The president of the Senegalese Investors Club (Cis), Pierre Goudiaby Atepa, allowed himself in an article on the « political tensions » which disturb the business climate in our country, to invite the plaintiff Mame Mbaye Niang, in the dispute which opposes Mr. Ousmane Sonko, to waive any appeal. One of Senegal’s ‘boss of bosses’ finds that it is up to the domestic private sector to find alternative ways to settle a dispute between two citizens, inviting one of the parties to waive their rights or swallow their dignity so as not to interfere with business life.
We would have understood the plea of the President of the Cis and his pool of captains of industry, if well before this declaration they had taken initiatives with a view to playing a card of pacification in our public space or to stand up as a rampart when businesses were looted, shops ransacked, public property destroyed. Since the events of March 2021, we have not seen any initiative of Senegalese economic operators worthy of curbing the madness and fury of our politicians. Similarly, we have not seen them at the side of young entrepreneurs and small hands who are wronged with every round of display of mad manhood and blind outrage to the Republic. Worse, the economic actors have, for the most part, played a game of complacency with all the instigators of the tension in a spirit of not frustrating a political opposition. Who would have thought that the cancer that is the opposition complex could have reached the ranks of our captains of industry!
The president of the Cis finds that an extension of the standoff between Mame Mbaye Niang-Ousmane Sonko would be dangerous. It is his right, especially given that he maintains that in an appeal of the trial « this option, beyond its supposed legality, could give rise to an extension of the cycle of violence that the Senegalese hoped to see close in favor of the holding of the trial. By deciding to organize a second half, the minister incidentally exposes Senegal as a whole to turbulence which could result in serious damage to the economy. » The breaking and looting of March 2021, requested by Ousmane Sonko in his call for resistance, was certainly not the start of the “cycle of violence” that the president of Cis would like to exorcise. What is this logic, for an economic operator and a promoter of « Senegal of business », to think that street violence is a hypothesis in the course of a defamation trial?
Should we not, in the principle of respect for equality before the law, invite the holding of a trial in good and due form before the competent courts and constrain any desire for violence by the police? What could explain in the craziest world that economic operators give blank cheques to irreverents off all republican conveniences as well as to declared enemies of economic affairs, because any pretext is good for them to break property.
Are we going to ask a lady like Adji Sarr, when her trial with Mr. Sonko comes up, to deny her rights so that the economy can run? Doesn’t the president of Cis find it serious that for a defamation trial, fear hovers over people so that Dakar is a half-dead city? As a reminder, President Atepa, who invites Mame Mbaye Niang to cancel his complaint against Ousmane Sonko, had to drag the Grand Serigne of Dakar and the lady Aby Ndour in defamation lawsuits to clear his honor. That is to say !
If an invitation were to be made to the Senegalese Investors Club and its president in their dynamic of pacifying the public space and maintaining a favorable business climate, it would be good if they began above all to challenge the rentiers of tension. They can help them, as good promoters of our national champions, to make them understand that there is no point in ransacking foreign brands that only employ sons from Senegal.
It is illusory to claim to be the defender of economic nationalism, if the little people, who are the arms of our economy, are the collateral damage of all political struggles. Calls for the murder of magistrates, senior officers and even the President of the Republic, suffice as harmful images for any foreign investor who wants to do business in Senegal. If our captains of industry do not make themselves sincere defenders of the rule of law and the Republic, they will have no land where to make their businesses prosper if chaos invites itself.
I would like to believe that the Cis and its president see themselves as economic actors on the margins of politics, but with a say for more stability. However, inviting a person who considers himself aggrieved to renounce his rights so as not to give reasons for trouble is quite a paradoxical approach. It is like reading the advice that Fred Koch gave to his sons who were donors to several American politicians, telling them never to go to trial, for any reason, at the risk of seeing their business destroyed.
Speaking of sponsors, Pierre Goudiaby Atepa had made available the headquarters of his party on the Vdn and resources for the campaign of candidate Sonko, during the 2019 presidential election! The plea of the President of the Cis would have made sense if all their concern for the protection of business contained a touch of concern for the safeguard of the Republic and the equality of its sons before the law.
By Serigne Saliou DIAGNE / saliou.diagne@lequotidien.sn
- Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH
