SONKO ANSWERS THE QUESTIONS EVERYONE HAS BEEN ASKING - DESTROYS FRENCH JOURNALIST

[00:00:00]the latest. Thank you for your love and support. I appreciate you all. A lot has been happening in Senegal between the president Diomaye Faye and the prime minister Ousmane Sonko, the ex-prime minister.

[00:00:13]He was sacked from his position as the prime minister, now the speaker of National Assembly. He has granted an interview on France 24. They talked about a whole lot of things, man-man, woman-woman. They talked about his beef between Ousmane Sonko and the way forward of a country. According to Ousmane Sonko, whatever differences that is between him and then his president Bassirou Diomaye Faye has nothing to do with the nation at large. Whatever that is between them, it's just some political differences, but that doesn't mean that it's going to affect the country. He thanked the people for trusting them, for being in opposition for over 10 years, and the overwhelming support that they gave to them when they came into office. And he believe in the people in Senegal. And the things that he has promised his people to do for them is what he's still standing for.

[00:01:14]And it's better to be at a position where he can serve his people and fulfill the promises that he made to his people. He still stands against man-man, woman-woman.

[00:01:24]>> You have said several times that Ousmane Faye had uh betrayed the project.

[00:01:28]Watermelon for the moment you have not excluded it. Could it be the case?

[00:01:33]You know, the notions of betrayal are much more moral and effective.

[00:01:38]I prefer to be on one field much more related to AU.

[00:01:43]And we have a much more political notion.

[00:01:46]Commitments have been made to the Senegalese people over 10 years of opposition.

[00:01:51]And many of whom have been completely deviated from their uh in the trajectory that has been chosen, I prefer put the cursor at this level I consider today.

[00:02:02]Uh that the commitments that I took from the Senegalese people for the most part in any case. Some of these commitments are not met. There is no will to respect them.

[00:02:11]After I am not on the ground of emotion, uh the betrayal of I leave it to the moral, but beyond the emotion is an exclusion uh from the watermelon of the my fire is on the agenda. It will be appreciated when the time comes. Uh I think the liability is very structured, very organized. It has texts, and these texts are very clear on the procedures to follow, on the clause to put on the table to be able to talk about the exclusion or not of someone. So, we are not yet here the party. We'll appreciate the party.

[00:02:42]It is not against that that will appreciate the least. Then you say on France 24 and on Radio France Internationale, we are in the car at the assembly. And our guest for one exclusive interview is the president of the National Assembly, Ousmane Sonko.

[00:02:56]Hello, hello.

[00:02:59]With me for this interview, Lea Lisa Vestergaard from RFI.

[00:03:03]Ousmane Sonko, hello. Hello, Mrs. Vestergaard.

[00:03:06]3 weeks after you have dismissed the president Macky Sall of my phone in his last speech alluded to to the various events that have been between you for months ensuring none. Quarrel deserves to tear apart the country that is common. What do you think about this quarrel between you has gone too far? Is it tearing Senegal apart?

[00:03:24]Uh first, thank you for this invitation.

[00:03:26]I don't think there is a quarrel.

[00:03:29]And Senegal is greater than the political differences we may have. To assure everyone that there will be no tears.

[00:03:35]There may be differences, policies, but no tear in the country.

[00:03:41]So, uh the debate does not arise in terms of tearing, and the Senegalese people are greater than that.

[00:03:48]Is it for you, finally, the fact of having been uh dismissed?

[00:03:52]So, you said it was also at at your request. Is it not one good thing given the difficulties that Senegal is experiencing in view of of your ambition?

[00:04:03]The presidential election of 2009. No, I won't press it from that angle, I think.

[00:04:09]First of all, this case belongs now to the political history of Senegal. One is one trajectory.

[00:04:17]And this separation at the institutional level is not the most marked aspect of my political career in reality.

[00:04:24]And I think that today I must first thank the Senegalese people for having I trusted one candidate that I myself designated.

[00:04:33]And then to have accumulated this confidence in us giving this overwhelming majority to the National Assembly by participation, by appointing me to the head of this little section now.

[00:04:45]My energies will be concentrated to give to this institution the role and the place which is his after I think that the executive will do what it must do by virtue of its constitutional powers, the legislature will in a complementary way because we all have this obligation to work towards the success of this mandate who is our mandate in reality.

[00:05:10]I'm not going to clear customs. I was warned for 2 years my assessment speaks for itself. And I wish for the rest of this mandate that there will be all the success for the happiness of the Senegalese people.

[00:05:21]You have said several times that on my father had a betrayed the project.

[00:05:25]Watermelon for the moment you have not excluded it. Could it be the case?

[00:05:30]No, the notions of betrayal is much more about morality and effectiveness.

[00:05:36]I prefer to be on one field much more related to AU.

[00:05:41]And we have a much more political notion.

