Macky And Jammeh’s Hidden Secret

According to some confidential reports, President Jammeh came to Macky Sall’s aid with a $2.5 million financial support during Senegal’s 2012 presidential election. Whether these allegations are true or false remain to be seen.

Relationships between countries get strained due to many factors. Nothing entangles and complicates bilateral relationships between nation states better than the brutal murder of one country’s citizens under the jurisdiction of another.

Many people could not fathom why Macky Sall failed to raise the roof and go wild in public after two Senegalese citizens were executed by the Gambian dictator. President Macky Sall is not a new comer to the Senegalese political scene, neither is he a minor player in the rough and tumble of Senegambian politics.

President Macky Sall won a hard fought battle in the murky Senegalese election against the Maverick President Abdoulie Wade. One would expect a democratic election to be free and fair of messy and underhand double dealings. However, such is not the case in any democratic process, especially in Senegal.

Opposition politician Macky Sall needed a huge amount of cash to dislodge the entrenched, experienced Laye Njomborr (the Wise Rabbit) in all key regions of Senegal. President Wade had already built solid relations with potential allies across the sub-region during his 12-year leadership.

The financial double dealings were said to have involved the prominent Guinea Conakry opposition leader, Sellou Dellen Diallo whose presidential campaign was sponsored by Senegal’s political dinassaur in 2010. Some reports said Wade showered $1.5 million U.S Dollars on Mr. Diallo. In return Sellou agreed to influence the Fulbe voting public in Senegal to vote for Mr. Wade during the fierce battle with Macky Sall who desperately needed huge financial support to counter his opponent’s wider outreach.

According to confidential reports, President Jammeh who had a rough ride with Mr. Wade came to Macky Sall’s aid with a $2.5 million financial support. Whether this allegations are true or false remain to be seen. Controversially, after losing election to Professor Alpha Conde, Sellou Diallo switched allegiance to Macky Sall, former Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament in Wade’s government. The rumour making the rounds within the Pan-Fula movement (a network of highly educated and influential liberal Fulani elites with roots in Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania) is that Macky Sall is more Fula in orientation than Abdoulaye Wade.

The idealist within the Pan-Fula movement (a network of highly educated and influential liberal Fulani elites with roots in Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania) is that Macky Sall is more Fula in orientation than Abdoulaye Wade. Hence, Sellou Dellen Diallo, a key member of that movement favoured Macky Sall to Wade.

However, in the thick of President Jammeh’s unwilling to compromise in the Senegalo-Gambia border crisis, the refusal by the Gambia government to accept Gambian currency [Dalasi] from the Senegal drivers crossing into the Gambia, yet the Senegal government under Macky Sall remains muted and less aggressive. This prompts suspicions that something fishy might have transpired between the two neighbouring leaders.

The allegations against Macky Sall hit the roof when President Jammeh murdered two Senegalese nationals in August 2012. Instead of temporarily breaking diplomatic ties with the Gambia, President Sall remained aloof on the ground as if he had no teeth to bit. This had widened suspicions in some quarters. Macky Sall also became too soft on the Gambia with regard to that country’s meddling its fingers into in the Cassamance rebel affairs, the border provocations, among others.

It is unlikely that President Macky Sall will be re-elected in Senegal’s next presidential election mainly due to some of his policies. The notable is the alienation of the non-Mouride brotherhood religious communities in Cassamance or well established religious sects.

One thing President Macky Sall can do to quell allegations of his fears in challenging President Jammeh now lies in making sure that the bodies of Tabara Samba and Gebe Bah be return back to Senegal. If not the handing over of the bodies, in the least, or the identification of the graves of the two bodies. Macky Sall is globally accepted in Washington and Europe as a less aggressive African leader the west can do business with. But the resentment he masterminded in Senegal could see his ultimate demise. Whilst the Gambian President remains unrepentant in the ways he handled the Gambia-Senegalese diplomatic relationships.

All of the geo-political complexities open the realities that the Gambian case will require solid Gambian solutions, in which honest and committed citizens will do all they can to change the status quo in Banjul. It is interesting to note also that defenders of Macky Sall indicated that, Senegal has many rich people for Macky Sall to tap into than use the ill-gotten and corrupt money of President Jammeh. Others argued that Macky Sall is far too experienced to know a man like President Jammeh can never be a reliable bedfellow.

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