Senegal: Key figures in Wade's new cabinet

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DAKAR 000667 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL AND INR/AA PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHER TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS PINR KDEM ECON SG SUBJECT: Senegal: Key figures in Wade's new cabinet REF: Dakar 584 SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) On May 1, President Abdoulaye Wade revealed a new cabinet in response to his party's heavy losses following local elections. Aside from a new Prime Minister, the President appointed his son Karim as a "Super Minister" who will handle international cooperation, land use, infrastructure, and air transportation. The cabinet still remains a work in progress as one Minister has already been sacked, two ministers who were not reappointed were brought back, and one minister resigned because her portfolio was inconsequential. The whole process is in direct opposition to the will of the people who clearly rejected the incoherent fashion in which the country is being governed by Wade. End summary. Departures -------------- ¶2. (SBU) President Wade had warned his ministers before the March 22 elections that those who lost in their constituencies would be ousted. He kept his word, although the punishment was selective. Ten ministers lost their jobs including: --Cheikh Hadjibou Soumare: The former Prime Minister was asked to stay on but refused due to cardiac problems and a heavy workload during his two-year tenure. Despite his efforts, the country's economic condition has deteriorated due to a lack of budgetary discipline and the existence of multiple decision centers, especially in the President's Office and that of his son Karim who headed the Islamic Conference Agency that siphoned most of GOS resources in the past two years into costly infrastructure projects. --Ousmane Masseck Ndiaye: The former Senior Minister in charge of decentralization was singled out as the architect of his party's defeat. As the head of the Senegalese Democratic Party's (PDS) political activities, he played a key role in the selection of those who ran under the banner of the party. His fate was sealed when he selected cronies who were largely rejected by local people for their poor governance. Although Ndiaye was ousted after losing his own mayoralty in Saint-Louis, President Wade has appointed him President of the newly revived Economic and Social Council. --Awa Ndiaye: Despite lavishing copious amounts of cash on her constituency, Ndiaye lost in her own neighborhood in Saint-Louis. However, because she is a known associate of Karim Wade, she has been re-appointed as a Senior Minister without portfolio at the Presidency. --Mamadou Diop: The former Minister of Commerce and a member of AJPADS (African Party for Democracy and Socialism) was removed following an on-going leadership quarrel with his party's leader, Landing Savane. Savane, who was a Minister without portfolio, has also been ousted and is now flirting with the opposition. The Untouchables -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Since 2000 and despite nine cabinet reshuffles, some ministers never leave the government. They are dramatically referred to as "the untouchables." They are Cheikh Tidiane Gadio (Foreign Affairs),Abdoulaye Diop (economy and finance),Cheikh Tidiane Sy (Interior),Bcaye Diop (Defence),Madick Niang (Justice),Habib Sy (Public Function and Employment) and Moustapha Sourang (Higher Education). Some ascribe their longevity to faithful companionship with the President and others to their intense ties to powerful religious families (Mr. Niang). Mr. Gadio is known for his sharp diplomatic skills. Newcomers -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Souleymane Ndene NDiaye is the former Minister of Maritime Economy. His prior positions include a stint as Minister of Employment, Chief of Staff of the Presidency and spokesperson of the Presidency. Ndiaye is 51, a native of Guinguineo from the region of Kaolack. He is an attorney and a lifelong PDS stalwart. He is known for being outspoken and independent. Like his mentor Wade, Ndiaye has no scruples in politics; for example he married and then soon after divorced the daughter of the most popular female politician in his hometown to neutralize the opposition. Rumor has it that Ndiaye fancies himself a playboy. According to sources, the day he was named Prime Minister he went to the Meridien Hotel's discotheque to dance the night away in the company of a flock of girls. While some credit him as open-minded, others say he can be a little arrogant and not always capable of showing restraint when faced with political adversity. --Karim Meissa Wade: The appointment of the President's son to a cabinet position is unprecedented in Senegal's 50 years of independence. Traditionally, presidential children have been kept out of politics and government. Wade, after appointing his son as DAKAR 00000667 002 OF 003 an adviser in his office, named him chair of ANOCI, a state agency tasked with implementing a three hundred billion CFA (USD six hundred million) infrastructure program for the Islamic Conference Organization Summit that was held in Dakar in 2007. Then, in order to pave his way to the Presidency, Wade asked him to run for Mayor of Dakar last March, but he was soundly defeated. His appointment to the cabinet is meant to provide Karim with a springboard and give him a chance to familiarize himself with public management. Prior to 2000, Karim spent his career in Paris and London as a banker. He worked for UBS Warburg where he became an Associate Director in ¶2000. His mother, Viviane Wade, is a French National. The 41-year-old Karim was educated in France where he received a degree in Finance. He is now the most powerful Minister in Senegal as he has been put in charge of Land Use and International Cooperation where he will be able to negotiate funds with non-traditional donors and commit Senegal to various infrastructure projects like JAFZA (an industrial Free Zone with Arab investors) and the Diass International Airport. --Fatou Gaye Sarr, Minister of Agriculture. She is an Engineer in Agronomy and was briefly Junior Minister for rural development in ¶2007. She worked in the