[00:05:43]Commitments have been made to the Senegalese people over 10 years of opposition and many of which have been completely deviated from their uh in the trajectory that was chosen, I prefer put the cursor at this level. I consider today uh that the commitments we have made to the Senegalese people for the most part, in any case, some of these commitments are not met. There is no will to respect them.

[00:06:09]After I am not on the ground of emotion, uh the betrayal of I leave it to the moral but beyond the emotions, there is an exclusion uh from the watermelon on cornfield is on the agenda. It will be appreciated when the time comes. Uh I think the liability is very structured, very organized. It has texts, and these texts are very clear on the procedures to follow on uh the chocolates to put on the table to be able to talk about the exclusion or not of someone. So, we are not yet here the party. appreciate the party. It is not at the It is the moments that will appreciate the moment. So, you say you want to uh place yourself on uh the plan. These institutions and the two young you said if the watermelon wants the government can be censored, but we do not censor.

[00:06:54]So, is uh it worth uh for all the tricks, or is it uh there are cases where you could censor the government since you have a very large majority. For example, if the president uses the 52 of the constitution that allows it to take action exceptional if it considers that the functioning of institutions is seriously threatened. one point of view, more political if ever it decides that local elections scheduled for January 2024 will be postponed. No, in reality, I think my statements are more complete than that.

[00:07:28]There is no link role that was delivered to the president of the rain, to the government. I said that as much as possible since we are not here to hinder the action of the executive as much as possible. We will not censor.

[00:07:40]We will not be in any case in political logics to censor to settle accounts or or to weaken one action.

[00:07:48]But effectively, if cases require one censorship, uh it's one conditional of the National Assembly. We will not hesitate to use it, but we are not there yet. One Grand Noir has just been installed. We observe it.

[00:08:01]We let it take its marks.

[00:08:03]The situation of the country exists from each of us. Many retained a lot of wisdom to uh put forward exclusively the interests of the country. Then we are in one democracy, the commission gave powers to each of the institutions.

[00:08:18]The government of by the constitution executed by the constitution finds the policy nation and executes it through its government. The National Assembly votes alone on the law. It controls government action and it ensures the proper execution of public policies. CD attributions which are very clear.

[00:08:35]Everyone can unfa- leaves. We are not men.

[00:08:38]Do not necessarily have any great friends to make it work. Everyone has to respect the rules and the rest will be fine.

[00:08:45]Uh the the the the govern our paronyms.

[00:08:47]Article 52 is one of the present to the tree, which is very well framed. So, it's not a problem.

[00:08:53]Uh basically in the election report, we are not there yet. Elections cannot be postponed. There is no reason valid for them to be that they are postponed.

[00:09:03]They will be held to date. I hope so. No matter what the bad ones are to be undertaken, the elections will have to be held on time. That is the law that regulates the organization of elections, which imposes to the present republic to take. I think we have until mid for as a last period for it to make the decree to set the election date and later summon the female body to destroy us. That it will respect its legal responsibilities.

[00:09:32]Among the priorities of the new government, the management of colossal debt inherited from the previous administration with one risk major default. You have always opposed each other restructuring of this debt one team. IMF is expected in Dakar this week if the executive decides to restructure the debt that you will make.

[00:09:50]You know, we are not in positions in the absolute.

[00:09:56]We examine the situation with lucidity.

[00:09:59]The most important is that what will be put on the table corresponds to the requirements of the moment one while restructuring we did not want as first minister only on I too was opposed the whole time I was first minister considering that the conditions were not even met since the country had not managed to respect its commitments.

[00:10:19]Her indicators were relatively correct.

[00:10:22]Our own growth prospects as well.

[00:10:24]This is where we need ephemeral the ephemerals we need and we are in these situations and we thought there was a possibility of having an agreement in this moment with the ephemeral that seemed to have other concerns than the one from to supervise and assist one country that is in this situation which we are not responsible. We now accept that the state is the continuity. Therefore, I consider today that we can appreciate as the developments progress in the meantime.

[00:10:55]There was a crisis in the Gulf that added to the crisis of the debt we already knew as outgoing prime minister.

[00:11:04]I know that we live one rather particular tension. We will appreciate as I said in absolute term. We are not here to make obstacles, but if one solution should be changed that is not in the interest of Senegal.

[00:11:16]Who sacrifices our systemic and structural change options at the hotel of of ratio.

[00:11:23]In the short term we will not accept it and those that fall under and that of the power of the national assembly. We will use it to say no.

[00:11:31]But you say you are proud of your record.

[00:11:35]Uh you talked a lot about sovereignty, uh economic or the debt you continued to bother with.

[00:11:42]Uh international public or private.

[00:11:45]Don't you finally regret uh this debt that you discovered hidden?

