VZCZCXRO6649
PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #0268/01 0370743
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 060743Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4128
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 000268 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/W, INR/AA AND INR/B 
STATE PLEASE PASS USDA 
PARIS FOR POL - D'ELIA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/03/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PINR EAGR ETRD SG
SUBJECT: THE NEWEST ROUND OF CABINET "FINE-TUNING" 
 
REF: 05 DAKAR 03189 
 
Classified By: CDA ROBERT P. JACKSON FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
SUMMARY AND ACTION REQUEST 
-------------------------- 
¶1.  (C) On February 1, President Wade made a "reamenagement 
technique" ("technical fine tuning") of the cabinet for 
political and economic reasons.  Two ministers were ousted, 
two were promoted, and, in a nod to loyalists in the 
Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) think tank, one of their 
own was brought into the Cabinet.  A diehard Wade loyalist, 
Farba Senghor, now controls the politically sensitive 
agriculture portfolio.  Embassy requests that the "Country 
Background Notes" and "Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of 
Foreign Governments" be updated accordingly.  END SUMMARY AND 
ACTION REQUEST. 
 
WHAT'S BEHIND THE OUSTERS 
------------------------- 
¶2.  (C) Mamadou Seck was removed from the Infrastructure and 
Transport Ministry.  A source close to the President,s 
office told us he was fired because of his inability to take 
full control of the voter-rich Department of Pikine.  The 
newspaper Walfadjiri also charged him with mismanaging one 
billion CFA (USD two million) and bungling the President,s 
main road construction projects. 
 
¶3.  (C) Maimouna Sourang NDir was generally recognized as 
competent at the Small Business Ministry, but her rivalry 
with four other Ministers in her hometown of Saint Louis 
threatened to weaken the PDS there.  A source close to Wade 
hinted also that the President is not happy with the Sourang 
family.  The Minister's brother, who lives in the U.S., 
organized a noisy demonstration against Wade during Wade's 
2005 trip to New York to receive a human rights award. 
 
THE NEWCOMER 
------------ 
¶4.  (U) Professor Marie Pierre Sarr, who will take over the 
Small Business Ministry, is a long-time Wade supporter and a 
leading figure in Strategy and Initiative Cell (CIS), the PDS 
think tank.  CIS members complained they were not allowed to 
bring their expertise to bear on the government's management 
of the country, and Sarr's rise appears designed to assuage 
those complaints.  Sarr is a law professor who specializes in 
business/fiscal issues.  She is also a potential leader of 
the Dakar neighborhoods of Point E and Fann, where the 
current mayor, NDeye Maguette Dieye, maintains close 
connections to pro-Idrissa Seck dissidents within PDS. 
 
THE PRESIDENTS, MEN GET PROMOTED 
-------------------------------- 
¶5.  (U) Farba Senghor becomes Minister of Agriculture.  An 
apparatchik roundly criticized in the press, he successfully 
navigated his job at National Solidarity, where he raised one 
billion CFA to help victims of flooding and toured rural 
areas.  Following Wade's populist style of close contact with 
local peoples, he also made donations of food and equipment. 
Wade made his greatest political gains among farmers in 2000, 
but his agricultural policy is widely seen as lackluster at 
best.  Farba Senghor will be expected to take his political 
energy and his unwavering loyalty to the Wade family, to the 
farming areas and reignite enthusiasm for Wade.  It remains 
to be seen, however, if this populist approach can solve the 
problems of the peanut sector, employing 70 percent of the 
population. 
 
¶6.  (C) Habib Sy becomes Minister of Infrastructure.  A close 
friend of President Wade, he leads the PDS in the central 
region of Linguere, a traditional Socialist Party stronghold. 
 He was widely seen as a failure at Agriculture.  In late 
December, farmers organized a nationwide protest and blocked 
major roads to press the GOS to buy the year's peanut 
harvest.  With the infrastructure portfolio, Sy inherits 
major civil engineering projects underway.  Wade is counting 
on success in implementing infrastructure projects to play an 
important role in the 2007 electoral campaigns, and Wade's 
severest critics imply this is also a sector capable of 
producing kickbacks and, hence, political funds. 
 
ANOTHER ECONOMIC SECTOR IN CRISIS 
--------------------------------- 
¶7.  (C) The GOS coupled the cabinet reshuffle with creation 
of an inter-ministerial committee to restructure parastatals 
in crisis.  This is in response to widespread unease 
generated by Chemical Industries of Senegal,s (ICS,s) 
likely move for reorganization and protection from creditors. 
 
DAKAR 00000268  002 OF 002 
 
 
 ICS is a phosphate exporter and mainstay of the economy. 
Its failure could mean liquidation of 2,500 direct jobs and 
25,000 indirect ones, as well as the collapse of Senegal's 
leading export, phosphoric acid (reftel). 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
¶8.  (C) The reshuffled cabinet is a minor correction in 
Wade's electoral trajectory.  In order to win in 2007, Wade 
appears ready to sacrifice ministers with expertise and 
competence and to promote those who can mobilize militants 
and/or entice new votes with government resources.  Though he 
has made repeated offers to the opposition to form a wide 
coalition government, Wade must operate on the assumption 
that the main opposition parties such as the Socialist Party 
(PS) and Alliance of forces of Progress (AFP) will continue 
to decline his offer. 
 
¶9.  (C) Wade's current plan seems to be to reinforce his 
cabinet with PDS members devoted to him who can mobilize 
large numbers of voters at grassroots level.  The result may 
well be an atmosphere of permanent electoral campaign.  Many 
Senegalese deplore this situation and some may be losing 
faith in the political class and its willingness to focus on 
the country,s real problems.  Embassy requests that the 
"Country Background Notes" and "Chiefs of State and Cabinet 
Members of Foreign Governments" be updated to reflect these 
changes.  END COMMENT. 
JACKSON