Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal’s president for the last 11 years, has ended up a victim of hubris, following the path of other strong African leaders consumed by the belief they were the irreplaceable fathers of their nations.
He won the presidency in a 2000 election that led to one of the first constitutional transfers of power in Africa and blazed a trail for democratic change.
The former lawyer and professor, who became increasingly autocratic in office, will nonetheless be leaving the presidency with democracy in Senegal reaffirmed. In a rare moment of humility, he conceded defeat graciously on Sunday to a former protégé, Macky Sall, in polls he insisted for months he would win by a landslide.
The symbolism for Africa is potent. Mr Wade’s attempts to secure a controversial third term at the official age of 86 and in defiance of a constitution limiting the presidency to two, prompted one of the most turbulent periods in Senegal’s history.
It fuelled a campaign of protests by civil society groups which met with violent police reprisals that were unusual in a country known for its relatively benign state institutions.
Victory for the coalition that sought to unseat him could embolden other activists around the region campaigning for more accountable government.
But his departure also leaves sub-Saharan Africa in a weaker position on the global stage, with one less statesman to represent it on such issues as climate change, development and trade.
For the past decade Mr Wade has been one of Africa’s big political figures, outspoken in fronting the continent’s interests. Alongside the likes of former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa he could bring a broad network of global contacts to bear on international negotiations and regional crises.
A series of weaker and less experienced heads of state, more focused on national agendas, have been in the ascendancy regionally.
However, his departure is good news for the political scene in Senegal, which soured dramatically as Mr Wade clung to power and promoted his unpopular son, Karim, to the heart of government.
Mr Wade spent 30 years in opposition before winning the presidency in 2000. A canny political operator with a brilliant and creative mind, he was as at ease talking about Senegal’s green bean production as he was about global financial architecture. During his tenure, he launched a raft of projects – many incomplete – designed to modernise his country’s subsistence farming economy.
But his outsized ego, increasing propensity to grand statements (exemplified by the vast statue to the African renaissance he designed and built on the outskirts of Dakar) and intolerance of potential rivals won him enemies.
In an interview with the FT in January he predicted he would be the “the last barracuda among the little fish.” He wanted, he said, to preside over a generational transition to more technocratic and youthful government.
Yet, some of Mr Wade’s fiercest opponents were young rappers and activists who, inspired by the Arab Spring, formed a civil society movement demanding change. In the end the generational change he sought to usher in has been forced upon him.
Dipetik dari - Financial Times
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