Bassirou Diomaye Faye, From Prison To President Of Senegal

Dakar, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Mar, 2024) Propelled to power from humble roots despite never holding national elected office, Senegal's president-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye defied the odds by promising radical change and being guided by a charismatic mentor.

Commonly known as Diomaye, which means "the honourable one" in the local Serer language, he won the March 24 presidential election with 54.3 percent of the vote just 10 days after leaving prison.

His anti-establishment message, the backing of opposition figurehead Ousmane Sonko and his modest personality helped him to a crushing first-round victory over the governing coalition's candidate.

When 44-year-old Faye is sworn in on Tuesday, he will become Senegal's fifth and youngest president since independence from France in 1960.

In a victory speech in French and Wolof, Faye said his priorities were "national reconciliation", easing a painful cost-of-living crisis and fighting corruption.

He has promised left-wing pan-Africanism to restore national sovereignty that he claims has been cheaply sold off, with the oil, gas and fishing sectors all in his firing line.

He is looking at creating a new national Currency in lieu of the CFA franc and plans huge investments in the agricultural and industrial sectors to absorb unemployment that officially hovers at around 20 percent.

On the international stage, Faye seeks to bring military-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger back into the fold of regional bloc ECOWAS (The Economic Community of West African States) and recalibrate partnerships for mutual benefit.