When Patrice Talon vied to become President in 2016, it was the beginning of even better democracy for the country, many thought.
Beninoise fancied Talon’s excellent corporate records in the nation’s cotton industry where he had built a multi-million dollar firm that helped the nation’s foreign exchange earnings. He is known as the “King of Cotton” in the Republic of Benin.
To many, he is all wool and a yard wide; his potential to place Benin on the pedestal they’ve since longed for was trusted until lately.
At the advent of his administration, the President made the one promise African leaders only keep in their worst nightmares. He promised to spend one term in office, to avoid the complacencies that come with multiple terms.
While his reasons, by history, are genuine, the practicality of his words was always going to be under scrutiny. It was a promise made at the height of happiness. Like a footballer trying to impress talent scouts in the stands, he simply played to the gallery. His promise, he could not keep.
Talon’s Presidency has seen Benin saunter into a hybrid regime, according to the Economist’s latest Global Democracy Index. A hybrid regime is one which mixes democratic values with autocratic tendencies. Those have been the exact highlights of Talon’s government.
A one-time victim of political ostracisation by the Thomas Boni Yayi government, Talon was in exile in France for three years – between 2012 and 2015.
Under Talon, Benin’s most resolute and respected opposition have been sent into exile while the candidacy of many others have been rejected.
Ahead of Sunday’s election, the President hand-picked his opposition candidates, to the displeasure of citizens who have protested for weeks to no avail against his return.
The country’s analysts say President Talon has breached the political rights of many others and has imbibed a high-handed approach that threatens the peaceful democracy Benin has enjoyed in the last 25 years.
Challenging Alassane Soumanou and Corentin Kohoue on Sunday, Talon, who won via run-off in 2016, after initially getting just 23.5% of the votes, knows he has his opposition under control.
Protests have continued in central and northern Benin Republic. While youths have taken the fight off Talon’s front porch, the President says it’s time to start building the country.
During a tour of Southern Benin, Talon promised to be a candidate who’d strengthen the good governance that the country had just acquired, which also allows for a rebuild of the country.
The weeks leading to Sunday’s election have seen tension rising, and underlining Talon’s fearsome graduation from the wealthy political financier to a growing autocrat, who stamps out political detractors with a vicious fist.
Although there are critics of Talon’s style of leadership, he has shown enough knowledge and some form of direction with regards to positioning the nation’s economy, and leveraging on the gains of Yayi’s 10-year government.
Benin has become West Africa’s top cotton exporter, using Talon’s experience of the industry to great extent. It has recorded average gross domestic product growth of over 5% before the economic downturn inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Talon may have deceived Beninoise into accepting his realistically ‘impossible’ one-term dream, but they won’t backdown without a fight, even if their President will give it all it takes, too.
The odds are in favour of the incumbent as he has left the political aspirations of his opposition recumbent. To Talon, he’s keeping his promise, although his citizens continue to feel hard done by.
