Mathurin Nago - Political Career

Political Career

As a candidate of the Union for Democracy and National Solidarity, Nago was elected to the National Assembly in the 1995 parliamentary election. He served in the National Assembly until the end of the parliamentary term in 1999, and during that period he was a member of the National Assembly's Commission of Planning, Equipment and Production. He has also been Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of Benin. He became Minister of Higher Education and Vocational Training in April 2006 as part of President Yayi Boni's first government. He participated in the Cauris Forces for an Emerging Benin (FCBE), which backs Boni, in the March 2007 parliamentary election, and was elected to a seat. Afterwards, he was elected by the National Assembly to be its president in a vote on May 3, 2007; he took 45 votes against 34 for Bruno Amoussou. Nago had one month to choose between his position as a minister and his National Assembly seat, and on May 22 Nago resigned from the government, along with four other ministers who had been elected to the National Assembly, as they had been instructed to do by Boni.

Nago was elected President of the UPD-Gamesu at its first ordinary congress on August 18, 2007.

Re-elected to the National Assembly in the March 2011 parliamentary election as a candidate of the FCBE, Nago was then re-elected as President of the National Assembly on 21 May 2011. There were 60 votes in favor of his candidacy, two against, and two abstentions.