Alioune Badara Cissé, affectionately known as ABC, died of an illness on Saturday 28 August 2021 at the main hospital in Dakar and held several positions in the government of Abdoulaye Wade and Macky Sall. As a sincere collaborator, he is known for his objectivity and his positions in favor of the exclusive interests of the Senegalese people. A look back at the journey of this multidimensional man, known for his wisdom and outspokenness.
Born on 16 February 1958 in Saint-Louis, Alioune Badara Cissé studied primary school in his hometown. It was in Dakar where he continued his secondary studies until obtaining the baccalaureate in series A4 with a mention well in 1978. His passion for the language of Shakespeare will make him the first winner of the 1977 General Competition in English at the Lycée Seydou Nourou Tall.
He began studies in foreign languages, English and Spanish, at the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar where he obtained his DEUG in applied foreign languages in 1980. After a degree in applied foreign languages from the University of Saint-Etienne in France obtained in 1981, he spent a period in Scotland where he taught English, Spanish and French at Beath High School until 1983.
He returned to France, but this time to Toulouse where he obtained several degrees from 1983 to 1986. It is thus that he obtained successively a degree in Public International Law at the University Social Sciences of Toulouse, a master’s degree in applied foreign languages at the University Toulouse le Mirail, a diploma of the Institute of Political Sciences of Toulouse (Economic Sector and Finance) and two Higher Degrees (DS) in Economic Law of Air Transport and Development and Technical Cooperation at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales et du Développement de l’Université Sciences Sociales de Toulouse .
It was then that he returned to his native country where he was admitted to the Dakar Bar in 1988 after obtaining a Master’s degree in Business Law. In 1992, he became a lawyer at the Court. That same year, he was a recipient of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program for an academic stay in Minnesota, USA. While in the United States, he will graduate in Leadership and Innovation at the Institute of Public Administration at the University of Minnesota certified in Leadership and Innovation and earn his PhD in 1999. He became Duris Doctor of Hamline University School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
His unusual academic background and strong leadership led him to several positions of responsibility. From 2004 to 2007, Me Cissé will be successively Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Senegal, Director of Cabinet of the Minister of Sports, Director of Cabinet of the Prime Minister Macky Sall, Secretary General of the Government and Commissioner General of the Government to the Council of State.
He is the first Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad under the Macky era in March 2012. He only stays there seven months before he goes back to his lawyer’s dress. In August 2015, Mr Macky Sall, President of the Republic, appointed him Mediator of the Republic. A fervent defender of rights, Me Cissé has set himself to be an attentive ear for the Senegalese in front of an administration that they think insensitive to their claims.
His death was a great loss for the country which saw him as a social regulator especially a few months before the local and legislative elections.
