Patrice Talon exits Benin's presidency; critics cite democratic decline

Wadagni wins presidency with more than 94% of vote after constitutional changes

Patrice Talon stepped down as president of Benin in May after a decade in office that, according to The Guardian, lifted annual GDP growth from 3% to 6%, the highest rate in the region, amid what critics described as democratic decline. His hand-picked successor Romuald Wadagni won April’s presidential election with more than 94% of the vote, and in August Talon returned to public office as president of a newly created, government-appointed senate.

Critics say the economic gains coincided with new election laws that left only one opposition candidate on the April ballot, constitutional changes that extended the presidential term from five to seven years and created a senate whose members are all appointed by the government, and the prosecution of opposition figures including the leader Reckya Madougou.

Talon, widely believed to be Benin’s richest person and known as “the cotton king,” made his name in agriculture and diversified into banking and hospitality before entering politics. He financed the campaigns of his predecessors Thomas Boni Yayi and Mathieu Kérékou. Before Talon, Yayi once quipped during a visit to Abuja that “Benin is the 37th state of Nigeria,” reflecting Benin’s longtime contentment to live in the shadow of a neighbour about eight times its size and roughly 16 times its population.

Talon, who also enjoys good relations with Nigeria and called on it to help quell an attempted coup in December, chose a different path: to engineer enough growth for Benin to be recognised in its own right. A building boom has reshaped Cotonou, the country’s largest city, and a new coastal road has reduced journey times to Ouidah, the spiritual and cultural capital. In the last decade, Benin’s annual GDP has grown from 3% to 6%, a regional high, and an industrial zone has been launched north-west of Cotonou to help industrialise Benin’s largely informal economy. “Benin is now looking like a paradise,” said Savossou Stanislas, a 40-year-old tyre repairer in the official capital, Porto-Novo.

In many respects, Talon modelled his governance style on Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the de facto leader since 1994 who has combined political repression with policies for economic and social transformation. The two became allies, and Talon appointed two former Rwandan officials to head sensitive Beninese government agencies. Benin has also sought Rwanda’s help countering a growing insurgency along the Nigerian border.

By the end of Talon’s first term, strict new election laws and heavy registration fees had purged a lot of the opposition from parliament. In 2019, the government shut down the internet during a parliamentary election as people protested the changes. The judiciary was co-opted to muzzle dissent, with several dozen former allies and dissidents targeted.

Among those prosecuted is opposition leader Reckya Madougou, who is in prison on charges of “undermining the state.” Journalist Hugues Comlan Sossoukpé was also targeted. In April 2021, a month after Madougou’s arrest, Essowé Batamoussi, a judge at the court for the repression of economic offences and terrorism, resigned his post and fled to France to seek asylum. “There was no justice in her [Madougou’s] case,” Batamoussi said. “We received an empty file and a threat: if we did not put her in jail, we were in danger.”

Last November, a controversial constitutional amendment, the second of Talon’s tenure, elongated the presidential term from five to seven years and introduced thresholds that kept opposition parties outside parliament. It also created the new senate whose members are all appointed by the government rather than elected. Within a month of parliament’s approval of the amendment, mutineers led by a former commander of the national guard attempted a coup, citing Talon’s authoritarianism and inability to tackle rising insecurity.

Only one opposition candidate was approved to stand in April’s presidential election, which Wadagni won with more than 94% of the vote. During his campaign, Wadagni vowed to tackle extreme poverty, a tacit acknowledgment that economic growth had not benefited all Beninese.

The minimum monthly wage rose from 40,000 CFA francs to 52,000 CFA francs — about £52 to £68 — in January 2023, but many still earn far less. In recent years, rent and electricity tariffs have also risen by at least 15%, while the price of fuel has almost doubled. “With the upcoming school term, we don’t know how we’ll manage,” said Stanislas, the tyre repairer, who has four children of school age.

Most of the development has been concentrated in Cotonou and Ouidah, Talon’s hometown. Opposition figures have said there has been a lack of transparency in some of those projects, while civil society groups said some were awarded to entities linked to Talon’s political allies and business network. According to a 2023 report by Amnesty International, four development projects resulted in mass forced evictions affecting at least 6,000 people. The communication ministry was approached for comment.

Morgan Assogba, a Cotonou-based geopolitical analyst, described Talon as a “gigantic political actor with a good understanding of how politics works in Benin,” who had reshaped the political arena to suit his economic development drive.

Guillaume Moumouni, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Abomey-Calavi, described Talon’s dual policies of constitutional change and development as a “carrot and stick” approach aimed at ensuring the political environment did not jeopardise his economic objectives. In time, Moumouni said, there was “less carrot and more stick” as freedoms were increasingly suppressed. Still, Moumouni said economically Talon’s vision had brought net progress. “People are not gaining or enjoying much more in terms of cash, but they are enjoying [progress] in terms of social infrastructure,” he said. “There’s room for improvement for sure but compared to 10 or 15 years ago, there is quite a huge difference.”

Eugène Azatassou, the vice-president of the opposition Democrats party, framed the legacy differently. “Development cannot be limited to roads and buildings,” he said. “It must also be measured by the quality of democracy, purchasing power, employment, security, improvement of living conditions … when a power continuously modifies political and electoral rules in order to conserve control of institutions, we have the right to ask ourselves if we are facing [only] a facade of development.”