The Toxicity of Imam Sonko’s Sermon

President Macky Sall. Mme Marième Faye Sall. Amadou Ba. Religious leaders Ahmed Khalifa Niass and Alioune Moussa Samb. Ismaïla Madior Fall. Magistrates Antoine Diome, Oumar Maham Diallo, Amady Diouf, Ibrahima Bakhoum, Pape Mohamed Diop, Mamadou Seck and Serigne Bassirou Guèye. Commissiioner Seydou Bocar Yague. Generals Moussa Fall and Meïssa Cellé Ndiaye. Lawyers Mamadou Seck, bar chairperson, Dior Diagne, El Hadj Diouf, Aïssata Tall Sall, Pape Samba So. Political leaders Mame Mbaye Niang, Théodore Monteil, Thierno Bocoum, Thierno Alassane Sall, Marième Soda Ndiaye, Abdourahmane Diouf, Ibrahima Hamidou Dème and Mamour Diallo. Journalist Madiambal Diagne. The icon Youssou Ndour. Mme Adji Sarr. Sidy Ahmed Mbaye. Lieutenant-colonel Abdou Mbengue. Frédéric Napel. Journalists from Rts, Tfm, 2Stv, Rfi, France 24.  Officers of the Gign and the Bip. Without pretence that this list is exhaustive – far from it -, see just a brief list of men and women insulted and shouted down or slandered by Ousmane Sonko.

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On the so called Prodac case, Justice crowned Sonko for his full works of lies and sentenced him for defamation.  The civil party and the Prosecution have introduced an appeal.  According to a quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, but certainly apocryphal: “Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.” Mr Sonko will choose the category he fits into.

Yesterday I followed this man hold forth for a long time in a disjointed verb and a calamitous level of language, doing what he knows how to do best since his irruption into the political field: coming out with untruths and gossiping about people. I watched Mr. Sonko for a long time, like a hyperactive kid, and I surprised myself for the first time to have a certain tenderness for him. According to journalist Dié Maty Fall, « The Sonkism distilled in the minds of our young people frightens me more than Sonko himself who, by gradually revealing himself, becomes, day by day, his own adversary ». It is indisputable that this man is the symbol of the self-destruction resulting from the manipulation of a parcel of power by inexperienced hands. Politics is too serious a business for any prankster to venture into and achieve lasting success.

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Tenderness, then, for this man, I was saying, because he is living through a permanent drama, which would make him almost worthy of commiseration. Since I started observing politics attentively, and in all the countries that attract my interest, he is the only politician, candidate several times for various functions, who illustrates himself by speaking only of people with a violent art of recidivism and without any reservation or restraint. Mr. Sonko has this quality to convince us of his lack of urbanity, education and courtesy. He comforts whoever shows a minimum of objectivity and intellectual sage, of his inability to exercise high responsibilities, particularly in the management of a State which first of all requires silence, then other qualities, among them the measure , weighting, gravity, calm and rigor.

What struck me most about Mr. Sonko when I listened to him on a panel for the first and only time was his lack of decency and modesty. Even beyond the political contests, there is an education and a sense of dress that prevent talking about the spouses and children of one’s opponents. That should not be done! Who among the high-profile politicians attacks the wife of the head of state? Who among them does mention even the first names of their children? Who invents first names and godmothers for the daughter of the Dean of the judges? Who is attacking the wife of the Minister of the Interior with a staggering inelegance and lack of gallantry? Who has once heard a political leader attack generals? One aide-de-camp to the head of state and the other commander of the gendarmerie? Is it this picturesque character who aspires to the supreme office of Supreme Chief of the Armed Forces, President of the Superior Council of the Judiciary and guarantor of national unity?

Relations with Sonko: The France That Is Not ashamed of Anything

To some who think Mr. Sonko is crazy, I reply that all his mental faculties are intact. All his false slips are only the expression of an extremist conviction and a populist toolkit. He and his supporters are in a business of desacralizing institutions and widening the fractures of the Nation for a “project” with now established contours. This man is just rude, clumsy, uneducated and overcomes all limits of decency to achieve his ends. A Gaston Lagaffe with allies, and among them, remain some Republicans, who know that they have with them an irresponsible who will self-destruct like a populist scum made by lies, excess and demagoguery.

Mr. Sonko will continue, it is his nature, to insult honest citizens because he is infamously toxic (!). He has neither vision nor emancipatory project nor program. His unsurpassable horizon is like a parrot, calling out the names of men and women whose reputation he hopes to tarnish. The latter should proudly display each insult from Mr. Sonko as a medal. Quoting Cyrano: « You don’t abdicate the honor of being a target. »

By Hamidou ANNE / hamidou.anne@lequotidien.sn

• Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH

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