Benin Republic President Patrice Talon has been asked by the Alliance for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (ASDA) to resign because he has lost the confidence of the people.
ASDA Chairman Prosper Agbesi made the call at a news conference in Abuja on Saturday on the sideline of the ECOWAS Authority’s 55th Summit of Heads of State and Government.
ASDA is a continental organization of civil society that encourages on the continent reliable elections and participatory democracy.
Mr. Agbesi, who is also the Alliance for New Congress (ANC) presidential candidate and a main opposition leader in the country’s 2016 election, said he was talking on behalf of the country’s other opposition political parties.
Opposition sides have come together to save the nation, he says, to prevent a physical confrontation between unarmed civilians and a repressive government’s armed agents led by a proven unethical leader.
“We have a president whose company runs our ports, the cotton (industry); our Customs does not run the revenue but his company, his company is called `Benin Control’.
“Can you have something like that in Nigeria where President Buhari’s company is running the revenue?
“The cotton is him, the hotel (industry) is him, there is no job for our people, now they are killing our people in the country, we don’t have any help.
“This man has lost the trust of our people; there is no more trust between us and him.
“He just needs to resign and we are going to put in place a government of unity.
“We don’t want violence, we don’t want confrontation, and we just want him to resign.
“We also want a re-election of the parliament, and we want all our people in exile to come home,” he said.
According to him, in neighboring nations, more than half the country’s population is out of the nation on exile.
“I had to go and help some of them the last time.
“The people of Benin are mourning as we speak and there is no hope for the people.
“Our people are mourning because we have an illegal parliament; we have someone who has taken over every institution in our country.
“Benin has transformed into a one-party state.
“The over ten political parties in opposition have no single representation at all in the country’s 83-member legislature.
“The national assembly members were barred from contesting the most recent parliamentary elections held in March through the sudden and unconstitutional changes to the electoral code introduced a month to the elections,’’ he said.
He added that Mr Talon ruled without any type of legislative checks and balances at the time.
He claimed it was instructive that only 27 percent of the registered electorate elected the new legislature, consisting completely of representatives of the president’s party and its nearest political allies, to office.
According to him, “This translates into less than 10 per cent of the country’s entire population,’’ he said.
While thanking President Muhammadu Buhari for his interference in the nation so far, he requested more assistance in restoring democracy in Benin.
“The step that Buhari has taken is noble.
“We must thank him for putting his foot down for the former president to be released from prison; he was sick.
“A former president was kept under house arrest for 54 days without telling us the charges.
“We thank President Buhari for what he is doing in Benin, but it is not enough.
“We are very honourable people as Benin people and yet you have from 18 to 40 years old people filling all the prisons in Benin, and this is the first time this is happening,” Mr Agbesi stated.
He further said he would work closely with Nigeria for the advantage of both nations if he had the chance to rule Benin.
He emphasized the need to take advantage of this chance to tell Nigeria’s management that Benin and Nigeria are an essential economy.
“If I take over (leadership), I’m telling Nigeria that this is your place, let us do business together. Gone are those days when small countries insist on autonomy in every area of life.
“I want to be called the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Benin because we have to integrate our economy by first of all growing our country’s GDP.
“What we care about is the health care of our people, the education of our people and the infrastructure,’’ he said.
He claimed that the bid for autocratic, unchallenged authority in Benin was opened by Mr Talon and his cabal.
He said democracy is being forcibly discarded and substituted by autocracy, right in front of their eyes, adding that it has been on for several years now, but it has exploded into an open agenda over the previous few months.
“The overwhelming majority of the people who are actively protesting are being met with armed force, getting injured, maimed and even killed on the streets of their own country by agents of the very government which claims it is in office through the mandate these people gave it.
“This is why, we, the political opposition have come together to save our country, to avert a physical showdown between unarmed civilians and armed agents of a repressive government led by a proven unethical leader”.
He said that fundamental human rights have been revoked to all intents and purposes, such as liberty of speech and association.
He also called on the Kingdom of Morocco to stop helping President Talon and leave Benin alone.
“Morocco must stay away, we have strong information that the people who are backing the dictator of Benin are from Morocco: people are dying over there and they are sitting at the same table with them,’’ he said.
