This is probably the highlight of the second day of the West African Citizens’ Summit on Good Governance, Alternation and Democracy in Cotonou. As announced yesterday (Pan-African on the limitation of the number of presidential mandates.), the Head of State of Benin Patrice Talon honored his presence on the second day. And beyond a mere presence, the good surprise is that the President of Benin made a public commitment, this Saturday, July 10 in the blue room of the Cotonou Congress Palace, to hand over power in May 2026 at the end of his second mandate in 2026.
“(…) I measure the scope of the relay and before you how much I will commit myself, take you to witness to pass this relay, on the third Sunday of May 2026, to the one who will have the confidence of the Beninese people,” solemnly declared Patrice Talon, in his speech for the occasion. An announcement greeted with ovations fed by the assistance made up mostly of young people. Moreover, he wants to pass on this relay to his successor to perpetuate the tradition of alternation. “I would like to assure you that I will ask for a derogation from the State Protocol so that the symbol of alternation that you have just handed over to me becomes part of the elements of the charging ritual,” he said, adding: “I will take good care of it and pass it on to my successor and tell him to read the number 2 carefully.”
The relay of which the Beninese President speaks, is a sceptre symbolizing the alternation given to him by the Social Universities of Togo (UST), by the hands of their Coordinator, Prof David Dosseh. This witness is made of two materials, ebony and gold, produced by two craftsmen, a Togolese cabinetmaker and a Senegalese jeweller, and contains 20 grams of gold. The 2 symbolizes the maximum number of mandates defended by the civil society present in Cotonou.
Patrice Talon in fact responded favourably to a request from the latter asking him to be the embodiment of political alternation in the ECOWAS area, the central issue or the finality of this meeting of Cotonou, while refusing to be cited as an example or lecturer in the promotion of this ideal in West Africa.“Excellency, can your country produce a vaccine against this pandemic?” created by the “3rd mandate virus in Africa?” “Could you then accept this symbolic witness so that Cotonou becomes the mandate-limiting capital of Africa?” , these are the questions asked by Prof David Dosseh.
In other words, Patrice Talon undertakes publicly and solemnly to respect the Constitution of Benin, the limitation of the presidential mandate inscribed there in golden letters, not to run for a 3rd term and therefore to transmit the 3rd Sunday of May 2026 to his successor who will be elected. This commitment by the President of Benin to the youth of ECOWAS seals the total success of this citizen summit organized by the UST, the Centre for Research on the Rule of Law in Africa (CREA), the Tournons La Page Coalition (TLP) and other partners.
We’ll come back to that.
Source : Le Tabloid
