Senegal president commits no mistake in 10-year rule

SENEGAL President Abdoulaye Wade marked 10 years in office yesterday by delivering a staunch defence of his record, saying he could not recollect a single failure during his decade in power.

Wade, whose election on March 19, 2000, ended 40 years of socialist rule, said he was proud of having persuaded the population of the West African state to accept heavy expenditure on education.

"I have not failed, I can't think of any days on which I failed and I would be happy if you could find one such area," he said in an interview with French channel Radio France Internationale (RFI) to mark his decade in power.

The 84-year-old, who was leader of the opposition for 26 years and was jailed several times by the predecessor government of Abdou Diouf, finally came to power after winning an election at the fifth attempt.

He was re-elected for a second and final term three years ago.

He said that he was proud of having increased standards of education and improved the road network that he said was now comparable to Europe.

"Everything has changed in Senegal," he said.

"My predecessors built bad roads and we had to do them again every year... but now we have roads just like ones in Europe."

Wade said that 70 per cent of the nation's population of 12 million were poor farmers who were not "particularly content" but who were better off as a result of his time in office.

The president pointed to his agricultural policy launched in 2008 to boost production as a "revolution".AFP