Ousmane Sonko is the leader of a famous party which is causing a sensation in Senegal and across Africa where he is cited as a model of the Pan-African. Sonko’s Pastef has become a model for young people in a country where the average age is 19 and 70% of the population is under 35. Pastef has positioned itself as the only alternative for young people lacking employment and for a population scarred by scandals. But what is the language used by Pastef to seduce the Senegalese electorate? Here is a party without structures and without a program that came to power through the force of words and the virulence of its actions…
The African Patriots of Senegal for work, ethics and fraternity (Pastef) is a Senegalese political party founded in 2014 by Ousmane Sonko. The latter who started by shaving TV sets in 2016, became a deputy in 2017 then 3th in the 2019 presidential election and prime minister of a country led by Pastef in 2024. Pastef is emulated in neighboring countries. In Cameroon, a deputy was inspired by the Pastef party and created PACTEF (African Patriots of Cameroon for work, ethics and fraternity). But how did Sonko manage to raise Pastef to the top?
Ousmane Sonko is not an altar boy who gives the left cheek after a slap under the right cheek. Even less a “ndongo daara” who allows himself to be subdued by his Koranic masters. Ousmane Sonko is a warrior who has the art of rhetoric. Eloquent, he convinces with arguments. But he also shocks with the weight of his words and the violence of his actions. Sonko is the only politician who predicted to Macky a death as violent as that of Samuel Doe… Strip him naked and put him to death in the streets of Dakar… And yet it is these radical methods and these bellicose words that seduced the young people who brought Pastef to power.
And yet this Pastef party which is in power has not yet finished its project and has no program. It is safe to say that the Pastef party came to power without presenting a concrete program to young people. Ousmane Sonko has always mentioned a famous “PROJECT” without saying a little more about the content. Nobody knows about the PROJECT. And besides, Sonko even confirmed the lack of content of the PROJECT which is still in the gestation stage. He affirmed, during the Council of Ministers on Wednesday April 24, that “the PROJECT will be completed in the third quarter of 2024”.
It must also be said that Pastef is not yet a structured party. Madièye Mbodji, vice-president of the African Patriots of Senegal party for work, ethics and fraternity (Pastef) recognized this: “We must indeed work to finalize the documents, the basic texts and to put in place viable structures, democratically, so that they can, from the base to the top, arrive at the holding of a body which is called a congress, which is the supreme body of the party and which will democratically put in place the definitive bodies of the left “.
But how did this party which has neither structures nor program come to power? By the force of words and by the warlike speech, Ousmane Sonko de Pastef was able to convince the young people who are the majority on the electoral lists. At a time of rejection of a neocolonialist France by African youth and a highly contested CFA Franc, the anti-French speech of Ousmane Sonko and the frontal attacks against the government of Macky Sall seduced the young people who saw themselves in the “warriorism” of the Pastef leader.
With an unstructured party and a lack of program, is the future of Senegal in danger? The first steps of the Sonko government are criticized by the same young people who brought Pastef to power. The lack of jobs and the high cost of living plague the daily lives of the Senegalese and the state, through its infancy, shows its inability to resolve the priorities of impatient youth and households whose purchasing power is diminishing day by day. day.
Mame Penda Sow for xibaaru.sn
