“Your responsibility in governing Benin will be great,” Renaud Agbodjo to Romuald Wadagni

From his office in Jéricho, Me Renaud Agbodjo made a statement after the Constitutional Court’s decision confirming the rejection of his candidacy for the April 2026 presidential election. In that address, the man who had carried the hopes of a segment of Benin’s political youth acknowledged his exclusion from the electoral process, while refusing to hold any grudge.

“As a legal practitioner committed to legality, I am obliged, despite myself, to take note of the Constitutional Court’s decision,” he said. But it was above all his message to Romuald Wadagni, the candidate of the presidential majority, that left an impression.

“You are brilliant and competent…”

In a particularly powerful passage of his speech, Me Agbodjo addressed Romuald Wadagni directly.

“Mr. Minister of State Romuald Wadagni, your responsibility in steering Benin’s destiny will be great. You are brilliant and competent, that’s an open secret. But the Beninese people are attached to freedom, social justice and the reconciliation of all their sons deprived of their liberty and forced into exile,” he said.

The candidate disqualified from the Les Démocrates party did not fail to recall the Beninese people’s expectations for the next government. “I urge you, in the event of victory, to do everything possible to bring together all political, economic and social perspectives around the same table for a fresh, sincere reconciliation and for the well‑being of the people of Benin,” he added.