Robert Sagna

Robert Sagna (2009)

Robert Sagna (* 17th April 1939 in Brin, Ziguinchor , Casamance ) is a former Senegalese politician , the minister several times and in 2009 a candidate for the office of president was.

Life

Degree, engineer and state secretary

Robert Sagna completed a degree in agricultural engineering in Belgium and in econometrics at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne , which he completed with a diplôme de troisième cycle . He was then initially inspector of agricultural engineering in Thiès and two years later head of the hydro-agricultural development department of the rice project in the Sédhiou region financed by the World Bank . In 1974 he moved to the Ministry of Rural Development as Director of Studies and was subsequently built up by President Léopold Sédar Senghor to succeed Émile Badiane , the charismatic political leader of the Mouvement des forces démocratiques de la Casamance (MFDC) and Minister for Cooperation, who died in 1972 . During the presidency of Léopold Sédar Senghor in February 1978 he became State Secretary for Human Promotion (Secrétaire d'Etat à la Promotion humaine) in the cabinet of Prime Minister Abdou Diouf and as such was also responsible for the nutrition plan (Plan alimentaire du Sénégal) , which between 1978 and 1985 existed. He was then Secretary of State for Deep Sea Fisheries (Secrétaire d'Etat à la Pêche maritime) between 1980 and 1983 and continued to be promoted by Abdou Diouf, who had been State President since January 1, 1981. At the same time he was involved in the Parti Socialiste du Senegal (PS) as its chairman in the Casamance.

Minister and Mayor

In March 1983 Sagna, who was also a member of the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale du Sénégal) , became Minister of Equipment (Ministre de l'Équipement) and held this position until 1988. At the same time, he also became mayor of Ziguinchor in December 1984 and held this position held for almost 25 years until 2009. He managed to reach a compromise between the two factions of the PS that faced each other in Ziguinchor, the so-called “capital of the south”: that of the outgoing mayor Mamadou Abdoulaye Sy and that of Doudou Cissé , who was under pressure from President Diouf renounced his own candidacy for the office of mayor. He was also Minister of Tourism (Ministre du Tourisme) from 1987 to 1988 and Minister of Communications (Ministre de la Communication) between 1988 and 1990 . He campaigned for a peaceful end to the Casamance conflict and was also President of the Research Group for Peace in Casamance GRPC (Groupe de Recherche pour la Paix en Casamance) .

In the second cabinet of Prime Minister Habib Thiam , Robert Sagna was initially Minister for Equipment, Transport and Marine Affairs (Ministre de l'Équipement, des Transports et de la Mer) between 1991 and 1993 . In 1993 he became Minister of State (Ministre d'État) and Minister of Agriculture (Ministre de l'Agriculture) and held these offices in the cabinet of Mamadou Lamine Loum , who was Prime Minister between July 3, 1998 and April 5, 2000 .

2007 presidential candidate

In 2006 Sagna founded the Démocratie Solidarité movement together with Madia Diop , Mamadou Diop and Cheikh Abdou Khadre Cissokho within the Parti Socialiste du Senegal and shortly afterwards announced that he would be running for the 2007 presidency . In this election he won only 88,446 votes (2.58 percent) as an applicant for the Démocratie Solidarité . In the local elections on March 22, 2009, he ran again for the office of mayor of Ziguinchor, but was defeated by Abdoulaye Baldé , the general secretary of the presidential office. He has received several awards, including the Officer's Cross of the Legion of Honor and the Order of Merit of France and the Knight's Cross of the Sovereign Order of Malta .

Web link

• Entry on the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale du Sénégal)
• Entry in Rulers