Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Senagase’s fifth president, announced a pan-African agenda yesterday.
The 44-year-old former tax inspector was inaugurated before a large crowd and a cross section of leaders including President Bola Ahmed TInubu, who is chairman of Heads of Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
Faye defeated Amadou Ba, the candidate of then President Macky Sall’s ruling coalition, by a landslide in the first round of voting.
Faye got 54 per cent votes to Ba’s 32 per cent.
His victory reflected high hopes for change in the country of around 18 million.
Faye promised to defend “the integrity of the territory and national independence and to spare no effort to achieve African unity”.
“The results of the election showed a profound desire for change,” Faye said after taking the oath of office.
“Senegal will be a country of hope, at peace, with an independent justice system and a stronger democracy,” he added.
Some of the heads of state at the inauguration include: Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo and African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat.
The military juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger also sent representatives.
Faye, the previously little-known opposition figure, completed a dramatic ascent from prison to the presidency in just weeks.
He becomes Senegal’s and Africa’s youngest president.
“Before God and the Senegalese nation, I swear to faithfully fulfil the office of president of the Republic of Senegal,” Faye said in Diamniadio, near the capital, Dakar.
The formal handover of power will take place at the presidential palace in Dakar.
Commonly known as Diomaye, or ‘the honourable one’ in the local Serer language.
He was released from prison less than two weeks before the vote along with popular opposition figure and his mentor Ousmane Sonko after a political amnesty announced by Sall.
The election tested Senegal’s reputation as a stable democracy in West Africa, a region that has experienced coups and attempted coups.
It followed months of unrest ignited by the arrests last year of Sonko and Faye and concerns that the president would seek a third term in office despite constitutional term limits.
Rights groups said dozens of people were killed in the protests and about 1,000 were jailed.
Faye campaigned on promises to clean up corruption and better manage Senegal’s natural resources.