Adrien Houngbedji
| Adrien Houngbédji | |
|---|---|
| Prime Minister of Benin | |
|
In office 9 April 1996 – 14 May 1998 |
|
| President | Mathieu Kérékou |
| Preceded by | Nicéphore Soglo (1991) |
| Succeeded by | Pascal Koupaki (2011) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 5, 1942 Aplahoué, Benin |
| Political party | Democratic Renewal Party |
Adrien Houngbédji (born 5 March 1942) is a Beninese politician and the leader of the Democratic Renewal Party (Parti du renouveau démocratique, PRD), one of Benin's main political parties. He was President of the National Assembly of Benin from 1991 to 1995, Prime Minister of Benin from 1996 to 1998, and President of the National Assembly again from 1999 to 2003. Beginning in 1991, he stood repeatedly as a presidential candidate; he placed second in 2006, but was heavily defeated by Yayi Boni in a second round of voting. Since 2015, he has served for a third time as President of the National Assembly.
Adrien Houngbédji was born in Aplahoué (Benin) in 1942. He earned a Doctorate in Law from the University of Paris in 1967 and graduated the same year from the French National School of Magistrate, first in his class. In August 1968 he joined the bar in Cotonou where he ran a prominent law office. After agreeing to represent an opponent of the regime of Mathieu Kérékou, he was arrested in February 1975. On March 5, 1975, Houngbédji escaped from prison and fled into exile; shortly afterward he was sentenced to death. He went to Paris, then to Dakar, Senegal, where he taught law, before going to Libreville, Gabon, where he again practiced law.
In Gabon he was close to President Omar Bongo, and Bongo encouraged Houngbédji to return to Benin in December 1989 after an amnesty was issued by the Kérékou regime, providing him with a plane and sending a Gabonese Minister of State to accompany him. Houngbédji participated in the February 1990 National Conference that led the country towards a multi-party democracy. He was favored by Kérékou to become prime minister at the National Conference, but Nicéphore Soglo found more favor with the delegates, and Houngbédji withdrew from the contest prior to the vote, in which Soglo was elected. Although considered by many to have been an ally of the Kérékou regime at the time of the National Conference, Houngbédji has written that he was actually an "enlightened adversary" of the regime. In March 1990 he founded the Democratic Renewal Party, and in early 1991 he was elected to the National Assembly of Benin. He ran in the March 1991 presidential election, taking fifth place with 4.54% of the vote. He was elected as President of the National Assembly in 1991, serving until 1995.
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