It was as if written, to seek a presidential status for himself, Ousmane Sonko was forced to self-deny, to deny his « convictions » slung over his shoulder and even to deny his own. The interview he gave to two journalists from France 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI), broadcast on 6 January 2023, is a summary of denials. It was fourteen long minutes of denial. Definitely, a heavy price to try to please France.
Is being accepted by France worth that much sacrifices? The leader of the Pastef party had vowed never to speak again to French public media, such as RFI and France 24, which he accused of being the mouthpieces of France around the world, particularly its « harmful » policy in Africa. He added to his list of banned media newspapers such as Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomatique and Jeune Afrique. These media had the audacity to give the floor to the young lady Adji Sarr who accused Ousmane Sonko of rape and other sexual cruelty in a lupanar. By accepting to address France 24 and RFI, OusmaneSonko goes back on his resolutions, though nothing has changed on this register. No doubt, to ease his conscience, he tried to distil in a sibylline way, during the interview, that these media, including RFI officials, had confided in him their unbalanced treatment of the Adji Sarr case. The management of RFI could not let this statement pass and immediately issued a statement to register as false. Indeed, no one sees RFI throwing away its professionalism and the moral rigour of its journalists.
Ousmane Sonko systematically backpedalled on the set of France 24 and RFI and pushed his concern for decorum by adopting borrowed postures, to concede to his punching ball, Macky Sall, a certain reverence. Thus, he was able to surprise when he served each time « President Macky Sall » or « the President of the Republic ». We were not accustomed to such respect and consideration in his language towards the Head of State. Journalists Marc Perelman and Christophe Boisbouvier were incisive. They started the interview with the question which angers that of rape accusations. Just to show from the outset that no gift will be made to the guest of the day? Ousmane Sonko agreed to answer this question without flinching, although he rebuffed a Senegalese journalist who had questioned him on the subject. Ousmane Sonkoconsidered that it was disrespectful on the part of the Senegalese journalist to ask him such a question. But in front of the French media, he did not take the slightest objection to this question. The White complex or should we consider that when we resign ourselves to swallowing snakes, none is too big? The interviewers’ reminders, remarks and piques were also most murderous; as on the DNA test which « remains the ultimate way to close this case » or to « definitively clarify this case » or on the serious accusations of a conspiracy in which France was dipped, according to the leader of the Pastefparty. In his answers, he evaded this last remark or swallowed his tongue. France is no longer involved in the conspiracy, he would suggest. The payoff for a presidential candidate is to start answering an interview with a question about a rape accusation and his refusal to take a DNA test that would close the debate on this case!
Moreover, the most surreal, for those who could believe that Ousmane Sonko was going to stay straight in his boots, is that he locked up, in a double turn, on the pedestal in which he ostentatiously placed a poster of Captain Thomas Sankara, all the war rhetoric against France. Not once did he attack France. On the contrary, he dared to say: « We have nothing against France! » Certainly, his ally Guy Marius Sagna and the other members of the « Frapp-France Dégage » movement will appreciate this other denial.
Ousmane Sonko sought to give pledges to find France acceptable and renounced the pro-Russian policy of the putschist military in Mali or Burkina Faso or the slogans of the « Transformers » in Chad. He lectured them about the Russian flags that regularly fly in rallies to condemn France and Western partners to groans. He really said more than French diplomats could have expected from him. The journalists of France 24 and RFI, without laughing, put Ousmane Sonko’s previous statements on France in front of him. He has always maintained that « our relations with France must cease and not just change format », that « French colonialism had lasted long enough », that « France must raise its knee from the neck of Africans », no doubt alluding to the brutal police technique, which became infamous after the death of George Floyd. He refrained from pronouncing his favourite words: « colonialism » or « neo-colonialism » or « French imperialism ». Nor did he name any French company operating in Africa, especially not Total, Eiffage or Auchan, which he accused of sucking the blood of Africans and pointed the finger at them in popular condemnation in March 2021 and later. Indeed, we do not talk about rope in the hang man’s house! It is also surprising or appalling to see Ousmane Sonko refrain from his singsong against the Franc CFA, « colonial currency », responsible for all the ills of African countries that continue to use it.Ousmane Sonko weighed the fate of African countries colonised by France and that of other countries colonised by the British. In his understanding, the former British colonies would be better off. News of recent days, with the resounding economic and monetary debacle of Ghana, a country once regularly cited as an example, shows that the grass is not always greener at the neighbours.
Thus, had he ceased to make seduction operations or appeals for the foot off Russia. The new Ousmane Sonko would now come to doubt the maturity of the Russian allies in Africa, judging by their methods and approaches.
A Seduction Operation Lost in Advance
The media outing of Ousmane Sonko should not have the desired effect. We find ourselves in the situation we described in a column, dated December 13, 2021, entitled: « From France Go Away » to « France Save Us ». But certainly, no one should be mistaken. We do not see France being so naïve as to give credence to such casual and sudden backpedals of Ousmane Sonko. His oft-repeated hostility to France fuelled his political discourse mixed with a populism that could not be more demagogic. Anyone who could find any merit in France, passed in the eyes of the « patriots » to be a servant of France, a renegade to the interests of Africa. This revanchist posture may have attracted the sympathy of some African intellectual or political elites who had personal old scores to settle with France or its citizens. Ousmane Sonko swallowed his diatribes, not to say he has vomited from France.
However, would a banal interview manage to erase all liabilities and ensure that new relationships are founded?Moreover, this media exercise has revealed, if it were still necessary, the incoherence or inconsistency of Ousmane Sonkowhose positions switch according to his moods or whims. Ousmane Sonko may even have seemed pathetic by giving the « system » the opportunity to mock him, not to say ridicule him. What credit should be given to a character of this ilk? Now he is ready to deny everything, to adopt all contrition, to be well seen by France, a country which he had spared nothing!In any case, his strategy of presidentialisation (inspired by the « Marine Le Pen » sauce) through the French media cannot prosper. In France, contemporary history shows that Dominique Strauss Kahn, who had the wind in his sails to replace Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012, had seen his presidential destiny shattered by the opprobrium of rape accusations made by Nafissatou Diallo, an employee of a New York hotel. Similarly, the other president elected before the time by opinion polls, François Fillon, was stopped in his march to the Elysee in 2017 by an indictment by a French judge. President François Hollande had resigned himself to give up running again in 2017, once his escapades aboard a scooter for dates had been revealed by the media. This means that Ousmane Sonko, who has the misfortune to gather all these three faults (accusations of rape, night escapades, judicial indictment), gives all the guarantees that he is no longer taken seriously in French circles. This is precisely the reason why he should not have lost his soul in this seduction operation that will be fatally unsuccessful. If France may have taken Ousmane Sonko for an enemy somewhere, it can congratulate itself that the latter has given himself in hand and foot bound. It would now be inappropriate to burden France. After watching this interview, I had a discussion with an RFI official who is delighted that Ousmane Sonko has finally realised that « RFI and its journalists are only doing their job and cannot be ignored. » Is it necessary to recall that Senegalese radio and TV channels as well as newspapers are still waiting for Ousmane Sonko to deign to grant them an interview? He who never misses an opportunity to make people talk about him, prefers media literally lying at his feet, to drink his words without any retort or reminder, like these many « patriotic televisions » of the web. This prevents him from finding himself in front of credible and well-established media outlets, which may have the bad idea to ask him questions which anger … and in Wolof!
By Madiambal DIAGNE / mdiagne@lequotidien.sn
- Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH
