By Owei Lakemfa
Early morning Sunday, December 7, 2025, while many Beninois slept, hoping to go to church, mosque and traditional places of worship at dawn, some members of their armed forces fanned out. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Paschal Tigri, they planned to bring the people under their claws.
At 05:00 they attacked the Presidential Palace and then retreated to the national broadcaster, the SRTB where they announced the removal of Patrice Talon, President of the French vassal state. The rebels accusations against Talon include imposition of harsh economic measures on the people such as increased taxes and cuts in healthcare. Others include clamping down on the opposition and deteriorating security situation.
The issue is not the truth in these allegations which are verifiable, but whether the truth justifies a coup by men from the barracks that may not be different from dictatorial Talon. However, what is clear to me is that if democracy implies the people exercising their free will to decide through the ballot box, the leadership of their country, then Benin is not a democracy. Therefore, countries like Nigeria taking part in direct combat against the Beninois rebels were not doing so to defend democracy as there is no democracy in that country to defend. Therefore, nations like Nigeria sending combatants to fight on the side of Talon were merely wasting their resources and putting their troops needlessly in harm’s way.
While as a Nigerian, I was reassured that the Nigerian military has the capacity to act swiftly and decisively in an emergency situation, I would have loved these to be displayed within our borders where bandits and terrorists hold sway over swaths of our territory, rather than exhibit it in Benin Republic to keep a halfpenny dictator in power.
Talon’s regime is so intolerant of opposition that in the two-month period of March and April 2020, he detained over 100 opposition politicians and activists.
He had won
re-election mainly by banning opposition candidates. As a follow up, he had
sent some to jail. One of them, Recya Madougou, a former Justice Minister, was
picked up in 2021, a few weeks before the general elections, accused of trying
to disrupt the elections and “destabilise” the country. A special court on
terrorism and economic crimes called CRIET which Talon had established,
sentenced her to 20 years imprisonment for “complicity in terrorist acts”.
The terror
court had also sent another opposition presidential candidate, Professor Joel
Aivo who had been held for eight months, to ten years imprisonment for treason.
Aivo, before sentence, told the judge: “It is not for criminal justice to
arbitrate on political differences. I have decided to give myself to this
country. You are also children of this country. Do as you will with me.”
Some
opposition figures had fled the country to escape the talons of Talon. Even a
judge of the CRIET special court had also fled before the re-election, claiming
the court was political.
In 2024,
Talon put two of his friends, Oliver Boko, a businessman and Oswald Homesky, former
Sports Minister, on trial for an alleged plot to overthrow the government. They
were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment each, jointly fined $95 million and,
each also fined $6.8 million.
In August
2024, Steve Amoussou, an online critic of Talon was arrested for allegedly
inciting rebellion. Talon is likely to take advantage of this coup attempt to
jail or eliminate more opposition figures.
As for the
scheduled April 12, 2026 presidential election, with Talon on rampage,
opposition leaders either disqualified, in prison or on the run, the stage is
set for the coronation of his hand-picked successor, the Minister of State for
Finance and Cooperation, 49-year-old Romuald Wadagni.
Amongst those who have sent troops to ‘defend democracy’ in Benin is the
rogue 83-year-old President Alasssane Dramane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire. He has
been in office since 2010. So, he is in his fourth term in office when the
constitutional limit is two terms. But Ouattara does not seem to be in a hurry
to leave office soon as he is the main point man of France, a country that
began its colonialisation and exploitation of Africa with its invasion of
Algeria in 1830. This week, 195 years later, France is still in charge of West
Africa, coordinating the armed forces of the region led by Nigeria in their
intervention in Benin Republic.
In the wake
of the attempted coup, French President Emmanuel Macron boasted that he
called Presidents Talon, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria and Julius Maada
Bio of Sierra Leone to coordinate a joint response. Bio, a veteran coup plotter
who played central roles in the 1992 and 1999 coups in his country which made
him Deputy Head of State and then Head of State, is the current Chairperson of
the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
There is also
Ghana whose leadership has transformed the legendary Black Star of Africa into
a United States military base while also vigorously undermining Africa by
carrying out the dictates of foreign powers like expelling our African brothers
and sisters from Western Sahara.
France
revealed it gave logistical support to the African troops, provided
surveillance and shared intelligence with Nigeria which led the air and ground
intervention in Benin Republic.
France also
sent in its special forces from Cote d’Ivoire to support the Nigerian and
ECOWAS intervention forces. The Head of the Benin Republican Guard, Dieudonne
Djimon Tevoedre, however, claimed the interventionist French forces were mainly
“used for mopping up operations”.
The new
France-Nigeria-ECOWAS military alliance in the region is likely to increase the
antagonism with the anti-French Alliance of Sahel States, AES. The AES made up
of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have always accused Nigeria and countries like
Cote d’Ivoire of being mere stooges of France and imperialism.
The Tinubu
administration, having helped to rescue Talon, has a duty to ensure he safely
exits the Benin presidency without further endangering democracy. Secondly, it
has the duty to ensure political opposition in Nigeria is not stifled like
Talon is doing in Benin Republic. Thirdly, it has the duty to protect the
continent from despots. It needs to explain to Nigerians why our troops were so
speedily deployed to Benin while the coup plotters in Guinea-Bissau are allowed
to consolidate. I would have preferred we pressurise the plotters in Bissau to
allow the electoral commission formally announce the election results and swear
in the new president, than expend resources shoring up Talon.
In all
these, how do we wake up the African Union, AU? I admit this will be an
herculean task because one of the most difficult things is to try to wake up a
person who is not sleeping.
*Lakemfa is a commentator on public issues
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