Talon, who also enjoys good relations with Nigeria and called on it to help quell an attempted coup d\u2019etat in December<\/a>, chose a different path: to engineer enough growth for Benin to be recognised in its own right.<\/p>\n Murals painted along the side of a road in Cotonou. Photograph: Eromo Egbejule\/The GuardianThe Kagame model<\/p>\n Widely believed to be Benin\u2019s richest person, Talon, known as \u201cthe cotton king\u201d, made his name in agriculture but diversified into banking and hospitality. Before becoming president, he had financed the campaigns of Yayi and Yayi\u2019s predecessor, Mathieu K\u00e9r\u00e9kou.<\/p>\n Critics say his development agenda has come at a severe cost: once held up as a poster child for democratic transition in west Africa, Benin has also undergone democratic decline since Talon took power.<\/p>\n A cotton factory in the industrial zone north-west of Cotonou. Talon first made his fortune in agriculture and supported increasing industrialisation to power Benin\u2019s GDP. Photograph: Ace Multimedia\/The Guardian<\/p>\n In many respects, Talon modelled his governance style on the leader of another relatively small African country: Paul Kagame. The archetypal \u201cbenevolent strongman\u201d, Rwanda\u2019s de facto leader since 1994 has also combined repression with policies aimed at economic and social transformation.<\/p>\n In time, the two men became allies and Talon even appointed two former Rwandan officials to head sensitive Beninese government agencies<\/a>. Benin has also sought the east African nation\u2019s help in countering a growing insurgency along the border with Nigeria.<\/p>\n By the end of Talon\u2019s 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 against the changes.<\/p>\n The judiciary was co-opted to muzzle dissent, resulting in the targeting of several dozen former allies and dissidents, including the opposition leader Reckya Madougou, who is in prison on charges of \u201cundermining the state\u201d, and the journalist Hugues Comlan Sossoukp\u00e9.<\/p>\n In April 2021, a month after Madougou\u2019s arrest, Essow\u00e9 Batamoussi, a judge at the court for the repression of economic offences and terrorism, resigned his post and fled to France to seek asylum. \u201cThere was no justice in her [Madougou\u2019s] case,\u201d Batamoussi said. \u201cWe received an empty file and a threat: if we did not put her in jail, we were in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n Last November, it became apparent how deeply Talon had control of every major aspect of life in Benin. A controversial constitutional amendment, the second of his tenure, elongated the presidential term from five years to seven and introduced thresholds that kept opposition parties outside parliament. It also created a new senate, whose members are all appointed by government rather than elected.<\/p>\n Within a month of parliament approving the amendment, mutineers led by a former commander of the national guard attempted a coup, citing Talon\u2019s authoritarianism and inability to tackle rising insecurity.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to The Long Wave<\/p>\n Nesrine Malik, Micha Frazer-Carroll and the team guide you through the biggest Black stories from around the world<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Soldiers in a military vehicle after Benin\u2019s armed forces stopped the attempted coup against Talon in late 2025. Photograph: Charles Placide Tossou\/Reuters<\/p>\n Only one opposition candidate was approved to stand in April\u2019s presidential election, which was won by Talon\u2019s hand-picked successor, Romuald Wadagni, with more than 94% of the vote. In August, Talon himself returned to centre stage as president of the senate.<\/p>\n Morgan Assogba, a Cotonou-based geopolitical analyst, described Talon as a \u201cgigantic political actor with a good understanding of how politics works in Benin\u201d, who had reshaped the political arena to suit his economic development drive.<\/p>\n For Guillaume Moumouni, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Abomey-Calavi, Talon\u2019s dual policies of constitutional change and development constituted a \u201ccarrot and stick\u201d approach to governing, aimed at ensuring the political environment did not jeopardise his economic objectives. In time, however, he added, there was \u201cless carrot and more stick\u201d as freedoms were increasingly suppressed.<\/p>\n What price progress?<\/p>\n During his campaign for the April election, Wadagni vowed to tackle extreme poverty, a tacit admission that economic growth had not been to the benefit of all Beninese.<\/p>\n The minimum monthly wage increased from 40,000 CFA francs to 52,000 CFA francs (\u00a352-\u00a368) 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. \u201cWith the upcoming school term, we don\u2019t know how we\u2019ll manage,\u201d said Stanislas, the tyre repairer, who has four children of school age.<\/p>\n Romuald Wadagni, a former finance minister hand-picked by Talon as his successor, won the election in April with more than 94% of the vote. Photograph: Charles Placide Tossou\/Reuters<\/p>\n Most of the development has been in Cotonou and Ouidah, Talon\u2019s home town. 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\u2019s political allies and business network. According to a 2023 report by Amnesty International<\/a>, four development projects resulted in mass forced evictions that affected at least 6,000 people. The communication ministry was approached for comment.<\/p>\n Moumouni said economically Talon\u2019s vision had brought net progress. \u201cPeople are not gaining or enjoying much more in terms of cash, but they are enjoying [progress] in terms of social infrastructure,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s room for improvement for sure but compared to 10 or 15 years ago, there is quite a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Eug\u00e8ne Azatassou, the vice-president of the opposition Democrats party, feels differently.<\/p>\n \u201cDevelopment cannot be limited to roads and buildings,\u201d he said. \u201cIt must also be measured by the quality of democracy, purchasing power, employment, security, improvement of living conditions \u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent years, a building boom has reshaped Benin\u2019s largest city, Cotonou, and a shiny new coastal road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-616100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/3001.jpg\")
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