Testimony of Tidiane WANE, polytechnic engineer at the Presidential Palace
Master Abdoulaye WADE, Centenarian on May 29, 2026. Machallah. May God grant him many more years of health. President Wade worked for his country and for Africa. We, the youth of the turbulent years (1988-2000), can testify to this. The master of SOPI, the change, initiated us to Democracy and the fight for self-assertion.
Since we were students at the Lycée and then at the University, we have closely followed Master Wade’s epic battles against the excesses of the socialist regime established since independence in 1960. Master Wade fought with courage, conviction, and intelligence. After 26 years, he finally brought about alternation in Senegal. After my studies, I decided, with a group of three friends, to create an IT engineering company in 1995.
In 1998, we won the contract to supply the IT system for the PPEA, a new project of the World Bank. The client paid us an advance, but it was not enough to buy the necessary equipment. Our supplier INFOPOINT Montpellier refused any credit and sent back the amount I had already transferred to his account. We were stuck. Our sales manager Tamsir Ba asked one of his friends in France, Mr. Cheikh Camara, who put us in touch with his older brother Moustapha Camara “Grand Camou” as everyone called him. He was very close to Master Abdoulaye Wade. So Grand Camou recommended us to the traditional supplier of the PDS, Mr. Paul Benichou, CEO of NSX INFORMATIQUE, a large IT equipment distribution company located at 42 Avenue de la Grande Armée, Paris. I requested an additional loan from Mr. Souleymane Ly, Director of Operations at BST, a bank chaired at the time by Mr. Abdoul Mbaye. We managed to send Tamsir on an urgent mission to Paris to negotiate supplier credit with NSX Paris. Upon arrival, he coincidentally met Master Abdoulaye Wade in Paul Benichou’s office. Sensing that our envoy was stuck with the supplier, Master Wade suddenly joined the discussions and decided to guarantee us with a check, without even knowing us. He did, however, ask Tamsir to speak to his management. He passed him the phone to me. After the initial greetings, Master Wade asked me to introduce our company to him. As soon as I mentioned my name, he immediately responded with this: “Well, you are a WANE, so you must be a relative of my friend Amadou Moctar WANE with whom I formed the PDS. You are Almamy and you always keep your word. That’s enough guarantee for me. I’ll leave you a check for the 10 million you are missing and Paul will deliver it to you. I encourage you to have decided to undertake and invest in your country. Fight, success is always at the end of the effort.” I sent back the advance to NSX Paris. Finally, the contract with the PPEA went well and our firm INTELECT won the PDS as a new client. It is in this capacity that I had the chance to witness certain episodes and anecdotes, especially in the final round towards the victory of March 19, 2000.
At the end of 1998, Master Wade entrusted us with securing his IT server and designing his website. What class and what genius, I discovered the candidate Wade and the smart intellectual who understood everything at the first explanation, even if it was not his field. He knew exactly what he wanted and how to achieve it. One evening in 1999, he summoned us to Point E, my colleague Tamsir and me, to present him with the first version of his 2000 election campaign website: www.maitrewade.com. A meeting was scheduled for the next day at 3 p.m. I arrived at his office at 2:30 p.m. with Tamsir, armed with my computer, a video projector, and a dictaphone. Upon arrival, we were welcomed by Alexis who had us seated on the couch in his living room, right next to his office. We found Mountaga Gueye freshly arrived from the United States, Master Massokhna Kane, Idrissa Seck, Alioune Diop, Lamine Faye, and other members of the PDS. The host soon joined us. I had finished setting up my presentation screen. After hearty greetings, he invited us to unveil the result of our work. I then projected the first page of the website www.maitrewade.com. Several members of the audience exclaimed “Wow.” “It’s beautiful and brilliant, excellent work,” Mountaga confided. A feeling of pride and satisfaction overwhelmed Tamsir and me, the designers of the website. While everyone was amazed by the beauty of the work presented, the master remained relatively calm. This intrigued me a little.
