Karim Wade - 2009 Dakar Election and Ministerial Appointment

2009 Dakar Election and Ministerial Appointment

Karim Wade ran for office for the first time in the March 2009 local election in Dakar. Although Wade won a seat as a municipal councillor, the opposition won a majority of seats and thus gained control of Dakar's municipal government; the outcome was considered to be a political humiliation for Wade. Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye was subsequently appointed as Prime Minister, and he met with Karim Wade on 1 May 2009; at that meeting he offered Wade a position in the government, which Wade accepted. Later on the same day, Wade was appointed as Minister of State for International Cooperation, Regional Development (Aménagement du territoire), Air Transport, and Infrastructure.

Members of the opposition suggested that Wade and his father had originally planned that he would use local power in Dakar to position himself for the presidential succession, but that the plan had been thwarted due to the opposition's victory in Dakar. Consequently, according to the opposition's speculation, it was decided that Wade would instead be positioned for the succession through control of a key ministry. In the press, Wade's ministry was described as the largest one to ever exist in Senegal since it obtained independence, and Wade was compared to Ali Bongo, son of Gabonese President Omar Bongo, who was also thought to be positioned for the presidential succession through his control of a key ministry. President Wade consistently dismissed claims that he was preparing his son for the succession, describing Karim as an ordinary citizen.

The office building in which Karim Wade worked caught on fire on 1 October 2009 due to an electrical problem, and Wade was rescued from the building by French and Senegalese firefighters. In December 2009, when defending Senegal's construction of a massive "African Renaissance" statue from imam claims that it was "idolatrous", President Wade compared the statue to Christian statues of Jesus Christ. Although he used the comparison to counter the suggestion that the statue was idolatrous, some Christians angrily protested his remarks, and Wade sent Karim to deliver an apology to Theodore Adrien Sarr, the Archbishop of Dakar.

In a government where decision-making was already heavily dominated by President Wade, Karim was given vast responsibilities that far exceeded those assigned to ordinary ministers, and some argued that his portfolio covered 46% of the state's budget. According to President Wade, Karim's vast responsibilities were justified by his exceptional competence. By 2010, with Karim playing a key role in government work, it seemed clear to many Senegalese that he was being prepared for the presidential succession, particularly in light of his father's advanced age (Abdoulaye Wade was 84 years old in 2010). The elder Wade's decision to create the office of Vice-President fuelled rumors that he envisioned it as a mechanism through which to secure his son's succession, although he made no immediate move to appoint Karim (or anyone else) to the newly-created post.

Despite the ongoing speculation, in 2010 President Wade still seemed fit and energetic for a man of his age, and he expressed his intention to stand for another term in the 2012 presidential election. Karim himself was observed to be highly deferential towards his father. In the public, there was considerable objection to the notion of a father–son succession, and Karim seemed foreign to many Senegalese, raising the question of whether such a succession would be politically viable.

President Wade expanded his "super-minister" son's already vast responsibilities even further by assigning him the energy portfolio, in addition to his existing portfolios, on 4 October 2010.

Abdoulaye Wade ran for another term as President in the February—March 2012 presidential election; his candidacy was controversial, with the opposition arguing that he had already exhausted the two terms permitted under the constitution. Wade was ultimately defeated by opposition candidate Macky Sall; consequently Karim Wade lost his government post in April 2012, when Sall was sworn in. A year later, on 17 April 2013, Karim Wade was charged with corruption. His lawyers alleged that the case against Wade was politically motivated.