Special funds: Yankhoba Diémé goes to the front and delivers the “real version”

At the end of his visit dedicated to religious and customary leaders, the kings of Oussouye and imams of the commune of Ziguinchor this Thursday, August 27, Yankhoba Diémé chose to break the silence on the so-called secret funds, by defending their institutional vocation and their role in the preservation of peace.

ZIGUINCHOR– The controversy over special funds was at the heart of Yankhoba Diémé’s tour in the south of the country. Before the traditional and religious authorities of the departments of Oussouye and Ziguinchor, the Minister of the Armed Forces relayed the message of the President of the Republic, with a stated desire: to reestablish what he considers to be the “true version” of a debate that has become political.

Far from the image of discretionary resources often associated with these credits, Yankhoba Diémé presents them as a mechanism included in the normal functioning of the State. “These funds constitute above all an institutional lever making it possible to support those who play a role in social regulation,” he explained in the evening.

For the Minister of the Armed Forces, their usefulness is particularly linked to religious and customary authorities, whose action contributes, according to him, to maintaining social cohesion and stability of the country. Bignona’s child also believes that confidentiality surrounding certain interventions is a legal requirement.

“When a public official provides support to a Caliph or a customary authority, he does not have to display it in public, since the law imposes precisely this discretion,” Yankhoba Diémé insisted.

The battle of law

Yankhoba Diémé also tackled the legal aspect of the controversy, in the wake of the decision of the Constitutional Council. It calls for a rigorous reading of the separation between the domain of law and that of regulation. “The simple fact that a text is framed by decree shows that we are within the regulatory field. For my part, when I have to defend a decision in front of the press, I rely on the law,” he declared.

Continuing, he specifies that the debate could therefore have been resolved earlier if this legal distinction had been correctly established. Yankhoba Diémé also places the use of these mechanisms in a long continuity of the Senegalese state, from Léopold-Sédar Senghor to Macky Sall. Beyond the parliamentary controversy, Yankhoba Diémé wants to refocus the debate on the function of these resources. In his eyes, it is not a privilege granted to a President, but a tool serving institutional stability, social mediation and national harmony.