Yankhoba Diémé: "Bignona is a stronghold thanks to our work, not to visits from Sonko."

Minister Yankhoba Diémé strongly asserts the central role he played in establishing and consolidating PASTEF in the Bignona department. In an interview with Seneweb , he affirms that the party's uninterrupted electoral successes in this area are primarily the result of rigorous fieldwork carried out under his coordination.

“ If Bignona is a stronghold today, it is, quite modestly, thanks to the work we have done. Since I became coordinator of PASTEF in Bignona, we have not lost any election and we have always come out on top ,” he said, recalling that the area has regularly risen to the top of the national rankings in terms of electoral performance, including in the last legislative elections.

Looking back on the period when Ousmane Sonko was the figurehead of PASTEF's political project, Yankhoba Diémé explains that the mission of local officials was then to promote him to the citizens. " We were selling a leader within our party. That leader was Ousmane Sonko. We were all salespeople for his image and our political project. But in Bignona, I was the first ," he stated.

To illustrate the effectiveness of his territorial network, the minister emphasized that Ousmane Sonko had never visited his municipality, yet this had no impact on the election results. " Ousmane Sonko has never come to my municipality, and yet we have never lost there since I became coordinator. This proves that we worked to make the people love the man who championed our political project, " he asserted, noting in passing that President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, for his part, had visited the area three times.

Analyzing his institutional role, Yankhoba Diémé insists that his public action is part of a republican framework: " I have a social contract with the Republic, not with Diomaye or Sonko. I don't believe in irreplaceable men. "

Finally addressing the development of Casamance, the minister assured that the government was accelerating the implementation of the "Diomaye Plan." He revealed that advanced negotiations were underway with institutional donors to finance several key projects: " We are close to reaching an agreement with the World Bank. I cannot tell the people of Casamance to wait for some hypothetical deadline in 2029. Solutions must be found now. "