Benin’s president takes graft fight to streets

COTONOU – Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi has taken his anti-corruption drive onto the streets of the West African nation, leading several thousand supporters on an eight-kilometre “green march” through the economic capital Cotonou.

“The green march symbolises our fight against the bad governance and corruption which are impoverishing our country,” Boni Yayi told supporters at the event late on Monday. The president, a development banker elected last year with a landslide mandate to clean up Benin’s government, said his anti-corruption drive would help finance more schools and hospitals for the country’s nine million people, a third of whom live in poverty.He has faced resistance from entrenched political elites allied to former President Mathieu Kerekou, who ruled the former French colony for most of the previous three decades.His presidential convoy was shot at in late March while campaigning for parliamentary elections, where his coalition won control of the National Assembly.Boni Yayi said the attack was an attempt to silence his anti-graft campaign.In recent weeks, the president has asked parliament to lift the immunity from prosecution of two members of his ruling FCBE coalition, accused of embezzling funds from the state electricity company.On Thursday, Benin suspended the networks of two of its four mobile phone operators, South Africa-listed MTN and Atlantique Telecom, demanding they sign new contracts including a US$50 million, 500 per cent rise in the operator fee.Nampa-ReutersThe president, a development banker elected last year with a landslide mandate to clean up Benin’s government, said his anti-corruption drive would help finance more schools and hospitals for the country’s nine million people, a third of whom live in poverty.He has faced resistance from entrenched political elites allied to former President Mathieu Kerekou, who ruled the former French colony for most of the previous three decades.His presidential convoy was shot at in late March while campaigning for parliamentary elections, where his coalition won control of the National Assembly.Boni Yayi said the attack was an attempt to silence his anti-graft campaign.In recent weeks, the president has asked parliament to lift the immunity from prosecution of two members of his ruling FCBE coalition, accused of embezzling funds from the state electricity company.On Thursday, Benin suspended the networks of two of its four mobile phone operators, South Africa-listed MTN and Atlantique Telecom, demanding they sign new contracts including a US$50 million, 500 per cent rise in the operator fee.Nampa-Reuters