Wade: Ma Waxoon Waxeet - Senegal: Nyor Falloon Faleet

I am glued to all the Senegalese news outlets watching the situation in Dakar and beyond unfold; Wade is definitely not ready to budge.  What’s amazing about Wade is, he is now being opposed by the very energetic Senegalese youths that brought him to power amidst high hopes that at last, they will at least finally live a dignified life under a leader who’ve fought really hard for the implementation of democracy and good governance in Senegal.   That was the bare minimum for his mandate but alas, Wade is also proving to be like the rest of his pals in the sub-region.

The situation in Senegal is a sad one to be honest.  Wade surrounded by sycophants, unprincipled religious leaders and morally bankrupt Senegalese intellectuals has burnt any good will his people had for him.  Despite great gains in infrastructure and enterprise development, his administration has been marred by large scale nepotism, corruption and a total disregard for the will of the people.   Just last year, Wade came on national TV and told his people that he has gone back on his promise of a term limit and in his own words - "Ma Waxoon Waxeet" ( I said it but I take it back).   Unfortunately for Wade, his people matched him equally and replied - "nyor Fallon, Falleet" (We elected you, and we no longer elect you).

Karim:  Wade's problem has always been his son Karim.  The average Senegalese just cannot come to terms with the fact that when Wade was in the struggle with them and asking young Senegalese to take to the streets risking and even losing their lives to protest injustice and help Wade advance his political ideology, his son Karim was in Europe eating Crepes, Croque monsieurs and attending elite schools. In France, Karim was totally shielded from the tough struggle kids his age were fighting along side his father and thus has never been part of the struggle.   For the seat of the presidency, the Senegalese on the ground and even those in Wade's camp including all of Wade's former prime ministers who are now running against Wade will tell you that there are more deserving, more development oriented, more educated, more experienced and most importantly, Senegalese who are more in touch with the daily struggle of the Senegalese populace than Karim.  A huge number of the Senegalese population just will not accept Wade imposing his son who've never broken a sweat for the struggle on them.  Karim only became a Senegalese when things turned gold on their side of the struggle, and all this talk about Wade finishing his project as a reason for a third term is gibberish.  After the 2009 Dakar mayoral elections in which Dakarois rejected Karim, Wade wants a third term to give Karim time to better strategize and prepare for his political career leading to the 2017 elections.  This is the problem and will continue to be the problem until Wade comes to his senses that a large section of his people do not see Karim as one of them.  If Wade wants, he can go ahead, but let him know that for all the good work he've done for Senegal, he is now headed towards the wrong side of history should he continue with this systematic coup d'etat.  It is unacceptable and will not stand the test of time.

Constitutional Council:  It seems Africans just refuse to learn.  We've seen how a constitutional council can turn a country upside down as was the case in Ivory Coast with Gbagbo.   The decision of the Senegalese constitutional council (like Gbagbo, all members also handpicked by Wade) to overwrite the Senegalese constitution and allow Wade to run for a third term is a total miscarriage of justice and is causing innocent senegalese their lives.   I do not even know why authorities in Senegal needed to diminish the influence of their fully functioning supreme court by taking away the most important decisions on election matters from the body and forming a totally different branch (constitutional council) to handle these decisions.  However,  thank God for the political consciousness of the Senegalese, they continue to refuse to buy into Wade's legal explanation of why his first 7 years as president should not be counted towards the term limit that is now in place.  Everyone is now clear on the issue that Wade's decision to leave matters in the hands of the constitutional council was done not for efficiency or good governance reasons, but for political gimmickry to advance his political agenda and install his son as the next president of Senegal.

Old Age:  I am tempted to term Wade as a greedy and corrupt leader, but that would not do any justice to what Wade truly is.   Wade is none of the above; he is simply demented and age has gotten the better out of him.  Now, it is up to the Senegalese populace to help Wade and redirect him to the route of an dignified exit because when Wade was young and mentally capable, he applied common sense in his dealings with his people.  It will be totally wrong to let dementia guide Wade to what has quickly become a wasted legacy.

There is a pattern here however.  it is looking more likely than ever that of recent, African leaders who have spent their entire lives in the opposition have had to deal with a steep learning curve when their bid for the presidency turns successful.  Look at Gbagbo, millions of years opposing Houphet, Bedie, Ado, and Guie but when time came for him to lead, he had no clue as to how to effectively run Ivory Coast.  This became Gbagbo’s achilles heel towards the end even when he had a good case against ADO during their elections tussle.   These same problems are manifesting themselves in Senegal with Wade, another long time former opposition leader.   These former opposition leaders have spent all their time learning opposition tactics and little time learning the art of good governance and management; I think this explains why they are all failing as leaders. 

