How Senegal's Shocking Move Is Sending Shockwaves Across Europe

[00:00:00]My people, we've got good news in the house today. Actually, we've got amazing news. Welcome back to the channel. To our loyal subscribers, the one who refuse to be fed the crumbs of colonial narratives, thank you for standing with us. Today, we are paying a quick high-stakes visit to Senegal because something shifted in Dakar last week. Something that hasn't happened in decades. The Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, has decided to finally take up his responsibilities as a leader of a sovereign people.

[00:00:35]In one single lightning bolt move, Sonko has canceled 71 mining licenses.

[00:00:41]71.

[00:00:44]He didn't ask for a committee. He didn't wait for a consultation from the IMF. He looked at the contracts. He saw the exploitation, and he pulled the plug. He stated clearly that these contracts are not just unfair. They are an insult to the Senegalese [music] people.

[00:01:01]Today, we are breaking down why this move is a masterclass in leadership. How the IMF trap tried to choke [music] Senegal into submission, and why Ousmane Sonko might be the only man standing between Senegal's riches and the vultures waiting to pick them [music] clean.

[00:01:20]Let me know your thoughts on this before we dive deep. Do you think Sonko a hero for the people, or is he playing a dangerous game with the global powers?

[00:01:30]Type Sonko in the comments if you stand with the reclamation.

[00:01:35]Let's get into it. Let's talk about the theft by paper. I've told you guys here many times before, when these foreign companies come to our country, they don't come with guns anymore. They come with lawyers and 500-page contracts.

[00:01:50]First, they draft contracts that are so mathematically skewed, it's a miracle the ink doesn't turn red on the page.

[00:01:58]The percentage allocated to the state is usually terrible. It's about horrible.

[00:02:04]It is quite, frankly, shameful. We are talking about 5%, 10%, crumbs from a loaf of bread grown on our own soil.

[00:02:14]But, it gets worse. Ousmane Sonko didn't just cancel these because the percentages were bad. He canceled them because even the terrible contracts weren't being respected. [laughter] These companies come in, they take the gold, the gas, the oil, and they ignore their basic obligations. They don't participate in community projects. They don't build the schools they promised.

[00:02:36]They don't pay the roads they use to transport our wealth.

[00:02:41]And royalties?

[00:02:43]Forget about it. You would not believe that most of these companies operating in Africa, especially in French-speaking countries, are paying their taxes [music] in France.

[00:02:54]They extract Senegalese resources, use Senegalese labor, and then send the tax revenue to help build monuments in Paris.

[00:03:03]How can a country be rich in resources but have a treasury that is empty?

[00:03:08]Sonko has finally stopped asking the question and started providing the answer.

[00:03:13]While Sonko was looking at the mines, the IMF was looking at the debt.

[00:03:18]Senegal has natural resources that will make most nations jealous.

[00:03:23]Gold, [music] gas, phosphates, oil, and yet the country was found in a serious loggerhead with the International Monetary Fund.

[00:03:35]The IMF was literally on the neck of Senegal. They wanted their pound of flesh. They wanted over $480 million just to reduce the debt.

[00:03:46]Think about the irony. A country sitting on billions of dollars in untapped wealth is being bullied by a foreign financial institution over a few hundred dollars. Most politicians would have gone to the people and raised taxes.

[00:04:00]They would [music] have cut fuel subsidies. They would have made the poor suffer to pay the rich. But Sonko did something different.

[00:04:09]He said, "Fine. I will pay the 480 million dollars, but I am going to generate that money from our own backyard." He didn't go to the bank. He went to the mines. He started revisiting every single license, looking for the rot. And when he found it, he didn't hesitate. He cut 71 licenses in one sweep. That [snorts] is how you pay a debt without selling your soul. Do you think the IMF expected this? Or they think Senegal would just keep borrowing forever?

[00:04:41]Let me know your thoughts on debt [music] sovereignty below.

[00:04:45]Let's talk about the most insulting part of this entire ordeal. When Sonko sat down with some of these gas and oil companies, do you know what they told him? They told the government of Senegal that they are not paying anything to the country right now, but a cent. Why?

[00:05:02][music] Because they claim they need to recover their investment first. They told a sovereign nation that they will take the oil, sell it on the global market, keep all the profits, and then, maybe, if they feel like they've made enough money, they will think about paying Senegal.

[00:05:21]Can you guys [clears throat] imagine the audacity?

[00:05:24]You come into my house, you cook [music] food in my kitchen, you eat the whole meal, and then you tell me you'll pay for the groceries after you finish digesting?

[00:05:34]This is the mess that Ousmane Sonko is cleaning up. This is the corrupt politician [music] special. These companies come in, they buy off a few ministers, they draft these recovery clauses, and they drain the country dry while the citizens are told to be patient.

