By: Abdoulie John
In a blistering broadside that set the Léopold Sédar Senghor Stadium ablaze, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko accused former President Macky Sall of presiding over “a criminal government” that plunged Senegal into a cesspool of mismanagement, money laundering, and embezzlement.
Speaking to what eyewitnesses described as the largest political gathering in Senegal’s post-independence history, the PASTEF president thundered: “We inherited an economic situation in total disarray. Macky Sall’s regime failed the Senegalese people on every front.”
Saturday’s “tera meeting” on the esplanade of the 60,000-capacity stadium drew tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters who braved scorching heat to hear Sonko lay waste to the previous administration.
“We’ve won a battle, not the war,” Sonko roared, triggering a deafening roar that reverberated across Dakar. He warned that remnants of Sall’s “deep state” still control key institutions and demanded a root-and-branch purge of the judiciary and civil service.
In his most explosive declaration, Sonko insisted the former ruling Alliance for the Republic (APR) party must be dissolved outright, citing the scale of alleged economic crimes under Sall’s twelve-year tenure.
“Macky Sall’s government was a criminal enterprise masquerading as a democracy,” Sonko charged. “The embezzlement, the looting, the money laundering – the evidence is overwhelming. APR has no place in Senegal’s future.”
The stadium erupted as Sonko vowed to dismantle what he called “a mafia network that still hides in the corridors of power.”
Political analysts say the rally marks a dangerous escalation in Senegal’s already polarized landscape, with Sonko signaling zero tolerance for the old guard as President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s administration pushes sweeping reforms.
