Renowned Senegal journalist and political commentator Cheikh Yerim Seck has rated former Prime Minister Ousman Sonko, now the President of the country’s National Assembly, top among his generation of politicians.
Appearing on TFM recently, Seck said Sonko’s transition from the position of Prime Minister to being a speaker of the National Assembly was something he, and many political analysts, were never expecting.
He explained that the Sonko-Diomaye rift is a battle of two former close friends, which requires Sonko to seek immunity and more relevance at the Senegal national assembly.
Seck also analysed that the fact that Ousman Sonko was very quick to leave for his home with his own private security guards following his removal from the Prime Minister’s position, shows that he has long been prepared and waiting for the event.
Seck’s comments on Sonko were seen by many as the former Prime Minister still maintaining extensive influence in the affairs of Senegal.
President Diomaye Faye dismissed his one-time political ally, Ousman Sonko, after Sonko on 12th May speech at the national assembly, where he openly criticised Faye for his approach to the country’s debt crisis, which had already reached an equivalent of 132% of the country’s GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
A $1.8bn (£1.3bn) lending programme with Senegal has been frozen by the IMF as a result of the increasing amount of the debt, a large part of which was inherited from the previous government under Macky
Sall.