Obama Not Necessarily Best Ally for Africa, Senegal President Says
By DIONI L. WISE and APRIL YEE
The UNITY News
Senegal president Abdoulaye Wade said he does not presume that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, if elected president, would be a better ally for his country than Sen. John McCain.
“I don’t push people behind color…I don’t believe Barack Obama will be at the service of Africa,” Wade said in an interview with The UNITY News and the Chicago Sun-Times. “They’re all Americans, anyways. I’m not making any postulates. He has to prove it.”
His views on Obama, whose father was African, were among several he offered in response to journalist’s questions. Wade was invited to Chicago by the National Association of Black Journalists to address UNITY membership about Senegal’s plan to increase agricultural production. His speech is at 1:30 p.m. today.
Wade then will fly to Washington, D.C., to meet with White House and State Department officials. He will not be in Chicago when the senator arrives to speak to UNITY on Sunday.
“You can say hello to him for me,” he said in a private meeting in a Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers suite.
Senegal made headlines Monday when media outlets across his country staged a press blackout to protest the police beating of two journalists and Wade’s refusal to condemn the beatings. He said the matter was in the hands of the justice system.
“If there is an incident between a journalist and a policeman, what would you like a president to do with this?” he said.
He said the reporters involved suffered from a lack of journalistic integrity that he lamented has become common in Senegal. He said many Senegalese journalists have not had formal accreditation to practice journalism.
Under Wade’s eight-year tenure, Senegalese authorities have used criminal libel laws to detain and question at least 15 journalists because of political stories, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Another 10 have been handed suspended prison sentences for defamation, though those terms were seldom applied. Wade said he wanted more journalists to be trained.
“They think in the newspaper you can write anything you want,” Wade said. “I should have been more vigilant than this. I should have been tougher.”
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July 25th, 2008 at 3:54 am
[...] much time away from his family. I guess the other big buzz of the day came when Senegal president Abdoulaye Wade said he doens’t care if Barack Obama is elected President of the United States. He said there [...]
July 25th, 2008 at 6:32 am
i am in senegal & i was in cali .siggil senegal is politic parties opposite to the president abdoulaye wade .they are jealous to senegalese pr realisations .they could’nt do projects in 40 years (the socialist party of course).now the senegalese people begans changing behaviours .cuz emergency of the country in 8 years.(since wade coming).(new airport,roads,bridges,univercities, somethings like that) the senegal is among leaders in african diplomacy, a leader of democracy.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Abdoulaye Wade, you hate him or you love him, he is a free minded president he tells what he think. And it is not the firt time he makes such an assertion. Invited in France 24 Wade told the audience, we are in world of competition where the color of skin will nolonger plays significant roles. He ’s given the example of Condy Rice, what has he done for Africa ? We support all Obama we love him but we africans have to open our eyes and look within. His first foreign visit doen’t lead to Nairobi or Dakar. Obama drops firt in Irak, Afghanistan, even before Europe. Yes Obama is not necessarily the best ally for Africa. He has to prove it, whenever he is reach the White House.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Please who is free minded ?
this more than 88 years old has lost his mind when senegalese people elected him as president!!! I’m ok with his point of view about Obama. Obama will be (maybe) elected president of the us and he will try to do the best for his country. But does Abdoulaye wade now, doing the best of his own country ? Since years, being aware that he no longer continues ruling this country, and also knowing that he has too much done harm to senegalese, (democracy, corruption, murder, and so on) he’s always doing his best I say, to put someone from his family or friends on the top to lead this country after him, so no one will talk about bad things he was doing.Senegal is no longer the country we knew. I don(t care about politicians but as someone living in this country, I know that things fall apart.Please try to know that man AW, it’s a prayer.
Unfortunately I can’t realy express myself in english but you black journalists, the day you’ll come here, you’ll see and here the truth. This guy is fake, he’s a liar.