[00:11:50]Don't you regret asking uh for not asking for forgiveness for its cancellation here in simple but rather to enter into negotiations that seem to be bogged down.

[00:12:00]You know, we made one option, the one to go on a one good base and not hiding numbers because it would have caught up with us sooner or later and we were perhaps in one situation in some countries, one unmanageable situation.

[00:12:17]We have seen case of the Greek debt a few years ago.

[00:12:20]After one time, we have revealed the real numbers. It is necessary to manage. Debt is due.

[00:12:26]It is one service that must be managed and that does not wait. And one country that is worth must repay its debts. We are given one debt, it refinances itself. In reality, in all countries of the world, the debt it refinances itself. It renews itself.

[00:12:40]You could have asked for cancellation as one odious debt. Yeah, one odious debt, you used the term.

[00:12:45]>> We need to preserve our values and our culture. And they are working towards to see a better Senegal. Everything that happens, it is Senegal that is at the center. But nobody in Senegal will be affected by whatever thing that is happening. And it's just some misunderstanding. Whatever the situation might be, they will resolve and see to it that Senegal becomes a better place.

[00:13:11]Whatever they must do to make sure that the people in Senegal gets a better life is what they are thinking about. He talks about his candidacy as well.

[00:13:22]And we know that he was banned. That was why he gave the mandate to Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

[00:13:29]Hadn't been that, Bassirou Diomaye Faye wouldn't be the president because Sonko, according to him, trusted Bassirou Diomaye Faye. So, when he couldn't run, he has to give the opportunity to his close friend. They are doing everything possible to make sure the promises they made to the Senegalese people come to pass. And the country is all that matters.

[00:13:53]Like he said, we don't have to allow our political differences, our ideological differences to affect the country. At the end of the day, like he made it clear to us, everything that they are doing, Senegal is bigger than the two of them. And Senegal's interest must be the priority of all the people. As for the man-man, woman-woman, he says, "Mhm, >> [clears throat] >> it's not for us." And he also talked about the right and the sovereignty of Senegal. How they must be allowed to decide. And now they don't want to live in a country where other people decide for Senegal. We have come to a point where Africans are saying that, "No matter the situation will be, we want to be our own judge." Whatever thing that we think doesn't conform to our norms and traditions must be taken out. And we need to always make sure we put our nation first. The large majority is bigger than the two of us. Sonko has spoken about a lot of things. And we are hoping that whatever thing that Sonko is saying will not lead to this conflict affecting the lives of the people.

[00:15:05]They need to work together. That is very important. After all, he is the speaker of the National Assembly. This man is also the president. And there are going to be conflicting issues like other people are suggesting. But with what he has said, these things wouldn't come their way when it has to do with the Senegalese people. Senegalese first." Because he said the people trusted him and they gave him their mandate. They gave him their support.

[00:15:34]And that was why they gave him that power.

[00:15:36]>> [clears throat] >> Like he said, he wasn't contesting against this one. It was the other one.

[00:15:40]And that was why he gave the mandate to Faye. But whatever it is, he is not seeing it to be a beef or a quarrel between him and Faye. So the people in Senegal are in good hands and they are safe because the way other people sit outside to project the future of Senegal, looking at what is happening, he is the one that has to make sure that everything that will go through passes through his hands. And people were thinking that he's going to use his position to sabotage the current government. But according to Sonko, Senegalese trusted him and he will never let them down. He will continue to do everything possible in his power to fulfill the promises. Before they came, they talked about the hardship. They talked about sacking France. They talked about doing away with the CFA franc.

[00:16:29]They talked about doing away with imperialism and taking full control over everything that has to do with them. He said these promises are what uh motivates him. And he wants to do everything in his power to fulfill these promises to his people because the time has come as Africans that we need to do things in our own way to take control over our future so that other people will not sit down to be deciding the fate of the African. So Sonko still has his people at heart. So with these promises, Sonko will make sure that everything that has to do with the Senegalese people is always in safe hands. So practically, the way other people were thinking that Sonko will sabotage is like Sonko is "No."

[00:17:18]Whenever he thinks that the right decisions are made that will support or improve Senegal, he's ready to work with his counterpart, Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

[00:17:29]And this is beautiful because after this interval, we are seeing that there's going to be some relief. The way the tension was high, Senegalese will also have some kind of relief cuz we're all having this high tension. Looking at how things are going to play out with the rivalry. But he said there's nothing like rivalry. We are the only ones that can set ourselves free. United we stand, divided we fall. And united we keep standing forever and ever. The greatest enemy of the African is mental slavery.

[00:17:57]So, let us colonize ourselves from mental slavery. Let's keep sharing to educate our brothers and sisters.

[00:18:02]Together we make Africa great for ourselves and the next generations that are going to come. So, that is the latest around the world in Africa, West Africa, and in Senegal. [clears throat]