And when he finally decided to speak, a dead calm filled the room. You could even hear the sound of a fly flying in the air, so attentive were the people to his reaction. The following quickly made me understand that they were not wrong. Master Wade began his observations with a direct question. – “Who chose this photo?” He was referring to the large photo on the homepage. – “It’s me,” my colleague Tamsir proudly replied. It was the very beautiful photo of Master Wade dressed in a grand blue boubou, embroidered with yellow on the front. Master Wade replied to him gently and delicately. “Yes, this photo is very beautiful but it doesn’t belong here. Put it on the following pages because with this grand boubou, I don’t want to be mistaken for a marabout. Remember that this website is the showcase of our campaign abroad. The diaspora and partners will visit it every day to get news from me. In addition, we must avoid scaring foreign donors because they are always traumatized by Islamism and terrorism. So, on the homepage, put a photo of me in a suit and tie or in a shirt with suspenders. If you don’t have one, ask Alioune or Lamine. It will be simpler and more digestible for everyone.” – “Yes, you are right, Master,” I replied. Everyone agreed with me. Thinking that it was finished and validated for this page, I immediately wanted to move on to the next page. However, the vigilant Master returned with a second question. – “Who wrote the introductory text?” – This time, it was Master Massokhna Kane who immediately replied “it’s me.” Indeed, he was the head of the editorial committee, along with Mountaga Gueye. Here too, Master Wade took the opposite view of his committee in these terms: “your text is well written but you emphasize too much on my age.” The text read: “This man, over 73 years old, has devoted more than 26 years of his life to the struggle for democracy in Senegal.” Master Wade corrected the sentence with a touch of humor. “Rewrite the text by removing the reference to my age. It’s as if I’m too old to become President. At what age did Nelson Mandela become President?” he exclaimed. Just say “This man has devoted more than 26 years of his life to the struggle for democracy in Senegal.” Everyone agreed. Another lesson from the master. Sacred Wade!
After this episode, focus on 2000, the presidential elections that he would win on the evening of March 19, 2000. On April 1, 2000, along with our partner Paul Benichou, I was invited to the Honor Tribune of the Stade de l’Amitié for the swearing-in of the new President of the Republic H.E.M. Abdoulaye Wade. After the ceremony, I had the privilege of accompanying President Wade to the palace for his installation in his new functions. We were tasked with moving his IT equipment from his office at Point E to his office at the Presidential Palace: computer, printer, fax, scanner, everything. The new President is a modern man, a man of his time, connected to the world. Seven years later, in 2007, it was a repeat. Master Wade had to run for re-election. This time, he had formidable opponents: his former campaign manager, Idrissa Seck, and his former supporter and prime minister Moustapha Niasse. He knew that they knew a lot about him and how he organized his election campaign. The Master, still an ultra-informed and connected man, decided to innovate his communication campaign. He first targeted his loyal traditional militants from the early days, religious households, and the youth heavily present in the electoral register. He asked us to set up a system that would allow him to speak directly to them even if he couldn’t face them every day. The idea was implemented with the complicity of his son Karim Wade and his friend Paul Benichou. An automatic server for direct calls to the mobile numbers of militants and youth. He summoned me to his office at the Palace to record a voice message to be broadcast on a large scale across the country. This was Digital Contact. His communication advisors prepared a text to read and pre-record. I informed them that the message should not exceed 60 seconds.
After several attempts, we couldn’t record the text in one minute, the ideal time for good dissemination. So the President decided to abandon the text and improvise his voice message. He asked me to hand him the dictaphone and give him the signal when I was ready. I was alone in his office. In the living room next door, his communication advisor and the Minister of the Interior Me Ousmane Ngom were waiting. After finishing my settings, I handed him the microphone and gave him the go-ahead. I was surprised to hear the President automatically switch to Wolof to deliver his message. At the end of his speech, I looked at the clock: 58 seconds. He asked me, “So, how was it this time?” I replied, “58 seconds.” He said, “Well then, it’s perfect. We’ll keep that one.” I played back the recording for him to listen to. He confirmed. I asked if I could leave to start the work. He said no, call Hassan Ba. That was his communication advisor who was next to him. He then began to give us his instructions. “You broadcast from tomorrow. And start with Touba, Mbacke, Kebemer, and Tivaouane. For Dakar, start with the numbers starting with 77633 and 77634 because they are young people. The 77644 are not necessary because they are people from the palace and the government, I don’t need to approach them, they will vote for me.” That day, I discovered that President Wade knew perfectly the phone numbering plan of his country. Sacred Wade! The next day after the message was broadcast on all networks, there was a general outcry. From Touba to Dakar, all the called ones proudly repeated “President Wade called me personally to ask for my support and vote.” The message was clear, that was the goal. We await the vote of the Senegalese. When the results were announced, President Wade won in the first round. Some newspapers in the print media did not hesitate to headline: “the Djinn voted.” On his 100th birthday, we cannot ignore these anecdotes of the political genius Abdoulaye Wade. A generous teacher and intellectual, we learned a lot from him. President Wade fought political injustice while always respecting his opponents. Whenever he could no longer control the violence of the protests, he did not hesitate to step back. His supporters and even his opponents sometimes thought he was sacrificing his ambitions. They misunderstood the Professor he was. He always stepped back to jump better. And to save the Republic. As a result, it was with him that Senegal experienced its first alternation and the replacement of a President through the ballot box. Hats off to the democrat! Happy Birthday Mr. President, Happy Centenary Dear Master.
A.Tidiane WANE
Polytechnic Engineer, Graduate ESP/EPITA Paris Former Technical Advisor at the Presidency of the Republic Former Head of the NTIC Division of ANOCI/PR
