We always talk about the economic situation. It's true. Times are tough. For you, for me, and for all of us, who have nothing but our labor to offer. I wonder how, after ousting President Macky Sall in 2024 because of a chaotic economic situation that was loudly proclaimed, brandished, and embraced by everyone, anyone can dare to believe that everything will be prosperous, beautiful, and festive in 2026. Can Senegal be transformed in two years? I think no one is more Senegalese than Macky Sall. If he had a magic wand, he would have transformed Senegal even further. But his time is over; he's gone. We inherited a system based on the successive establishment of a socialist-liberal oligarchy over almost 50 years of rule. This inevitably leaves its mark: habits, certainties, channels, clans, camps, and constraints. At Pastef, we refused to participate in this dynamic. We opted for a break. And we have decided to tell the Senegalese people the truth. It will be hard. It will be hard for everyone. Because we must review the very foundations of our wealth production, the way it is distributed, and the category of beneficiaries.

Yes, we will refuse. Compromises, shady deals, the sharing of the spoils at the expense of the Senegalese people. At Pastef, we know those we elected. No undue privileges, no special treatment, no sharing of the spoils. Just work, sacrifice, and produce wealth, not for ourselves, but for future generations. President Ousmane Sonko, the reality of power does not mean the same thing in the West as in Africa. In the West, the reality of power is expressed when choices are made regarding matters of general interest, related to defense, diplomacy, economic policy, laws, and regulations. Here, it refers to cronyism, family management, political maneuvering, the distribution of favors, the selection of individuals for governance—in short, choices that never reflect the general interest. If you were a socio-anthropologist, I would gladly have spoken to you about organizational systems, particularly the sociology of organizations, and shown you how organizational systems sometimes clash with the choices of decision-makers, reforms, and processes of change and transformation, and how the West, at the state level, has resolved the problem. Mr. President, we are fighting against shadows . Shadows are everything that, at any level, contributes to deceiving, destroying, slowing down, or preventing the choices of those in power, through oppositions that are not antagonistic but are deadly intertwined. These are corridors opposed to decision-making, tenacious opposition to change, circuits of obstruction, and mechanisms for perpetuating all systems based on nepotism and the society of hoarding, as described by the great master, the late Professor Malick Ndiaye. Everyone talks about a break with the past, but no one wants their particular interests touched, at the risk of harming the common good. This is the Senegal of today. With President Ousmane Sonko, it's even worse. The country is riddled with illiteracy, hatred and resentment, vengeance and cronyism. People who supported us yesterday, who supported the project, now think their turn has come. They too must benefit from privileges and perks, just like those we ousted from power. They weren't with us; they were acting in their own self-interest. The end of Macky Sall's regime has at least revealed that a very large political, media, and musical clientele—showbiz personalities, sycophants, praise singers, influencers, public insulters and slanderers, retired politicians, and an oligarchy of all stripes—were actually living off the state. They brought no added value to society. They lived at the state's expense, thanks to their positions, their connections, their lobbying, and their friendships. By shamelessly enriching themselves, they were impoverishing Senegal and the Senegalese people. President Ousmane Sonko, they are the shadows. The darkness, the system. The twilight. The abyss. And with them, death, at the dawn of all reforms and all bold initiatives. Creatures resolutely clinging to the Paleolithic era. President Ousmane Sonko, there is no reality of power here. Personal interests are at stake. President Ousmane Sonko, the shadows have taken hold of Pastef . We respect the president for who he is and for the conduct you have dictated. But honestly, President Sonko, the shadows have taken hold of him too. We know he is your friend, that you respect him, and that you have so far maintained the normal professional distance so as not to let anything leak out. But Mr. President, we all know that you are suffering. And we suffer with you. Because this time, frankly, we didn't see it coming. Because it came from within ourselves, from a son we brought into the world, in pain, at the height of the great 2024 revolution, just days before the elections. In an atmosphere of tension and terror. Mr. President, between us, and believe me, I know what I'm talking about, men and societies, it's my profession: This is no longer the man we knew. And the worst is yet to come. The encirclement of the highest source of decision-making by the Shadows. If it hasn't already happened. Mr. President, we didn't fight for this, for someone to prefer Mimi to Pastef, to prefer Mimi to Aida Mbodji, to recycle entire sections of the former opposition and frustrated individuals who have nothing but hatred for Ousmane Sonko. We didn't fight for foundations for first ladies, which we criticized yesterday, to be accepted today. We didn't fight for education, universities, transportation, and even agriculture to remain unreformed. Yet, Mr. President, these sectors have since been swallowed up by the shadows. Observation shows this: strikes in education have become cyclical. But there are more than just teachers in Senegal. It's a profession we respect, but national resources don't belong to a single socio-professional category. A student in 2026 cannot be the same as a student in the 1990s. An academic year cannot last two or three years. We prefer to tell you the truth and correct it while there's still time. Senegal's budget and budgetary capacity, as they stand, can no longer support the student population, scholarships, and back payments of all kinds. Similarly, the transportation system needs to be reviewed, corrected, and modernized. Every time the sector attempts modernization, prehistoric figures oppose it with their own specific interests, refusing change and progress. But it's a lost cause. A woman, whose name I won't mention, put modern buses into service, buses adapted for transportation, safe and secure, departing on time, with controlled speed, compliant technical inspections, normal tire pressure, and decent service—comfortable buses. These prehistoric figures tried to stop her. She resisted. She continues to resist. Interest groups that don't want anything to change. From morning till night, people who have never worked complain that "the country is a mess." They said it during Wade's time, they said it during Macky's time, and they will continue to say it under Diomaye. No class, no dignity, no initiative. Meanwhile, young people, armed with courage and perseverance, are trying to make things happen. With dignity. Every rainy season, ever since Wade, it's the same old story for farmers. Unsold peanuts. Unpaid wages. Because of successive regimes, farmers have been led to believe that the state is obligated to buy their harvest. No one has had the courage to make them understand that the Senegalese farmer is a promoter like any other, a seller. I have never seen a seller demand the forced purchase of their product. I have never seen an ordinary seller (because it has been ingrained in the minds of Senegalese people that peanut cultivation, inherited from the colonists, is essential ) be subsidized by the state with seeds and fertilizer and then have their product forcibly purchased. The state buys what it can, with its resources and forecasts. We want to reorganize the system and the entire production chain. Some people, resolutely stuck in the Paleolithic era, categorically oppose it. This is the reality, President Ousmane Sonko.

