Hubert Maga - Deputy To The French National Assembly

Deputy To The French National Assembly

In Paris, Maga affiliated himself with the Overseas Independents, a political organization led by Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal. However, he was not an ardent supporter of this organization; this lack of commitment was typical of Maga in the following years. He was named the secretary of the Finance Committee, a member of the committee on national education, and a member of the committee on parliamentary privileges. During his first term in the Assembly, he accomplished little apart from proposing a bill on May 13, 1954 that concerned the election of counselors of the Republic from its overseas territories and Trust Territories. With the support of his new party, Maga ran for the renewal of his mandate at the legislative elections held on January 2, 1956. Standing for an "active federalism within the French union", Maga chose Gaustin Gbaguidi as his running mate. Of the 179,119 votes cast, Maga won 60,601 and Apithy won 64,344.

Later that year, he resigned from his position on the Grand Council of French West Africa. Shortly afterwards, Maga became a member of the committees on national education and on justice and legislation, and was named Secretary of the Assemblée on January 25, 1956. When Félix Gaillard became Prime Minister of France in November 1957, he appointed Maga to the position of Secretary of State of Labor, a post he served in until the end of the Gaillard ministry on April 15, 1958.

Before the territorial elections of 1959, Maga agreed that the R.D.D. would field candidates only in the north of the country if in return Apithy's Republican Party of Dahomey (P.R.D.) ran only in the south. The result of the elections was that the P.R.D. received 37 seats with 144,038 votes, the R.D.D. received 22 seats with 62,132 votes, and Justin Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin's Dahomey Democratic Union (U.D.D.) received 11 deputies for its 162,179 votes. What followed was described by Matthews as "an immediate explosion". Supporters of Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin took to the streets in rioting so severe that French soldiers were called in to restore order. Following mediation by Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Apithy and Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin agreed to divide between them 18 contested seats in a southwest constituency. However, Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin made it clear that he would not agree to let Apithy retain the office of Prime Minister of Dahomey. Maga was chosen as a compromise for the premiership, and was voted into this post on May 22, 1959.