye addresses his first press conference after being declared winner of Senegal's presidential election, in Dakar, on March 25, 2024. (Photo: JOHN WESSELS/AFP)

By AFP | Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Faye has vowed to restore national sovereignty over key assets such as the oil, gas and fishing sectors.

Left-winger Bassirou Diomaye Faye will be sworn in as Senegal's youngest president on Tuesday pledging reforms to build on his stunning election win just 10 days after he was released from prison.

The 44-year-old pan-Africanist has never before held an elected office but several African leaders, including Nigeria's Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are to attend the ceremony in the new town of Diamniadio, near the capital Dakar.

Keep reading

The formal handover of power with President Macky Sall will then take place at the presidential palace in Dakar.

Faye was one of a group of political opponents freed from prison 10 days before the March 24 presidential ballot under an amnesty announced by Sall who had tried to delay the vote.

Faye's campaign was launched whilst he was still in detention.

The former tax inspector will become the West African state's fifth president since independence from France in 1960 and the first to openly admit to a polygamous marriage.

Working with his populist mentor Ousmane Sonko, who was barred from the election, Faye declared their priorities in his victory speech: national reconciliation, easing a cost-of-living crisis and fighting corruption.

Senegal's president-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye. (Photo: AFP)

The anti-establishment leader has vowed to restore national sovereignty over key assets such as the oil, gas and fishing sectors.

Faye wants to leave the regional CFA franc, which he sees as a French colonial legacy, and invest more in agriculture with the aim of reaching food self-sufficiency.

But he has also sought to reassure investors that Senegal "will remain a friendly country and a sure and reliable ally for any partner that engages with us in virtuous, respectful and mutually productive cooperation."

After three tense years and deadly unrest in the traditionally stable nation, his democratic victory was hailed across the globe, via the African Union and the European Union.

On the international stage, Faye seeks to bring military-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger back into the fold of the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc.

New generation of politicians

Commonly known as Diomaye, or "the honourable one" in the local Serer language, he won the March 24 election with 54.3 per cent of the vote.

It was a remarkable turnaround after the government had dissolved the Pastef party he founded with Sonko in 2014, with Sall postponing the election.

Faye, a practising Muslim from a humble background with two wives and four children, represents a new generation of youthful politicians.

He has voiced admiration for US ex-president Barack Obama and South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.

However, Faye and the government he must unveil will quickly face major challenges.

He does not have a majority in the National Assembly and will have to look to build alliances to pass new laws or call a legislative election, which will become an option from mid-November.

The biggest challenge will be creating enough jobs in a nation where 75 per cent of the 18-million population is aged under 35 and the unemployment rate is officially 20 per cent.