The creation of national champions capable of conquering the sub-region, Africa and even the world is a strong pillar of my political commitment. Economic patriotism is sacred to me. But I abhor injustice in the highest point. I hate to see the supposedly strong crush the weak.
Let’s not kill our national champions. But don’t let our national champions mutate into lawless vampires or cynical capitalists devoid of minimal business ethics.
In Ndingler, a couple of benefactors (Roland Rince and Gisou Rince) intervene through their association “Hearts and hands tied”. Pure white, French nationality. When they arrived in this village to which the State had given almost nothing, everyone knew that they had a human and sensitive soul. I do not know their confession but they acted as believers.
The list of their achievements for the benefit of the inhabitants is eloquent and the lease continues:
Construction of 4 rooms + entire school fence;
Construction of housing for Teachers;
Construction of a health hut;
Provision of an ambulance;
Endowment of the millet mill to reduce the arduousness of women’s work;
Construction of the premises housing the millet mill;
Construction of a toddler’s hut;
Construction of a shop for the village + starting goods of approximately eight hundred thousand (800,000) francs;
Construction of a youth center;
Training of a cohort of young people in the following fields: health, electricity and sewing;
Drilling of four (04) wells;
Purchases of goats for certain villagers as part of the circular donations they initiated;
Coverage of medical expenses for certain villagers etc.
One (01) year ago, Roland Rince passed away. And Mrs. Rince made it her duty to perpetuate the work of the association that she shared with her husband. However, they did not take any square centimeter from the peasants of Ndingler. No !
To those who say that Babacar Ngom is a model of success, I say, without knowing on what this success is built, that I share your opinion. The success story as told speaks for him … But no success gives anyone the right to extort, starve and ultimately kill the poorest.
The violent actions at Ndingler have taken away my esteem for the man. I find him cynical. I find it inhuman. Beyond the fearless entrepreneur under whom he appears, the Ndingler affair has laid bare his true face.
When, chased by clamor Akilee, he was forced by members of the investor club to publish a letter of apology to the Senegalese people, this is what he would have said: “Friday is for the days of the week what is Ramadan among the other months of the year, I learned from a Holy Man.
This Friday, May 22, 2020 is the last of this blessed month which, in a few days, in chaa Allah, will offer us the happy opportunity to unite our hearts in the peace of the Kority.
The blessed month of Ramadan, and especially the day of Eid, is always an opportunity to turn to Allah (SWT), Light of Heaven and Earth, to implore His Mercy and proclaim His Benefits. He is the Master of the Universe and of Time.
Also, taking refuge with Him, I take the opportunity to ask forgiveness from my family members, my friends, my collaborators, my interlocutors every day, my fellow travelers in social life and in business and to all my compatriots.
Hand on heart, I say to all of you “Bal lenn ma akh”!
When I read this letter at the time, I was taken up with duty (but the Ndingler affair was too serious to be drowned out by the Akilee scandal) to remind him that the month of Ramadan is certainly a month of forgiveness. But it is also the month of mercy.
When he asked for forgiveness on the occasion of this blessed month, he showed at the same time no mercy, no mercy for poor peasants left to their own devices who owe their salvation, in part, only to humanitarian and selfless action d ” a couple of good dyed toubab benefactors.
The relative legality alleged by some cannot hide the cynicism that has fueled the land grabbing process. It is not a question of national law or what do I know. What happened in Ndingler is theft. Bar point.
When, knowing that the deliberation of the commune of Sindia encroached on the fields of the cultivators of Ndingler, Babacar Ngom went to see the villagers to promise them mountains and wonders for the sole purpose of robbing them of their lands, the response of these peasants viscerally attached to the earth was an unequivocal no. And the 2,000,000 of our poor viciously drawn francs did not succeed in making them fold. Dignity !
At that time no property rights had arisen for his benefit. No decree, lease, or land title existed. But despite his refusal, he used his proximity to the President of the Republic and a certain bureaucracy to shamefully despoil them. He remains, by his greed, the only culprit in this story. He will be solely responsible for everything that happens.
These people I have listened to tell me about their rage and bitterness are determined. They do not intend to starve and watch their offspring starving, in complete anonymity. They would rather die in their fields, as martyrs and keep their dignity until their last breath.
And yet he went there and saw the abysmal gap between the standard of living of the villagers and his deserved bourgeois comfort. What cynicism!
To initiate an administrative procedure aiming to despoil 40 families of poor peasants, knowing that they will hardly be informed of it and then to come to oppose to them a property right born from this procedure, it is necessary to be at the top of the pyramid of immorality and greed to do it. Babacar Ngom-Sédima will have succeeded. In the name of the chicks ”.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye
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