division of Statistics and Analysis at the Ministry of Agriculture and also headed a project for the development of villages known as PGOV (Project for the organization and management of villages). Some in the rural development sector think she is lusterless and that she poorly managed the PGOV project. The agricultural sector is one of the weak links of Wade's government, characterized by disjointed policies and difficulties in organizing the peanut market which is the country's largest cash crop. --Khadim Gueye is the Junior Minister in charge of farmers. A former General Manager of Suneor, (a peanut processing company), Gueye will work with the Minister of Agriculture. This position is new and seems to be a preemptive attempt to prevent farmers unions from turning the huge farming labor force against the government. The participation of farmers organizations in the Assises Nationales, a national forum seeking to offer alternatives to current governance, scared the GOS. Wade has already announced the creation of a Green Bank to be managed by farmers unions. He said he will introduce a bill to transfer GOS shares from the Credit Agricole to the new bank and said this way farmers can have access to about 30 billion CFA to eliminate intermediaries "that exploit them" in the purchase of seeds or in the sale of their produce. Even if the project does not materialize, it signals an attempt by the government to appease the leaders in the farming sector by giving them access to financial resources. --Moustapha Mamba Guirassy is the Minister of Communication and the government's Spokesperson. He is a businessman by trade who studied Management in Canada and upon his return to Senegal, created, in 1995, the private school of management IAM (African Institute of Management). A Former member of the opposition party AFP, he switched to the PDS and became politically active in his hometown of Kedougou. In 2007, he was elected as a Member of the National Assembly and in March 2009 he bucked the national trend by becoming Mayor of Kedougou while running on the PDS's ticket. His appointment as a Minister gives the people of Kedougou, a zone where there have been serious social and economic problems, a representative in the cabinet who can channel back government resources to his area, especially by hiring staff in his Ministry. The Minister of Interior Reinforced -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Although Wade fired two of his colleagues from Saint-Louis for having lost in the local elections, Cheikh Tidiane Sy remains in the cabinet with an expanded portfolio that covers local government affairs. Minister of Interior Sy is the most noted hardliner in the GOS, committed to defending Wade and the party. Sy's son is Wade's Information Technology adviser and he holds sway over all IT and telecommunication deals involving the GOS. Abdoulaye Balde - a rising star -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Abdoulaye Balde remains Secretary General of the Presidency. He led the PDS's victory in the city of Ziguinchor and in an overwhelming number of communities in the Casamance region. Balde is the strongest ally of Karim Wade as the two founded the Generation du Concret (Concrete Generation) that is looking to emerge as Senegal's leading political force after Wade. A member of Wade's entourage told Embassy that President Wade had wanted Balde to go into the cabinet to help Karim but that Balde had declined. Wade then turned to Ousmane Masseck Ndiaye to replace Balde but the latter made such a strong plea to keep his position that Wade abandoned the idea. However, it is not inconceivable that Wade may yet force Balde into the cabinet not only to help Karim but to also remove him from his current comfort zone where his power is increasing and he is less exposed to criticism than Karim. DAKAR 00000667 003 OF 003 Confusion or diversion -------------- ¶7. (SBU) The Senegalese, all too familiar with Wade's revolving door cabinet, have this time been stunned by the chaos surrounding the cabinet reshuffle as two days after the cabinet was announced, it was changed. Ousmane NGom, who was the Minister of Small Businesses and Mining, was in Iran negotiating to buy tractors for the GOS when he was removed. Upon his return, he pressured Wade and was immediately reinstated into his old job. After that episode Abdoulaye Diop, the Minister of Finance, protested that without responsibility for the economy he could not do his job and the President gave him back the Economy portfolio. The word "economy" had been amputated from the title of his Ministry to reflect a shift in power to Karim who had been given the International Cooperation portfolio. Diop regained his full title and kept the two most important departments of International Financial Cooperation and Debt and Investment in his portfolio. Karim, by virtue of being Minister of International Cooperation, will deal with non-traditional donors from Asia and the Arab countries. ¶8. (SBU) Mame Birame Diouf, after being fired as Minister of Culture for failing to contain former Prime Minister Macky Sall, was reappointed after his constituents in Fatick protested. But Diouf, who is now a Senior Minister, is in Charge of... a festival, i.e. the FESNAM, The Festival of Negro Arts to be held in December in Dakar. Meanwhile, Aida Mbodj resigned a week into her new job after realizing that her oddly named Ministry for Processing Agricultural Produce was an empty shell. COMMENT -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Local media have rightly depicted the cabinet as farcical. It continues the compartmentalization of the government and creates positions for individuals at the expense of cohesion and efficiency. As usual, there are way too many Ministers within the Cabinet and in the Presidency that are doing nothing. It is not the response people expected from the President after his party's local election defeat. Instead, President Wade remains indifferent to the pleas of the Senegalese and is obtusely ignoring the opposition-led "Assises Nationales." Winning the 2012 presidential election clearly remains his main goal and he has chosen a political cabinet that will continue to promote client politics and patronage rather than good governance. Bernicat