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Mathieu Krkou (Ahmed) Mathieu Krkou (born September 2, 1933) is the president of Benin. After having studied at military schools in Mali and Senegal Krkou served in the military, obtaining the grade of major. He seized power of Benin in a military coup on October 26, 1972 and made himself president. In November 1974 he nationalized the banks and the petroleum industry, and proclaimed the country a Marxist-Leninist state. He also renamed the country from Dahomey to Benin on December 1, 1975. On September 28, 1980, Krkou converted to Islam and changed his first name to Ahmed, but he later started to used the name Mathieu again. The first African dictator to allow a democratization process in his country, his party, Popular Revolutionary Party of Benin (Parti de la rvolution populaire du Bnin, PRPB), denounced Marxism in 1990. Multi-party elections were allowed in 1991, which Krkou lost, obtaining only 32 percent of the vote, less than half the share of former Prime Minister Nicphore Soglo. In the 1996 elections Krkou defeated Soglo in a run-off election and regained the precidency. He was re-elected for a second five-year term in March 2001. It has since been discovered that the American corporation Titan financed his re-election questioning the validity of his re-election campaign. During Krkou's second time in office his government has followed a liberal economic path. The period has also seen Benin take part in international peacekeeping missions in other African states. The constitution of Benin will prohibit Krkou from running again in 2006 as he will be older than 70 years, the limit, and he has made it known he is not planning to change this. External links Krkou Krkou Krkou Krkou
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