Benin's National Conference — the African Transition Template
By 1989 the People's Republic of Benin was insolvent. Banks had failed, salaries and student stipends went unpaid for months, and strikes had closed the schools and much of the administration. President Mathieu Kerekou, in power since a 1972 coup and governing under Marxism-Leninism since 1974, abandoned the official ideology and convened a national conference of some five hundred delegates — parties, unions, churches, professional bodies, exiles — expecting to manage it. In February 1990 the conference declared its own decisions sovereign and binding. It suspended the constitution, appointed Nicephore Soglo as transitional prime minister and reduced Kerekou to a ceremonial head of state. The decisive moment was that Kerekou, who still commanded the army, accepted the declaration rather than dissolving the hall. A new constitution was approved by referendum in December 1990, and in the 1991 election Soglo defeated Kerekou, who conceded — the first time an incumbent on the African mainland gave up power through the ballot box. The coda is what makes the case durable rather than merely hopeful: Kerekou returned by winning the 1996 election, served two terms, and then respected the constitutional limit and retired in 2006.
- Year: 1990 CE
- Category: Political
