Cameroon’s Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang led the country’s delegation to the swearing-in ceremony of Senegal’s new President, Macky Sall in the capital city, Dakar yesterday, April 2, 2012. President Paul Biya’s representative, press reports said, joined 11 African Heads of State to witness the historic event.
The 50-year old Macky Sall, Senegal’s fourth president since independence from France in 1960, won 65.8 percent of the votes cast in a run-off presidential election on March 25, 2012, defeating outgoing President Abdoulaye Wade. The swearing-in ceremony took place in the gardens of a large hotel in the seaside capital before the new Head of State made his way to the presidential palace where thousands of cheering supporters and admirers lined the road, waiting to usher him in, the AFP reported. Outgoing President Abdoulaye Wade after 12 years in power, handed over power to Macky Sall at the presidential palace.
Macky Sall, the AFP said, swore to observe and enforce the constitution, while defending the territorial integrity of Senegal. The new President of Senegal, a geologist by training, served as Wade’s Prime Minister from 2004 to 2007. Prior to that, he had held the post of Minister of Interior and Mines. He equally oversaw the re-election of Wade five years ago and later on became the Speaker of the National Assembly of Senegal. Macky Sall fell out with President Wade and decided to resign from the position of Parliament Speaker and Wade’s political party, PDS.
Determined to run for the presidency, Macky Sall in 2009 set up his own political movement, APR-Yakaar. He was Wade’s runner’s up in the first round of this year’s presidential election. In the second round held on March 25, all opposition political parties and candidates supported him.
