The former banker cum business executive does not have any political party affiliation. Senegal’s newly elected President, Macky Sall on Tuesday April 3, 2012 appointed Abdoul Mbaye as his Prime Minister, barely a day after being sworn into office, Al-Jazeera Television reported. A presidential decree announced the nomination of the ex-banker now turned business executive.

According to AFP news agency, President Sall in his first televised address to the nation since his crushing victory over veteran President Abdoulaye Wade on March 25, promised that his administration would put public interest first. Power, he said, is meant to serve others, not one’s interests, promising to do away with favouritism and influence-peddling.

Declaring that everything was urgent, the new president said he would focus on education, health and reducing the rising prices of basic goods in the nation where some 800,000 people are going hungry in the north due to a drought gripping the Sahel region. He warned that there will be no place for soliciting privileges or advantages for individuals in the new government. He announced that legislative elections had been moved back from June 17 to July 1 of this year.

Also in his address, Sall said he was holding out a brotherly hand to the leaders and fighters of the Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces. The southern separatist movement has waged a low-level struggle for independence for three decades; a fight that he said had lasted too long.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has urged the new president to promptly address longstanding human rights concerns. They include delays on bringing former Chadian president, Hissène Habré to trial for alleged atrocities committed under his rule, the widespread exploitation of at least 50,000 young boys through forced begging, and the protection of the rights of people who identify as gay or lesbian.

Prime Minister Mbaye, a 59-year-old technocrat educated in Senegal and France and well known for his rigour, is a newcomer to Senegalese political circles. Not long after being named, he announced that he would soon announce a small cabinet of a maximum of 25 ministers. The new government was expected yesterday.