[00:05:53]Sonko has officially run out of patience. I'm going to say this, I wish Ousmane Sonko was the one in the president's chair from day one because we have to be honest here on Power and Poles. Since President Bassirou Diomaye Faye started frequenting the Elysee Palace in France, since he started rubbing shoulders with Macron and the old guards, [music] he has lost focus. He's been distracted by the diplomatic theater. While the president is busy with optics, Sonko is busy in the trenches struggling to save the country's economy. If the president could see the vision that the prime minister is seeing, Senegal would be unstoppable.

[00:06:34]The riches this country has are mind-blowing.

[00:06:36]>> [music] >> If you manage Senegal's resources properly for just 5 years, you wouldn't just pay off IMF. You could buy the IMF.

[00:06:46]But instead, Sonko is working under serious pressure. He is taking the risk.

[00:06:52]He is the one making the enemies and he's doing it without being scared.

[00:06:57]They are probably telling the president to fire him right now. The foreign ambassadors, the mining CEOs, they are all whispering in the president's ear calling [music] Sonko radical, anti-business, or dangerous. But Sonko isn't bothered. He has decided to stand on the side of the people. He knows that his power doesn't come from a boardroom in Paris. It comes from the streets of Dakar. It comes from the youth who have no jobs while foreign companies ship out billions in gold. This move to cancel 71 licenses is a message to every foreign entity in Africa. The era of open buffet is over. If you want our resources, you pay the fair price. You pay your taxes here, you build the roads here, and you respect the contract, or you pack your bags and go.

[00:07:49]What do you think?

[00:07:51]Should other African leaders follow Sonko's lead, or is he being too aggressive? I want to see a debate in the comments. Let's talk about it. We have to understand the context of France-Afrique. For decades, the system was designed so that French-speaking African countries would remain reservoirs, reservoirs of raw materials, and reservoirs of cheap labor. The mining licenses were the primary tool of the system. They were handed out like candy to companies that function as extensions of the French state.

[00:08:23]That's why these companies pay their taxes [music] in France.

[00:08:27]The system was never meant to develop Senegal. It was meant to sustain the French economy at the expense of the Senegalese people. When Sonko cancels these licenses, he isn't just canceling a contract. [music] He is dismantling a colonial structure. He is saying that the special relationship is dead if it means the death of his people's future.

[00:08:49]If you look at the data, Senegal should be one of the wealthiest nations per capita [music] in West Africa.

[00:08:55]The gas reserves alone are transformative.

[00:08:58]The gold mines in the east should be funding a world-class education system.

[00:09:04]But for years, the narrative [music] was, "We are poor. We need aid. We need the IMF." Sonko is exposing the lie.

[00:09:13]He is showing that we aren't poor. We are plundered. There is a massive difference between a man who has no money and a man who has a wallet that everyone else's hand is in.

[00:09:25]Sonko is simply taking the wallet back.

[00:09:28]We have to be realistic. Taking a stand like this comes with a target on your back. The history of Africa is filled with leaders who tried to reclaim their resources and were met with unrest, sanctions, or worse.

[00:09:43]But, the power and pulse of the continent has changed. The people are more aware. The digital age has made it harder to hide the theft. Sonko knows that as long as he has the people behind him, the international pressure is just noise.

[00:09:59]He is doing the right thing, and he is doing it unapologetically.

[00:10:03]He is head of government, and he is finally acting like it. So, where does this go from here? Expect a massive PR campaign against Sonko. Expect anonymous sources to talk about how mining sector is collapsing, but also expect the Senegalese treasury to start seeing money it hasn't seen in decades. If Sonko can successfully renegotiate these 71 licenses or hand them to local companies that will actually invest in the country, the GDP of Senegal will explode. The $480 million to the IMF will look like pocket change. I personally am rooting for the day that Sonko becomes the full-fledged president of Senegal because if he can do this as prime minister under pressure with a president who might be losing focus, imagine what he would do with the full power of the state. This isn't just a story for Senegal. This is a blueprint for Nigeria, for Congo, for Guinea, for every African country sitting on a gold mine while its people sit on a debt floor needs to look at Ousmane Sonko. They need to realize that the unfair contracts are not law.

[00:11:14]They are paper, and paper can be burned.

[00:11:17]It takes courage. It takes a leader who isn't looking for a vacation home in the south of France. It takes a leader who is burdened by the shame of his people being in debt to the very people who are stealing their resources. Senegal [music] is at a crossroad. One path leads back to the presidential palace, to the IMF, and back to the recovery scams where we get nothing for our own oil. The other path, the path Ousmane Sonko is carving out leads to dominion.

[00:11:45]It leads to dignity. It leads to a Senegal where the riches belong to the Senegalese. These 71 canceled licenses are just the beginning. The world is watching. Africa is watching. And here at Power and Pulse, we are watching.

[00:11:59][music] Thank you all for watching and we really appreciate. And please don't forget to smash that like button. Let's get this message to the top of the algorithm so the whole world hears what's happening in Dakar.

[00:12:11]>> [snorts] >> Share this video. Send it to your friends in Senegal, in Mali, in the diaspora. Let them know the reclamation has started. And also subscribe to Power and Pulse.

[00:12:22]We don't follow the script. We follow the power.