Thomas Boni Yayi

Thomas Boni Yayi (born 1 July 1951) is a Beninese banker and politician who was the president of Benin from 2006 to 2016. He took office after winning the March 2006 presidential election and was re-elected to a second term in March 2011. He also served as the chairperson of the African Union from 29 January 2012 to 27 January 2013 and currently serves as a senator since 30 July 2026.

Early life and banking career Boni was born in Tchaourou, in the Borgou Department in northern Benin, then the French colony of Dahomey. He received his education first in the regional capital of Parakou before moving on to earn a master's degree in economics at the National University of Benin. He then pursued an additional master's degree in economics at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, and then earned a doctorate in economics and politics at the University of Orléans in France and at Paris Dauphine University, where he completed a doctorate in economics in 1976. From 1992 until 1994, he served as an economic adviser to the President of Benin Nicéphore Soglo. In 1994 he left this position to become the President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD). The sitting president, Mathieu Kérékou, had been a dominant force in the politics of the country since the early 1970s and there were serious doubts about him agreeing to allow a transition of power. Boni surprised many by earning 35.8% of the vote in the first round as an independent candidate. This coalition broke apart by 2010 and prevented the passage of many parts of Boni's agenda. By August 2010, an increasingly unified coalition was able to get a majority of the parliament to vote to impeach Boni for his involvement in a Ponzi scheme that took the savings of 100,000 people in Benin. While they did not get the required two-thirds majority to remove Boni from power, the opposition agreed to organize around Houngbédji in the 2011 presidential election.

In September 2021, Patrice Talon and Thomas Boni Yayi, political allies who have become intimate enemies, met at the Marina Palace in Cotonou. During this tête-à-tête, Thomas Boni Yayi presented Patrice Talon with a series of proposals and requests, relating in particular to the release of "political detainees".

Assassination attempts

On 15 March 2007, Yayi Boni survived an ambush on his convoy near the village of Ikemon while returning from an election campaign rally in the town Ouesse for the upcoming parliamentary elections. The attackers blocked the road with downed trees, and fired upon the vehicle that usually carries the President; however President Boni was traveling in a separate vehicle. Several of his entourage were wounded in the ensuing crossfire between the presidential guard and the would-be assassins. However this information remains unproven since all sources claiming the assassination attempt come from the president's camp. The verification of such information remains impossible to date.

On 23 October 2012, the BBC reported that the president's doctor, niece, and former commerce minister had been arrested in a plot to poison the president. Patrice Talon, a former ally of the president and businessman, had reportedly paid the niece to substitute the President's medicine with a "toxic substance" while he was on a state visit to Brussels.

Events of 2013 In 2013, Benin authorities claimed to have foiled a coup.

While some argue that Yayi's government was being targeted because of its fight against corruption, others argue that he used the criminal justice system to silence opposition and media.

Post-presidency In 2026, Yayi resigned as leader of the Les Démocrates party, citing health reasons. He was succeeded by Nourérou Atchadé on 23 March 2026. Yayi decided to take his in the Senate in July 2026 despite previously rejecting the institution established through the December 2025 constitutional reform. He said that serving in the Senate would provide an important forum for political consultation, constructive dialogue, and representing citizens’ interests in a legislature dominated by a single political party.

Personal life

Originally from a Muslim family, Boni Yayi is now an Evangelical Protestant. He has five children, and his wife Chantal (née de Souza), a native of the coastal city of Ouidah, is the niece of President Paul-Émile de Souza and Archbishop Isidore de Souza, and the great-granddaughter of Francisco Félix de Sousa, also known as Chacha de Souza, who was a Brazilian slave trader and the viceroy of Ouidah. Boni Yayi was introduced to his later wife by her older brother Marcel Alain de Souza. A descendant of the Yoruba princes of Sabe in his own right, both Boni Yayi and his wife were awarded chieftaincy titles by the Nigerian king of Ile-Ife, Olubuse II, in 2008.

Honours