Hubert Maga - Minister of State and House Arrest

Minister of State and House Arrest

The provisional government dissolved the P.D.U. and replaced it with a Dahomeyan Democratic Party (P.D.D.). It announced that a referendum on the status of the constitution was to be held on December 15. At the same time, a committee was established to investigate alleged wrongdoings by the Maga administration. In late November it began prosecuting members of the cabinet, including the Minister of National Economy and the Finance Minister, for misusing public funds.

Despite the friendly relationship between the two men, Soglo held Maga responsible for an assassination plot against him which was discovered in early December. Maga resigned his position in the provisional government on December 4, shortly before being placed under house arrest in an unidentified village. He was accompanied by a butler, a cook, and a driver. Four former cabinet members. were placed in less comfortable prisons. At an official inquiry, the conspiracy charge was dropped, but Maga was found guilty of corruption.

In May 1964, Chabi Mama and a devoted group of Maga supporters tried to remove him from house arrest and reinstate the overthrown president back into power. Author Elisa Daggs called their campaigns "a rampage of terrorism." They grew so intense that the military was called in to quell the uprisings. At least one of their goals was accomplished in March 1965 when, following a retrial, Maga was released from house arrest. He went into exile in Togo before moving to Paris.

During Maga's exile, a number of coups were attempted against Presidents Soglo, Apithy, and Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin and their putschists. In order to gain power back, Maga formed a new party while in exile, the Union Nationale Dahoméenne (U.N.D.), on December 9, 1965. It was little more than a vehicle to be recognised in the upcoming elections, to be held before January 18, 1966. Maga and Apithy banded together to protest a special session of the National Assembly on December 21, 1965, that would vote on a new constitution for Dahomey, and the session was never held. Academic Dov Ronen speculates that this was because there would be no vice-presidents in the constitution, and the two politicians figured that a coalition would guarantee high offices for both. Neither was to witness a political comeback on January 18, as Soglo seized power on December 22 of the previous year and refused to hold elections.

More coups were to follow, and eventually the military decided to return to civilian rule. All former presidents, vice presidents, government ministers, and National Assembly presidents were disqualified from Dahomey's first election since 1964, held on May 15, 1968, by incumbent Alphonse Amadou Alley. In response, Maga and Apithy staged protests while Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin supported an obscure candidate named Basile Adjou Moumouni. Moumouni won the election with 80 percent of the vote, but the result was declared void because the protest prevented nearly three-quarters of the electorate from voting. This result sparked further demonstrations, and Maga, Soglo, Apithy, and Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin were forbidden to enter the country, in an attempt to crack down on dissent.

In the wake of further coups, politician Emile Derlin Zinsou was appointed civilian President of Dahomey by the military on June 17, 1968. Maga, Apithy, and Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin unified in Paris in opposing the appointment. They established the National Front for the Struggle of Dahomey, whose members promised "not to participate in any government, not to accept the authority of any president who is unacceptable by any of the living forces and the people of Dahomey." The triumvirate attempted another boycott of Zinsou's appointal and the subsequent referendum he chose to hold. However, the plan was not successful, and he was confirmed President of Dahomey on July 28 with 76.4 percent of the electorate voting for him.