For our Senile grandfather however, he has ran out of luck.   In June of 2011, his people showed him that they have had enough when he tried to twist the electoral law and eliminate second round as a way of prolonging his reign of power.    Wade like Gbagbo, Gaddafi, Ben Ali and Mubarak is going to learn that his people have developed a level of political consciousness that will allow them to rise up to tyranny with or without the Senegalese Army.   Wade will soon also get it that his people want him out of office and will not settle for anything less.  He will go, his corrupt son and entire family will go.  Even if he wins, the Senegalese populace will make Senegal an ungovernable state for the rest of his 3^rd term.

Wade, pardon dégage!

For the many cousins, aunts, brothers, sisters and friends in Senegal, I pray for your safety and I pray that common sense prevail so that you can continue to live in peace.  

A Bankrupt Womb to Tomb Welfare State

I am going to start this blog by mocking socialism.  However, I will further explore the real EU financial crisis with a less biased opinion about the socialist system in a special note following this blog.  Although what I’m blogging has some element of truth to it, it should not be taken at face value.

I am a keen follower of the E.U financial crisis and I've now reached a point where I am becoming more interested in the social harmony of the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) than the tricky derivatives and fancy Goldman Sachs accounting that has really brought Greece on the brink of imploding.   As a Gambian, I became very drawn to one particular sector  (Tourism) that experts are now also attributing to the failure of Greece’s financial system.   Gambia like Greece is also betting on tourism led economic development as the mainstay of their economy.

One of the main factors that led to the Greek Financial Crisis is that Greece increased its investment in infrastructure development and borrowed a lot of money to take up many elephant projects African governments are famous for.  During the tourism boom, economic experts and politicians earmarked Greece to be the “IT” place for tourism.   The Greek government believing in this hype built a Las Vegas kind of atmosphere in a lot of its cities and investing heavily in 5 star hotels, mega gambling and entertainment facilities.  As the years went by however, the plan did not work and it backfired economically.  And since Greece really did not have a plan B, their bet on tourism led economic development miserably failed.

Why is this a problem? 

One must consider that Greece must generate lots of capital to sustain its welfare state.  Greece happens to be one of the socialist European nations that allows its citizens to retire at the age of 50.   With its low population growth rate and stringent migration policies, the Ponzi Scheme of a social security system that handles pensions and retirement will eventually boil over as the workforce thins.  The failure of the tourism led economic development agenda which promised great capital return  to sustain the Greek economy leads me to question the sustainability of the Greek welfare system.

The above argument is easily refutable by simply pointing me to countries like Germany and Sweden who are “thriving” under similar welfare states.  However, the problem is, Europe was not created equal.   There is a popular Ivorian saying that states “Les moutons se promènent ensemble, mais ils n'ont pas le même prix” – meaning sheep may roam together but they are not the same price.   In places like Greece and other bankrupt European nations that are not economically on the level of Germany and some Scandinavian countries, their governments should not encourage a welfare system that encourages dependency.   A lot of people in these countries are actually content with not having a job.  One must question the logic behind such a system for a country that does not have the modern technology or intellectual capacity that would fetch them the capital muscle of the Germans (who Greece has been bugging for a bail out by the way).  

But politicians in Greece are smart right?  They are after all in the E.U. and so they have to figure out a way to keep up with the Joneses (that is, the Germanys and Denmarks of Europe).  They did so by taxing businesses in order to feed their socialist welfare system that endeavors to provide for its citizenry from the womb to the tomb.  What happened next was no shocker; businesses massively started evading taxes that hindered their ability to maximize profits.  This further compounded the Greek financial headaches. 

I personally do not believe in government giving its citizenry fish;  I believe all governments must endeavor to teach their able-bodied citizens to fish instead.  Government’s job is to provide an environment where its citizens will have the opportunity to make a living and that’s it.   The welfare system that exists in Greece is encouraging dependency and taking away any motivation adults should have to go out and get a job.  Welfare for all is totally fine if they can afford it, but Greece does not have the capital to support such a system, hence they must devise a way to increase the retirement age, get their young population into the labor force, tax them and reduce taxes on businesses so that companies will actually pay taxes instead of evading them.  This will give businessmen an incentive to stay in Greece and employ Greeks.

Let’s even look at this from a religious standpoint.  Greece has touted themselves as devoted orthodox Christians for a long time with 98% of its population identifying with the Orthodox Church.  I would venture to say that religion is above government for most followers and on that note, I would like to encourage the Greeks to read the bible more.  I want them to pay special attention to Exodus 20:8 which states,  “six days you shall labor and do all your work.”  This is a formula that the Almighty has given people so that they won’t be totally dependent on government redistribution of earnings from the hard working.

OK, I’ve BS-ed my way into using a religious text I have no understanding of, and I must end here before the Greeks deny me Visa.