What a difference three weeks can make. That’s how long it took Bassir Diomaia Fay to go from prison to the presidency of Senegal.
The 44-year-old former tax inspector was sworn in last month after a period of political turmoil caused by fears that outgoing President Macky Sall, in power for 12 years, could seek a controversial third term. Fay, who was arrested in April 2023 and held without trial on trumped-up charges of incitement of insurrection, was released 10 days before the presidential election.
A little-known figure outside his party, the African Patriots of Senegal for Labour, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF), Fay campaigned as deputy leader of the movement Ousmane Sonko, who, in addition to being detained, was barred from participating in the elections. elections. With more than 54% of the vote, Faye became the first opposition candidate to win a first-round election since Senegal’s independence in 1960, and the country’s youngest president ever.
Before Faye took on the role of Sonko’s lieutenant and PASTEF secretary general, she was a political unknown. He was born into a humble farming family in the remote village of Ndiaganiao and received a master’s degree in law from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. A devoted Muslim, he has two wives and four children. On the eve of the election, he called on all candidates to disclose their assets; in his name he registered a house in Dakar and a plot of land outside the capital and in his hometown. He had about $6,600 in his bank accounts.
Fay’s goals are matched by the enormous challenges he faces.
During the election campaign, he promised to end corruption, reduce presidential powers, reintroduce the post of vice president and restore the integrity and independence of the executive and judiciary. A pan-African leftist, he also promised to create a new national currency to replace the CFA franc and to renegotiate oil and gas contracts with foreign companies. Fay’s biggest challenge will be creating enough jobs in a country where the combined unemployment and underemployment rate is about 30% and the average age of the roughly 19 million population is 18. However, he had already made a name for himself as a tax inspector who successfully defended Senegal’s democratic institutions.