Birame Souley Diop is the first vice-president of the Pastef party led by the leader Ousmane Sonko, mayor of Zinguinchor radical opponent of President Macky Sall. He is also a Deputy of the parliamentary group YEWWI AS KAN WI and Mayor of Thiès Nord, two positions he held following the parliamentary elections on 31 July 2022. During his recent visit to Paris, he kindly granted us this exclusive interview. An interview where we discussed purely political issues focused mainly on the upcoming elections including the 2024 presidential election. He addressed various issues such as the parliamentary elections that allowed his rise in the hemicycle; the arbitrary arrests of members of the Pastef Les Patriotes party (Les Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l’éthique et la fraternité)Ousmane Sonko’s judicial records; the party’s philosophy among other burning issues that revolve around a probable candidacy of President Macky Sall for the 2024 elections.
But who is Birame Souley Diop…
In short, Birame Souley Diop is a native of Keur Mame El Hadj in Thiès, a region located 70 km east of Dakar, the Senegalese capital. He is part of the religious family of the Ndieguen. Before his university studies, he was a boarder at the Saint Gabriel school and then it is the turn of the Malick Sy high school to welcome him for his secondary studies. A former student of the Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis, he will do a DEA in Law, before succeeding brilliantly in the ENA entrance exam. It is within the union of taxes and fields that he consolidates his professional career. A patriot at heart, he met Ousmane Sonko at university, who became his political mentor. They became inseparable. They find themselves together in the tax administration where they vigorously defend the same causes of loyalty, belief in work, greatness in their actions but especially of humanism. Later, it is without hesitation that they build their political home within the Pastef les Patriotes Party founded in January 2O14 by young executives of the public administration, where the child of Thiès now occupies the rank of first vice-president.
The full interview to watch here:
The exclusive interview
In this exclusive interview, MP-Mayor Birame Souley Diop reviewed the last parliamentary elections that allowed him to sit in the National Assembly. “Poorly organized elections” in his opinion, because most of their incumbent leaders were banned from running.
Birame Souley Diop also addressed Senegal’s next major electoral event, the presidential election which is fast approaching. From the position of President Macky Sall, who is in his second consecutive term, with the aim of running for a 3rd mandate, which he struggles to give a firm and definitive answer “neither yes nor no,” he says. According to Birame Souley Diop, “It’s not a problem of a third term in fact, it’s a problem of a third candidacy and he [President Macky Sall] has no right to do so.”
Ousmane Sonko, the mayor of Zinguinchor, said he was the victim of a state plot. The politician speaks of relentlessness, violation of his rights, political liquidation, recently he even alerted international opinion to the fact that President Macky Sall Persecuted, he says that his life is threatened, this issue was also addressed by Birame Souley Diop in this interview.
President MACKY SALL says he wants to reduce the opposition to its simplest expression. Karim WADE son of former President Abdoulaye Wade who was a potential candidate for high office is exiled in Qatar for years following his conviction on 23 March 2015 for illicit enrichment. The former Mayor of Dakar Khalifa Ababacar Sall, also saw his project to occupy the head of Senegal destroyed because of his sentence on 7 March 2017 to 5 years in prison in the case of the city hall advance fund. He ended up in prison and released by presidential decree in 2019. Ousmane Sonko, the fierce opponent of President Macky Sall declared his candidacy for the elections of 2024 under the backdrop of judicial tension. He is accused by a masseuse on behalf of Adji Sarr of rape and death threats, he continues to denounce a state plot and a plan of political liquidation, etc. Birame Souley Diop to give his point of life on this subject.
On the issue of arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of Pastef’s members, Birame Souley Diop said, “There have never been so many political leaders imprisoned in 12 years. Almost 160 people were taken to prison. But today … the population is determined and we know that if we let it happen, he [President Macky Sall] will impose a monocracy, a monarchy in Senegal.”