President Ousmane Sonko, the shadows have also fallen upon the long-standing activists who have since risen to positions of responsibility. And believe me, Mr. President, it's a disaster. Our political leaders have completely vanished. They no longer answer the phone. They no longer talk to the activists. They no longer read the news. They no longer show any interest in newspapers or current events, not even political ones. They no longer lead the coordinating committees or the local branches. All political activities are on hold. The grassroots are desperately lacking information. No CEO, minister, board chair, or director is available. Silence and total avoidance. A complete break in all contact with the grassroots activists. And yet, when we were seeking power, we were always together, sharing talking points and information on the government's prospects and achievements. But today, nothing. And even worse, all the newsrooms are complaining about their refusal to invite us to appear on television. The ministers think they don't have time to be constantly in the media. That's what the liberal regimes (Wade and Macky) said too. Except they had already had decades to build a political base. At Pastef, we've only just begun. Nobody wants to go on TV anymore, and those who do aren't known to Pastef and get mercilessly attacked by the opposing camps. We used to be close to newspapers and newsrooms; now we avoid them. We used to be very relevant; now nobody listens to us. We used to be applauded; now we barely bow our heads. Students used to be with us; now it's difficult to have a conversation with them. We used to have the real truth about all the ongoing legal cases. Now, for example, everyone thinks the Ngom case has gone from a hundred billion to two cell phones. That Azoura Fall has become the symbol of impunity in Senegal. That the martyrs died for nothing. That Abass Fall has replaced Pape Diop and Khalifa Sall in the competition for being unreachable by phone. That no real break has occurred because Macky's CEOs are our CEOs, and our CEOs receive salaries of 4 to 7 million, company housing, an 80 million car, a diplomatic passport—in short, that for two years we have done nothing but talk and nothing else.

Mr. President, the shadows have taken hold of us, of Pastef. Senegal is facing doubt and uncertainty. No one is lifting a finger. We have fallen into the trap of general relativism. General relativism occurs when, in any painful, ambiguous, unexpected, or dangerous situation where we expect reactions commensurate with the event, it is minimized, underestimated, trivialized, and diluted by institutional concerns, so that what appears very serious to the public is relativized by those in power at the highest level. We then perceive reality through distorted lenses. The consequence is that we don't have a full understanding of events because everything is relativized at the top, while at the grassroots level, there is catastrophe, pain, resentment, and silent hatred. That is the danger of relativism. Times are tough, yes, we at Pastef know that, which is why we've undertaken reforms and are fighting against debt and the global economic situation. We know, but do others see and understand things the same way we do? No one is communicating anymore. The AZER affair has become a recurring theme. Like all Senegalese, no one at Pastef is asking themselves why this affair keeps coming up? Again, we're acting as if all of Senegal understands. Which isn't the case, and we prefer to downplay it by saying that Thierno is playing politics. But do Senegalese people see it that way? No. Young Abdoulaye Ba dies after a police intervention at UCAD. The institutional process takes over. The police and the prosecutor get involved. We visit the family. We pay compensation. We mourn. We regret, and the next day everyone forgets. No one realizes that we've just done the same thing as Diouf, Wade, and Macky, and we've also had our first death. The prosecutor explained, and the family was compensated. But what remains in the Senegalese perception? That all governments are alike, "niom nieupa yèm" (they're all the same). A heavy legacy. No one is taking action anymore. No one is communicating. We're gradually drifting away from the grassroots and their realities, losing a part of our soul and sometimes our humanity along the way. Yes, Mr. President, we have chosen a break with the past. And we have decided to tell the Senegalese people the truth. It will be hard. It will be hard for everyone. Because we must revisit the very foundations of our society, our societal project, our values, and our traditions. But will that initial commitment, the one that made us proud, still exist? The further we go, the more I doubt it. Because Senegalese people think that life is a matter of chance, that one can live without working. We are blessed by the gods. Nothing can happen to us. What happens elsewhere will not happen in Senegal. The world expects nothing from us. Because God is human. He is Senegalese. He is of Wolof ethnicity, and paradise is ours.

Aly Khoudia Diaw, socio-anthropologist