Thomas Boni Yayi

Calm has returned to the streets of Cotonou after days of post-election protests including the shooting dead by security forces of at least seven demonstrators gathered outside the home of former President Thomas Boni Yayi in the Cadjéhoun district on 1-2 May...

Security forces suppressed protests in the run-up to the election firing tear gas at crowds which included the former presidents Thomas Boni Yayi and the 84-year-old Nicéphore Soglo and his wife...

Talon was a beneficiary of the last such alternance defeating Boni Yayi's chosen successor Lionel Zinsou in the 2016 presidential race (AC Vol 57 No 7 The shoo-in is booed off)...

The extremely wealthy Talon presented himself during that campaign as a can-do moderniser who would tighten up the government machine after Boni Yayi's erratic later years...

He was elected on the strength of not being a puppet of the discredited former President Thomas Yayi Boni which was how the losing candidate Lionel Zinsou was perceived...

Talon's support was based on voting out Yayi Boni and all his works and Zinsou was the fall guy...

Corruption and eccentricity – such as wild accusations about coups and poison plots – dominated the final years of Boni Yayi's time in office...

In accepting the nomination of Yayi Boni's governing Forces cauris pour un Bénin émergent (Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin) nominally the country's largest electoral force Zinsou relied too much on formal partisan support...

When term limits finally forced his departure in 2006 they rejected the rest of the political establishment to pick the hitherto little-known Yayi Boni (AC Vol 47 No 7 Twilight of the chameleon)...

Yayi Boni accused him of trying to poison him and before they reconciled he spent a year in exile in Paris (AC Vol 54 No 6 Stay on moi...

They are furious about Soglo Junior's decision to get the party to support Zinsou the hand-picked successor to Thomas Yayi Boni whom Nicéphore describes as his 'political executioner'...

The other contenders are united only by their opposition to a candidate who is entirely beholden to Yayi Boni for his sudden elevation...

The opposition believes Zinsou will be Yayi Boni's puppet and the candidate is under pressure to prove otherwise...

In so doing he has abandoned years of opposition to the Yayi Boni-FCBE electoral machine – he was the main losing challenger in both 2006 and 2011...

Just months ago Talon a one-time political donor and ally who spectacularly fell out with Yayi Boni and went into exile was seen as a potentially serious challenger...

Yayi Boni accused him of trying to poison him and stealing billions from the exchequer (AC Vol 54 No 6 Stay on moi...

In the absence of Yayi Boni ABT is the most prominent contender from the desperately poor and populous north where many electors will feel unmoved by Cotonou's faction battles and personal rivalries...

In more recent times the family were early backers of Thomas Yayi Boni...

But the presidential elections due in Benin on 28 February break the mould: the race to succeed outgoing President Thomas Boni Yayi appears to be wide open and few in Porto Novo and Cotonou are willing to predict the outcome...

Then on Friday two neighbouring heads of state Macky Sall of Senegal in his capacity as Ecowas Chairman and his colleague Thomas Yayi Boni of Benin flew into Ouagadougou to mediate...

Beyond Burkina Faso's borders the drama is being watched intently in countries whose Presidents are planning to extend their rule namely: Congo-Kinshasa's Joseph Kabila Congo-Brazzaville's Denis Sassou-Nguesso Togo's Faure Gnassingbé Benin's Yayi Boni Djibouti's Omar Guelleh Uganda's Yoweri Museveni Burundi's Pierre Nkurunziza and Rwanda's Paul Kagame...

More recently unconfirmed reports have surfaced that Benin’s President Thomas Yayi Boni had asked Maïga to help to finalise a 15 billion CFA franc (US$ 30...

After he made a host of startling coup plot accusations some worry that President Thomas Yayi Boni may be displaying signs of paranoia...

Then on 3 March Chief Prosecutor Justin Gbenameto announced the arrest of Gendarmerie Colonel Pamphile Zoumahoun and businessman Johannes Dagnon for allegedly plotting a military coup while Yayi Boni was on a visit to Equatorial Guinea...

Talon says he believes Yayi Boni turned on him because he refused to help in a campaign to persuade members of parliament to consider a new constitution...

If there were a new constitution Yayi Boni could escape the current two-term limit a gambit adopted by ex-President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal...

Yayi Boni pooh-poohs such talk and claims to be looking forward to April 2016 when he will leave office and take up life as a man of the cloth...

Yayi hits at hesitancy According to the outgoing Chairman of the AU Assembly Benin’s President Thomas Boni Yayi the absence of such a force made the French intervention the only available option to save the Malian state...