Something remarkable is happening in Senegal. And Nigerians should be watching closely.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and his former Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, have split -publicly, bitterly, irreconcilably -over one question: Should Senegal bow to the IMF?
Faye says yes. Negotiate. Restructure. Get the program. Survive.
Sonko says no. And he has taken his case to parliament, where he now sits as Speaker, backed by a supermajority that can block any IMF deal.
The man who once called debt restructuring a “disgrace” has been dismissed from government—but he is not finished. He is now the legislative gatekeeper, positioned to make any IMF agreement impossible.
This is not just Senegalese politics. This is a continental crossroads.
And I am here to say: Sonko and the Senegalese parliament are right.
Let us look at what happens when you bow.
Nigeria has been the IMF’s model patient for decades. We took the loans. We accepted the conditionalities. We removed the subsidies. We devalued the currency. We implemented the “structural adjustments.”
And where are we today?
The IMF’s own data confirms: 63% of Nigerians are poor. 27 million face food insecurity. Inflation is rising. Wages are worthless.
And what does the IMF recommend? More taxes.
Not massive investment in education. Not power infrastructure. Not agricultural policy. Not industrial development.
Just more taxes on a people they have confirmed are poorer.
This is not economics. This is extortion.
The former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress put it plainly: “Many of these loans are taken to help corrupt politicians stay in power.” The burden is transferred to ordinary Nigerians through worsening hardship and insecurity.
Nigeria borrowed to survive -and the survival has become a slow death.
Now look at Senegal.
The previous administration hid $13 billion in debt. The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is now 132 percent. The IMF froze its $1.8 billion program when the truth emerged.
President Faye inherited a corpse dressed in robes.
He chose the “pragmatic” path: negotiate with the IMF, accept the conditionalities, stabilize the economy. Sonko chose the “sovereignist” path: refuse restructuring, refuse conditionalities, rely on domestic resources.
The rupture was inevitable.
Sonko told parliament that the IMF has “never developed a country”. And he is right.
Look at the history. Look at the evidence. The IMF does not build infrastructure. It does not educate children. It does not feed the hungry.
It does one thing: it manages debt. It ensures that countries remain stable enough to pay their creditors, but never strong enough to escape.
Sonko argued that Senegal could depend on domestic tax mobilization rather than foreign loans. He revoked licenses of extractive industries. He renegotiated offshore gas projects. He insisted that mobilizing tax revenue is better than accepting a debt restructuring.
He refused to increase fuel prices—even when the Ministry of Finance requested it—because he understood that ordinary Senegalese would bear the cost.
This is not populism. This is principled resistance.
Let us be clear about what Faye is being asked to accept.
The IMF has issued several pre-conditions for any program:
A 40% increase in national tax revenues
Clearance of arrears with bilateral creditors
Full disclosure and audit of public debt
Review of opaque loans taken from foreign banks
The fuel subsidy bill alone could exceed the 2026 budget by nearly $2 billion if oil prices rise -and the IMF will demand its removal.
Sonko refused. He told parliament that the government would need almost $2 billion in fuel subsidies to protect consumers from price surges.
The IMF wants Senegalese to pay more so that creditors can be paid.
Sonko says no. And he is right.
Here is where the story gets interesting.
Sonko was dismissed from government. But lawmakers -his party holds a supermajority, immediately reinstated him as a member of parliament.
Then they overwhelmingly backed him as Speaker of the National Assembly, with the support of 132 lawmakers in the 165-member assembly.
Sonko has now signalled an intention to exercise strong parliamentary oversight, potentially constraining the executive’s ability to implement reforms aligned with IMF requirements.
He has also said his party will not participate in the new government.
This is not a man who has been defeated. This is a man who has changed the battlefield.
What does this mean for Nigeria?
It means that we should be watching Senegal closely.
Because if Sonko succeeds -if the Senegalese parliament blocks the IMF, if Senegal finds another way, if the country proves that sovereignty is not just a slogan but a strategy, it will send a message across the continent.
It will say: There is an alternative.
You do not have to bow. You do not have to accept conditionalities that impoverish your people. You do not have to tax the hungry to pay the creditors.
You can build. You can invest. You can develop.
But it requires political courage. It requires institutional integrity. It requires a parliament that is not a rubber stamp, an audit that is not theatre, and a government that puts its people before its creditors.
I am not naive. I know that Senegal’s situation is dire. The debt is real. The hidden borrowing was criminal. The country is effectively locked out of international capital markets.
The “sovereignist” path is not easy. It requires domestic resource mobilization. It requires going after offshore wealth. It requires ending tax holidays for multinationals. It requires fighting illicit financial flows that bleed Africa of over $50 billion a year.
That is a war.
But it is a war worth fighting. Because the alternative -bowing to the IMF, accepting the conditionalities, repeating the Nigerian story, is a slow death.
Senegal is at a crossroads.
President Faye has chosen the IMF path. Prime Minister Sonko -now Speaker Sonko, has chosen the sovereignty path.
The rest of Africa is watching.
I am watching. And I am commending the Senegalese parliament for standing up.
For refusing to accept that debt is destiny. For refusing to believe that the IMF is the only option. For refusing to surrender sovereignty for the sake of a loan that will only deepen dependency.
Sonko said debt restructuring would be a “disgrace”. He was right.
And if Senegal can find another way, if they can mobilize domestic resources, build transparency, and resist the IMF’s puppeteering, they will have taught the rest of Africa a lesson that no loan can buy.
Nigeria should have learned it years ago.
It is not too late for Senegal.