DAKAR, March 19, 2010 (AFP) - Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade marked 10 years in office Friday saying he could not recollect a single failure during his time at the job amid criticism he ignores social ills in the country.
    Wade, whose election on March 19, 2000, ended 40 years of socialist rule, became Senegal's third president after leading the opposition against successive leaders Leopold Senghor and Abdou Diof for 26 years.
    "I have not failed, I can't think of any days on which I failed and I would be happy if you could find one such area," he said in an interview with French channel Radio France Internationale (RFI) to mark his decade in power.
    The 84-year-old, who finally came to power after winning an election at the fifth attempt, has announced his intention to run for office for a third time in 2012.
    Wade said he was proud of having persuaded the population of the West African state to accept heavy spending on education while vaunting improvements in a road network.
    "My predecessors built bad roads and we had to do them again every year... but now we have roads just like ones in Europe," he said.
    However while the regime vaunts its successes, critics say many improvements are an illusion that have not benefited most people in a state wracked by corruption.
    "Land and financial scandals, mixing business and affairs of state are the distinctive mark of the regime in power," Socialist Party spokesman Abdoulaye Wilane told AFP.
    Education trade union leader Mamadou Diop Castro denied education had improved while political analyst Abdoul Aziz Diop said improved infrastructure "is an illusion" because it is mostly concentrated in the capital.
    Private newspaper Walfadjari conceded that infrastructure had improved while the number of schools and universities has multiplied in recent years.
    But, the paper said, "corruption has become a national sport ... electricity a luxury ... (and) unemployment is growing."
    "Corruption, along with many scandals, accompanies all processes," said Mouhamadou Mbodj, the coordinator of the Civil Forum, a branch of Transparency International.
    Wade said that 70 percent of the nation's population of 12 million were poor farmers who were not "particularly content" but who were better off as a result of his time in office.
    The president described his agricultural policy launched in 2008 to boost production as a "revolution".
    "Go and ask the peasants if they are worse off," he said. "I am not saying they are particularly content, that is not true because they have a hard life, but their situation is improving."
    While he promises "self-sufficient nutrition" soon, grocers still run out of rice imported from Asia or powdered milk from Europe.
    Senegal, French-speaking West Africa's second-biggest economy behind the Ivory Coast, has been buffeted by the global downturn although the International Monetary Fund has forecast growth will edge towards 3.5 percent in 2010.
    The country has also been hit by social unrest during Wade's presidency, with riots over poor living conditions leaving two dead in late 2008.
    Wade signed a peace agreement in 2004 with rebels to end a separatist rebel war in southern Casamance province, but fighting led by dissident rebels still breaks out from time to time in the agriculturally rich region.
    In the interview, Wade said he was holding talks with Casamance separatist chiefs who are still holding out against an agreement.
    "I am holding talks with the principals. Is it better to continue this dialogue, which is difficult because there are cultural aspects, or to take the army and destroy everything? I choose dialogue," said Wade.
    On Thursday, the army launched a powerful offensive against the MFDC near Casamance's capital Ziguinchor in which one soldier was killed and five injured.