Mathieu Kerekou (2 September 1933-14 October 2015) was President of Benin from 26 October 1972 to 4 April 1991, succeeding Justin Ahomadegbe-Tometin and preceding Nicephore Soglo, and from 4 April 1996 to 6 April 2006, succeeding Nicephore Soglo and preceding Thomas Boni Yayi.
Biography[]
Mathieu Kerekou was born on 2 September 1933 in Kouarfa, French Dahomey to an Evangelical Christian family. From 1968 to 1970 he attended military schools in France, and in 1972 he seized power in Dahomey in a coup d'etat against Justin Ahomadegbe-Tometin's government. From 1972 to 1974 he rejected communism, capitalism, and socialism in favor of Dahomey's own "social and cultural system", but he later formed the People's Revolutionary Party of Benin (PRPB) and proclaimed that Marxism-Leninism was the new state ideology. In 1977 he stopped an attempt by mercenaries to invade the port of Cotonou to restore his rivals to power, and in 1988 he survived two coup attempts. Kerekou nationalized many foreign businesses in the country, but corruption plagued the state and he later sought to invite foreign companies back to Benin. In 1991, he decided to restore Benin to democracy, but in 1996 he was re-elected as President of Benin due to the steadfast support of northern Beninese voters and the new support of the south; in 2001 he was again reelected. He won 83.6% of the vote in a controversial election, and the government pursued liberalism and took part in United Nations peacekeeping missions. On 6 April 2006, he left office when Thomas Boni Yayi was elected as president, and he died in 2015 at the age of 82.