Saint-Louis, Dec 17 (APS) – The Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Abdourahmane Diouf, is part of the first cohort of students from the Gaston Berger University (UGB) of Saint -Louis (north), called “the dinosaurs” and from which many Senegalese and foreign executives come.
Returning to UGB to participate in “Alumni Day”, the former student remembered his time at the second Senegalese public university, which welcomed its first cohort of 600 students on December 17, 1990.
To the public who came to attend this event, he told anecdotes, some more succulent than others, from his first steps at the Gaston Berger University.
This university is located next to the villages of Sanar Peul and Sanar Wolof, populated respectively by the two ethnic groups. Hence the name Sanar that students often give to this university located about 12 km from the city of Saint-Louis.
Abdourahmane Diouf recalls having set foot on the ground of Sanar on December 17, 1990, “a memorable day” according to him, to be part of the first promotion of the second public university of Senegal.
”I still remember this memorable day. It was Pa Ndiaye who took my bag to take me to my room, where I spent most of my student stay,” he remembers with great nostalgia.
”We were called dinosaurs because we coexisted with reptiles,” he says, very proud to have braved the rigors of Sanar, where everything was lacking at the time.
‘It’s not the same configuration, and when I come here I realize that things have changed a lot,’ he says under the control of a few “dinosaurs” and pioneers, students from the first and the second promotion of Sanar.
Abdourahmane Diouf admits that he was not a good sportsman. But he says he played his part by chairing an important committee in a club, that of transport for the UGB team.
”When the team traveled to Dakar, Thiès and elsewhere, it was up to us to organize the movement of supporters by mobilizing buses,” confides the minister. He says he proudly played his role.
He also remembers that UGB was the first 4th division team composed mainly of students to have played in the quarter-finals of the Senegal Cup.
”We were eliminated with a clear score of 6 to 0 by a great team from ASC Douanes at the Amitié stadium, today Léopold Senghor and the famous sports reporter Abdoulaye Diaw had spoken a lot about us” , he said.
Among his performances as president of this commission, he recalled having led one of the largest teams of supporters in terms of mobilization, who came to support the Lions during Senegal 92, the only CAN organized on Senegalese soil.
In Sanar, the minister still remembers the evenings spent near the sports field of village B, where the students lived.
”An hour run by who you know to be seen,” he said teasingly towards his classmates. Indeed, this village was that of student girls whose charms boys dreamed of attracting.
It was forbidden to access this village at a certain time and Pa Ndiaye kept watch to chase away any ‘recalcitrants’.
Romances formed in Sanar, some led to marriages, and he confides that he found his soul mate on this campus.
Moreover, unions between former students are legion and these couples live their love perfectly until today, declares the minister.
The most comical thing about this affair, he said, were the students who initiated a march to demand that the doors of the village be opened to boys.
Ms. Awa Gueye Thioune also confided about her time in Sanar.
”I was a bookworm, leaving it late around 9 p.m.,” she remembers.
She indicates that the librarian, given the danger she could incur, had recommended that she always recite the salat “Ayat kursiyou” (verse of the Throne), recognized for its protective virtues.
“He always told me to recite this prayer when I was alone in the street and it was like a kind of assurance that I felt,” says Ms. Thioune. She considers the minister a mentor who guided her first steps in studies and research.
The Minister of Sanitation Cheikh Tidiane Dièye is also one of the students who attended the UGB. He remembered it during his visit to Saint-Louis. He states that he too was married in the old city.
AMD/ASB/ASG/ADL
