By Azu Ishiekwene

The words of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye were honey to taste. Following the bitter ending of the 12-year rule of Macky Sall, highlighted by the widespread belief that France is at the heart of Senegal’s misery, a forlorn country enthusiastically lapped up Faye’s promise of a future untainted by France at his swearing in on April 2.

At a stage, it was not clear who was the public enemy #1: Sall or France?

Sall started well. He came to office in 2012 with solid credentials, looking every inch like what Senegal needed to break away from the incompetence and cronyism of Abdoulaye Wade under whom the country had lost its way.

Sall was an elite with a strong connection to the grassroots. He rallied the opposition against Wade including committing the unthinkable sin of breaking off from the ruling Parti Democratique Senegalese (PDS) under which he served as minister and then later dragging the president’s son to account before parliament.

Senegalese applauded. When after only a few years as president Sall offered to reduce his own term to set an example, the country said over its dead body. If Senegal could not afford to crown him for life, he must complete his two-term limit of seven years each.

It’s a decision it would later regret. The country had to drag Sall through an economy in a shambles, a country falling apart, and over one dozen dead in street protests to get him out of office. By this time, he had already exceeded his constitutional term limit. Sall, in short, became the very thing that he campaigned against.

And France? That’s a different story. From Mali to Burkina Faso and from Guinea to Niger, France has become a dirty word, even though the elite in these countries are too ashamed to admit there’s nothing France has done without their helping hand. France is not just a metaphor for underdevelopment. You’ll be........

© Eurasia Review