Between clumsiness, improvisation, and protocol uncertainties, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye is accumulating blunders during his trips abroad, sparking criticism and questions on the national and international stage.
According to the newspaper L’Observateur, these repeated mishaps put the country’s image at stake and raise questions about the management of presidential protocol. The simplicity of the man should not be confused with the loneliness of the presidential function.
Supposed to enhance Senegal’s prestige on the African and international stage, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s trips sometimes turn into ridicule and lead to notable incidents. L’Observateur reports that between a misplaced speech at the United Nations General Assembly, unscripted remarks during presidential flights published on social media, a public altercation with his Rwandan counterpart, and a clumsy English tribute in Chadian territory, President Faye blurs the image of the Senegalese state.
Behind these repeated incidents, a whole part of the state apparatus is being questioned. Is it a rushed learning process, lack of experience, or simply an adaptation phase to power? Whatever the reasons, the country is exposed to a real risk: between inelegance and irony, the debate rages on. In state circles, Bassirou Diomaye Faye remains natural in his actions, despite the solemn nature of his function. However, without falling into unforgivable mistakes at his level of responsibility, it is urgent, according to L’Observateur, to correct the course to avoid protocol failure.
Moussa Diop, a language sciences researcher and political analyst, is firm but indulgent: “We must not forget that Bassirou Diomaye Faye is a President of rupture. The exercise of this new regime has found itself propelled to the top without real training in the intricacies of power and symbolic usages. We are in a learning process of power, but this is not an excuse. There are norms created within a certain culture. Bassirou Diomaye Faye is part of a political generation that has not been trained in the classic power structures. For now, yes, there is amateurism, but not in a negative sense. We are in an adjustment phase. But we must not give in to caution, even in a period of transition between two regimes.”
For him, Bassirou Diomaye Faye remains a man who seeks to embody sobriety: “President Faye is clumsy, but not incompetent. He is a man of rupture. The state cannot be led without a minimum of protocol. A head of state is constantly in representation: it requires codes, staging, and symbolic language that the Republic advocates.”
“A presidency in search of protocol references, an entourage hesitating between spontaneity and solemnity”
Political analyst and researcher Abdou Fouta Diakhumpa reminds, in the columns of L’Observateur, that a head of state’s image is not only built through political decisions, but also through respect for protocol and diplomatic codes.
“In the contemporary world,” he explains, “every action of a head of state is scrutinized and amplified by social networks. His accession to the highest office has been hailed and appreciated, including internationally. This naturalness, which has contributed to his likability, tends however to lead to improvisations that go beyond what is acceptable, where every gesture tells a major protocol faux pas. These episodes must be corrected by his entourage and advisors to avoid the blur of presidential protocol.”
Episodes that, according to him, have transcended mere triviality to become institutional incidents. L’Observateur points out that these often public blunders weaken Senegal’s image on the international stage. Abdou Fouta Diakhumpa insists: “Bassirou Diomaye Faye is a man of rupture, but he must understand that the state cannot be improvised. He must surround himself with image, protocol, and diplomacy professionals.”
Dr. Moussa Diop believes that President Diomaye Faye wishes to embody sobriety and cultivate naturalness while remaining close to the people. For him, the line between authenticity, simplicity, and inelegance is very thin. “What seems to be a response to the rigid power structure at the top of the state can appear as lightness and hastiness. Bassirou Diomaye Faye, with all his good intentions, must work on his image and protocol,” he points out in L’Observateur.
The researcher adds that the President would benefit from better guidance, without being sanitized: “The public space is subject to gravity and rigor, and President Faye must be aware of this. In a highly policed space dominated by social networks, every one of his actions can be subject to interpretation.”
According to Abdou Fouta Diakhumpa, President Faye’s naturalness must be channeled: “He is in a learning phase and must be careful with his gestures and words.” And he concludes, according to L’Observateur: “President Diomaye Faye must anticipate, correct, and frame situations to avoid blunders.”
“Proven guidance, highlighting appearance, and a sense of institutional timing”
In other words, the issue lies less in the person of the President than in the failure of his protocol system. L’Observateur notes that Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a young head of state, is still in a learning phase and cannot do without a solid protocol. Presidential protocol remains the backbone of the presidency’s image, communication, and diplomacy. It is not limited to trips and ceremonies: it is the symbolic guardian of the state, the staging of power, and diplomatic projection.
Ultimately, the discomfort caused by these observed blunders around the President does not reflect personal incompetence, but rather reveals a difficulty in protocol structuring within the presidency. L’Observateur specifies that Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s image remains that of a sincere man, but sometimes overwhelmed by the symbolic demands of power.
Dr. Moussa Diop concludes: “Presidential protocol is a necessity. A nation is respected through the silent language it imposes on the world. The observed wavering does not stem so much from a personal fault of the President, but rather from a structural problem within his entourage.”
Thus, for L’Observateur, between clumsiness, spontaneity, and improvisation, the Diomaye Faye presidency seems to be going through a period of adjustment where protocol rigor will have to quickly combine with the sobriety claimed by the head of state.
