Debate Rages Over Whether Country Faces Famine

Debate Rages Over Whether Country Faces Famine

The Nation (Nairobi)

NEWS
30 April 2008
Posted to the web 30 April 2008

By Hamadou Tidiane Sy
Dakar

"There is no hunger in Senegal and there will be no hunger in Senegal," President Abdoulaye Wade declared at the end of April, annoyed that the main topic of discussion throughout the country is the ongoing food crisis that affects countries worldwide.

Notably, the president made the announcement at a ceremony where he inaugurated a modern farm, a pilot project that will be replicated throughout the country to revive the declining agricultural sector.

The project is among the many plans the government has launched in the past eight years to boost local agricultural production and ensure food security.

So far it has not been able to reach this target, despite several promising announcements. In response to the president's statement, and using strong symbols, thousands of protesters held a peaceful demonstration in Dakar last Saturday, carrying empty rice bags, tomato tins and other foodstuffs to show that they were hungry; the items also served as a "red card", symbolising their desire to see Mr Wade go.

The demonstration, the first by the opposition not to be banned and dispersed by police in three years, was organised by a coalition of opposition youth movements. To fight the government, opposition parties have united under an umbrella organisation, Front Siggil Senegal (FSS) or the Front to Save Senegal. All the main opposition parties' top leadership attended the demonstration.

The protesters made it clear that there is hunger in Senegal, adding that they wanted more food and a lasting solution to the food crisis.

Ever since a demonstration called by a couple of consumer associations to protest against the high cost of living was severely suppressed by police on March 30, the government and the opposition have been engaged in a tough battle of semantics.

Is there hunger or famine in the country or is it simply a "food crisis" similar to what several other countries around the world are experiencing?

What annoyed President Wade was that the March 30 protest was referred to as "hunger riots" by the local and foreign media, and was included in a list of similar events that had taken place, not only in other African countries, but also in other parts of the world.

At stake for the government are two things: its image abroad, and its popularity at home.

For the opposition, it is a matter of proving that the country's current leadership has forgotten its electoral promises. Mr Wade, in particular, had pledged to halve the price of rice if elected president but has only seen the commodity's price reach unprecedented highs since he was voted in eight years ago.

But for the millions of ordinary citizens, the bottom line is that the price of food has shot up beyond their means.

President Wade was elected on the promise that he would improve the living conditions that seriously deteriorated in the '80s and '90s. That means the current situation is a personal matter for Mr Wade and for the past two weeks he has been at various functions defending his position.

On the day the opposition held a demonstration, for instance, President Wade called a meeting of his own party, which quickly became a "popular" rally to launch a harsh offensive against the opposition.

While the private media focused on the protesters, who were demanding the president's resignation and affordable food, state media showed the president questioning the qualifications, abilities and competencies of the main opposition leaders, most of whom supported him in the 2000 election.

"In 2008, we are not in times of disaster as some destabilising groups want to prove. These groups are more interested in taking power than finding solutions to the problems posed by a global trend," the pro-government daily, Le Soleil, wrote in a full-page editorial.

Written in the form of a letter, the editorial ended with a promise of an invitation over lunch, with a plateful of rice, the country's main staple. It reflected the position the government has taken since the crisis started - denying the seriousness of the problem while pointing an accusing finger at "enemies" both inside the country and abroad, who it claims want to jeopardise the current regime's legacy.

Leading the battle

And leading the battle against both internal and external enemies is none other than "General Wade" - as the president referred to himself to mobilise his supporters. "I am an army general who has just started a battle and I urge my soldiers to engage in the war," he told a gathering of young supporters while inviting them to get involved in his many agricultural projects.

However, beyond the mere rhetoric, few believe he is taking the matter seriously, as the opposition has pointed out several times.

Last week, however, these accusations got some indirect backing from a less politically inclined personality. In an article widely circulated in the local media, the World Bank's country director, Madani Tall, pointed out that "food prices in Senegal are 24 per cent above the African average," and are the highest in West Africa, apart from Nigeria and Cape Verde.

"For a country with a port that even supplies landlocked countries, this is an irony worth noting," Mr Tall wrote.

He added: "We need to face facts and take a look at agriculture in particular, which has been neglected in favour of super-protected industries that are not competitive and do not even generate that many jobs," the World Bank executive said, ignoring that his own institution has also been criticised by local civil society activists as being part of the problem and partially responsible for the failure of Senegal's agricultural sector.

Meanwhile, Mr Jacques Diouf, a Senegalese national who is the director of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), had some harsh words for Mr Wade, who, while responding to a statement issued by FAO a few days earlier, had alleged that the organisation of using 20 per cent of the aid money it receives from donors for salaries and operational costs.

Mr Diouf strongly denied the allegation. "I don't know where Wade has got his 20 per cent from," he said, adding the Mr Wade would not solve the food crisis by criticising the FAO.

Less than a week after he unveiled his ambitious plan to boost local production, President Wade announced that he has reached a deal with India to import 600,000 tonnes of rice from the Asian country for six years. One private newspaper, Le Quotidien, bluntly asked: "Under such circumstances [importing rice from India] why would a farmer in the Valley [a region in the north] see the need to boost his production?"

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