Fare thee well, Wade

This is a rare occurrence for Africa, a continent whose history is marred by countless coups d'etat, civil wars, hunger, poverty and all the negative ills of humanity. Wade's gesture is all the more inspiring for its sharp contrast to the situation in neighbouring Mali where soldiers mounted a bloodless coup last week.

However, it would be remiss of us not to comment on Wade's stance to seek a third term that left at least six people dead during protests that rocked the country a few weeks ago. His argument for a third term was that the law prescribing only two terms in office was enacted when he was already in office. While we may understand that with a struggle, we cannot grasp why Wade failed to see the writing on the wall that the Senegalese did not want him for even a day longer and instead proceeded to sUlly his reputation and the good that he may have done for Senegal by seeking to hang on to power.