Background
Justin Ahomadegbé-Tomêtin was bom in 1917, in Abomey, a prince of the Agonglo royal house of the old Dahomey kingdom
Justin Ahomadegbé-Tomêtin was bom in 1917, in Abomey, a prince of the Agonglo royal house of the old Dahomey kingdom
He attended the Ecole William Ponty and the French West Africa School of Medicine in Dakar.
He was called up for war service in 1941 and demobilised with the rank of sergeant in 1942. Entering politics after the war he split from Sourou Apithy’s Dahomey Progressive Union in 1947 to form his own party, the African Popular Bloc (BPA) on whose ticket he was elected a member of the General Council. With the 1956 elections he formed a wider anti-Apithy grouping called the Dahomey Democratic Union (UDD), of which he was the secretary- general. His support at this stage came particularly from trade unions in Cotonou, and he was considered as a radical alternative to Apithy. At the same time his party was affiliated to the RDA of President Houphouet Boigny.
Elected to the Grand Council of the AOF (French West Africa) in 1957 and to the territorial assembly of Dahomey in 1959. He became President of the assembly in 1959 and 1960, having given his support to Maga as Prime Minister rather than Apithy. After briefly participating in the grand independence coalition, a setback in the November 1960 elections led to his temporary retirement from politics and a resumption of his dentist’s practice. In May 1961 he was arrested for plotting to overthrow the government, and was gaoled, but was amnestied 18 months later, again returning to private life.
After the 1963 “revolution” he formed part of the interim government set up by General Soglo. Elections were allowed and contested only by the single party—the PDD, Dahomey Democratic Party—he had formed with Apithy. In January 1964 he was made Prime Minister but the uncertain division of functions between Prime Minister and President led to friction with Apithy, who insisted on following his own foreign policy (pro-Peking, anti-Ivory Coast). In November 1965 Ahomadegbe convened an assembly which voted Apithy out of office, but this coup, which could have given Ahomadegbe supreme power, was thwarted by General Soglo’s seizure of power.
In exile in Abidjan and then Paris, he was the most outspoken of the exiled politicians and the most determined to return. After Soglo was in turn thrown out and power was given to Emile Zinsou, Ahomadegbe, wifh Maga and Apithy, was refused entry to Dahomey. However, he returned after the fall of Zinsou and contested the elections of March 1970. These were cancelled but, after weeks of brinkmanship, the agree¬ment creating a Presidential Council of the three leaders brought Ahomadegbe in as number two in the rotating presidency.
Early in 1972 towards the end of President Maga's term, Ahomadegbe became increasingly concerned that he might be prevented from coming to power, especially after the February army mutiny. He was one of the main advocates of trial for the soldiers responsible, but the other two members of the Council opposed him, and it was only after his accession on May 7 that the trial was held.
His four months as President were not distinguished by many major developments because of the obstructive tactics of his presidential colleagues. There were also signs of simmering trade union discontent, absent during the Maga period. What broke Ahomadegbe was his wish to dismiss the Finance Minister, Pascal Chabi Kao, a nominee of Maga, for alleged corruption. Maga opposed this in the Council (Apithy was in Paris). Ahomadegbc’s dithering on this issue seems to have been what brought the soldiers back from the barracks in October 1972. Ahomadegbe and the rest of the government were arrested early in the afternoon, while the cabinet had temporarily adjourned.
Member of Dahomey’s “big three” who agreed to share the Presidency, with a reputation for toughness. Reputedly more straightforward than the other two, his abrasiveness was both a political asset and liability. Showed his strength in dealings with the trade unions in 1965, but when his turn to run the Presidential Council came in 1972, he seemed foiled by the system, or else by his own desire to be states¬manlike. The decisive rule he had been promising certainly never materialised, although four months was perhaps too short a period in which to judge him.