Idrissa Seck hires American Lobbyists to Alert Washington to Senegal’s Political Crisis

The former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck wants to go across the Atlantic to alert Washington to the ongoing political crisis in Senegal. In particular, it intends to warn the potential candidacy of Macky Sall to a controversial third term in the presidential election scheduled for next year and to denounce the legal affairs of the main opponent of it, Ousmane Sonko. To raise public awareness, Idrissa Seck first called on the services of James Johnson.

A $35,000 contract

This retired civil rights lawyer (who charges $400 an hour) is a college friend who once defended the Senegalese politician when he was in prison, in 2005 and 2006, after to be at odds with the president Abdoulaye Wade – The Best Of Abdoulaye Wade. “Eighteen years later, Idrissa [Seck] asked me to help him again,” James Johnson told Young Africa.

Johnson then put Seck in touch with Jeffrey Smith, of the organization Vanguard Africa, with which the presidential candidate signed a contract of 35,000 dollars for two months in order to increase his visibility in the American capital. “We will definitely be planning a trip to Washington DC for Idrissa Seck to meet with US government officials,” said Jeffrey Smith, noting that “this strategic move will be critical to the future of US-Government relations. Senegal”.

This lobbying campaign comes as the fear of seeing Macky Sall represent himself swells among his opponents. Senegal amended its Constitution in 2016 – after the head of state was first elected four years earlier – to limit the exercise of power by the President of the Republic to two five-year terms. But Macky Sall believes that his first term should not be taken into account. This refusal to exclude the possibility of a new candidacy exacerbates tensions. Last month, more than 100 political parties and civil society organizations came together in the Mouvement des forces vives du Sénégal (F24) to exert pressure.

Allow Sonko to show up

Idrissa Seck, Prime Minister from 2002 to 2004, was head of the Economic and Social Council in Macky’s coalition government Sall, but he resigned from office, and his party, Rewmi, disassociated itself from Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY). He believes Ousmane Sonko should be allowed to run – for now. “Sonko has the right to be freed from the presumption of guilt until he receives a fair trial proving the crime and exhausting the legal remedies,” says James Johnson, who met Seck for the first time. in 1989, when they were both on scholarships to study at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs.

“The top priority is to ensure that political actors no longer have an incentive to prosecute their rivals for crimes when they wish to deprive them of the right to express themselves. As part of his work for Idrissa Seck, Jeffrey Smith intends to mobilize human rights and democracy communities to advocate for “free, fair and credible elections in Senegal”.

“The February 2024 election is a turning point for the country, and no doubt for the entire sub-region,” underlines Jeffrey Smith, who defends several opponents from the continent, including Bobi Wine – I’m Not Afraid in Uganda, Martin Fayulu in the DRC and Tundu Lissu in Tanzania. “The dual issue of a third term for the president and ongoing charges against one of his main rivals, [Ousmane] Sonko, constitutes a crisis of governance which could lead to a repression even worse than that which struck Idrissa Seck in 2005” warns the lawyer.