Jew World Order

“I never had personal ambition to be president,” Mr N’Dour, 52, told The
Sunday Telegraph. “But the situation is so bad at the moment.
Senegal needs a renaissance.”

However, his intentions have – for now – been thwarted by the incumbent,
Abdoulaye Wade, 85, Africa’s second oldest leader after Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe.

First elected in 2000, Mr Wade is controversially running for a third term
after a court ruled that a new law restricting presidents to two terms need
not apply retrospectively.

The same panel of Wade-appointed judges also ruled last month that Mr N’Dour’s
candidature was invalid, saying some of the 10,000 signatures on his
nomination were illegible. This has not stopped Mr N’Dour from campaigning
vociferously against Mr Wade’s “unconstitutional” third term.

And it is against this backdrop that Senegal, the only country in West Africa
never to have had a coup d’etat, has become the unexpected scene for violent
protests, with rocks hurled at the president’s car and four killed in recent
clashes.

Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, and the US Ambassador Lewis Lukens
have both called on Mr Wade to stand aside, but the president retorted that
he didn’t care what the “toubabs” (Westerners) thought.

Mr Wade’s supporters claim he has improved infrastructure and raised living
standards, while his detractors voice concerns about corruption, wasteful
spending and nepotism. Some observers darkly remark that he is guaranteed to
win, regardless of how people vote.

Since Senegal gained independence from France in 1960 it had previously
maintained an uninterrupted tradition of peaceful, multi-party democracy.

This time, 14 different candidates are competing to be president – among them
three former prime ministers, a woman who is a respected human rights
professor, and a flamboyant fashion designer. If none wins more than 50 per
cent in the first round, the two front-runners will proceed to a second
vote.

The race is tightly fought, but it seems probably that either Macky Sall or
Idrissa Seck – both former prime ministers under Mr Wade – may go through.
Moustapha Niasse and The main focus of oppositiion attention remains Mr
N’Dour, however.

At Dakar’s sprawling university campus, many students were sceptical about the
singer’s political ambitions. “He didn’t even finish school, so how
could he run a country?” said law student Lamine Camara, 32. “He
should stick to music.”

But in Mr N’Dour’s working class neighbourhood of Medina, however, they beg to
differ. The son of a impoverished car mechanic, Mr N’Dour began singing at
the age of 12, making a living trading pirate CDs. As news of his vocal
talents spread he began to achieve international fame, performing with
artists such as Sting and Tracy Chapman. His 1994 recording of Seven Seconds
sold 1.5 million copies.

“He is a good man, and he knows our problems,” said Mohammed Seck,
65, a market trader. “I trust him and I would have voted for him. We
all would have, which is why it’s so terrible that he has been stopped from
running.”

On Wednesday at an opposition rally in Medina, amply-proportioned women in
colourful African head-dresses berated the baton-wielding riot police, until
they were dispersed by volleys of tear gas.

The unrest continued on Thursday and Friday, with scores of riot police
manning positions in the downtown Plateau district during hours of running
battles between security forces and protesters, leading shopowners to
barricade their store-fronts.

The seaside capital was left strewn with debris after protesters erected
flaming barricades at street intersections – burning tyres, cardboard and
wooden tables used by market women to sell their wares.

On Saturday a youth was killed by a tear gas canister in the town of Kaolack.

“The president has crossed a red line. That is why people have been
forced to rise up,” Mr N’Dour told The Sunday Telegraph.

“He is one of the oldest presidents in the world. But 60 per cent of the
population are under 25. How can he speak for them? And most importantly, he
has gone against the constitution.

“We’re not calling for an Arab Spring-style revolution. But we certainly
need an evolution.”

Governing Senegal would be a challenge for anyone. Some 60 per cent of the
population are illiterate, almost half are unemployed and the per capita
income is just $1,041 dollars (£665) a year.

Around half of the country’s 12.6 million people live below the poverty line,
and its economy – based on peanuts, agriculture, fishing and tourism – is
struggling. Energy shortages make prolonged blackouts a constant feature of
life.

Mr N’Dour has invested the proceeds of his music sales to establish one of a
handful of independent television and newspaper groups.

“Maybe I haven’t got the same diplomas as them,” he said at the
whitewashed compound that houses offices, television station and recording
studios in the smart Les Almadies suburb. “But I know the world, and I
understand how things work and how to get things done.

“I took a long hard look at myself in the mirror. And I thought: ‘They’re
not more capable than me.’ Why should politics be a closed shop?”

Dressed in a dapper black corduroy jacket and white shirt with a flamboyant
collar, the gaze from behind his thick-framed glasses is intense. “I
look at my people, and I look at those who control them – the political
elite. And the sad thing is that the elites are just not interested in the
welfare of the people.

“They live in this tiny section of the country – the well-paved, well-lit
road from the presidential palace along the Corniche – and the true country
is forgotten. Our country has a proud tradition of democracy. And that is
being deleted.”

He rejects comparisons with other wealthy Africans who have returned to their
home countries wanting to make a difference – like the former footballer
George Weah, who ran for president of Liberia.

“I respect him tremendously, but I am not George Weah. I live here, and I
have always lived here.

“It is different for people who live abroad and only learn about their
country through the internet or talking to people at home. I have lived
through this, and I know what the people are suffering.”

He is evangelical about the need to energise Africa’s business sector. “We
have a young and vibrant population here. There are lots of people ready to
work here. Africa is the future. If they help us, we can do it.”

As the election nears, Senegalese voters are nervous. Most grudgingly predict
a win for Wade, with the divided opposition unable to present a convincing
challenge.

But many fear that Mr Wade plans to follow his re-election by lining up his
widely distrusted 43-year-old son, Karim, who runs four powerful government
ministries, as his successor.

Others suspect he is motivated by the fear that a new government would expose
a network of cronyism and corruption.

His record in office is not entirely unsullied. In September 2009 Mr Wade
handed an IMF official a suitcase containing a $200,000 “parting gift”.
The money was returned, and Mr Wade claimed that it was a mistake by an
over-enthusiastic aide.

He has also been accused of using his special powers as president, intended to
protect sensitive coastal land, to hand valuable seafront plots to his
cronies, who in turn have made huge profits selling them to developers.

Two years ago he came under fire for spending $1.6 million of the government’s
money on a string of suites in a luxury Swiss hotel for his annual holiday,
just as devastating rains and floods left 264,000 Senegalese homeless. He
was eventually forced to repay the costs.

There is deep frustration among diplomats that, like so many African
politicians before him, Mr Wade has refused to step aside from power to
become a dignified elder statesman. Instead he seems to have fallen into the
trap of megalomania – building glitzy housing estates and city centre
skyscrapers, and erecting grandiose monuments including one that is taller
than the Statue of Liberty to mark the 50 years of independence.

“He’s made a $26 million statue, but he’s not given the people running
water,” said Mr N’Dour. “The president is behaving like a king. He
is earning perhaps 25 times the salary of your David Cameron, and just
simply handing out houses to people. He throws money at them to keep them
quiet. How is that possible?

“I told him this personally, many times… that we still need his age and
experience, but he could retire with dignity. Like other African leaders of
his era, he is shutting doors for himself, and it is a great pity.”

Mr N’Dour promises to fight on, however – challenging the presidential
election by every means possible, before contesting parliamentary elections
in June. He has stopped making music, to focus on the struggle.

“We do not have diamonds or petrol here. But what we do have is even more
precious: a shop window for democracy. We are proud of that. And surely that
is just as important to fight for as oil or gold?”