In a public statement, a former prime minister in Senegal and runner-up in last March’s presidential election has accepted the challenge to a debate from the current head of government.
“I accept Mr. Sonko’s invitation to a public debate,” said Amadou Ba on his X (formerly Twitter) account Thursday morning.
On Monday, October 21, Ousmane Sonko, Senegal’s prime minister and president of the PASTEF party, had publicly challenged Ba in a tweet, inviting him to a controversial debate on economic issues.
Sonko’s statement came shortly after Amadou Ba, as head of an opposition coalition, held a press conference to prepare for legislative elections scheduled for November 17.
In his message, Sonko, who will head PASTEF’s national list for those elections, had welcomed the public reappearance of Amadou Ba, former prime minister under Macky Sall.
“Finally, things are moving. Mr. Amadou Ba has decided to come out of the shadows and no longer hide behind his pen-wielding mercenaries and other columnists,” Sonko wrote, inviting his predecessor to a debate on the country’s economic and financial situation.
Tensions between the two influential figures on Senegal’s political scene have increased in recent years, particularly during the last presidential election, when Bassirou Diomaye Faye was elected in the first round and Amadou Ba came in second.
In accepting the invitation, Ba stated that the debate would focus on the aforementioned reports and crucial issues such as the economy, freedoms and natural resources, ”n order to confront our ideas at the service of the people”.
Writing on Facebook, he added: “Our respective teams could meet to work out the practical details. In the meantime, I hope that he will provide me with the reports he mentioned, and that he will make public all the exchanges between me as Prime Minister and the ministers involved in the allegations, so that we can usefully debate all the issues raised in these reports. Beyond the topics he proposes, even if it is curious that he himself should define the contours, the debate will have to include all aspects of our nation’s life (economy, public finances, purchasing power, employment, public freedoms, institutions, justice, natural resources, floods, education, health, security, diplomacy, etc.)”.
Another Amadou Ba, an influential PASTEF executive, clarified on Facebook that Mr. Sonko would be available for the debate with former Prime Minister Amadou Ba on Monday 28 or Tuesday 29 October.
AC/lb/as/APA