APA-Cotonou (Benin) Several politicians in Benin, including Members of Parliament and even former ministers, are already campaigning for the presidential candidacy of the current president of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, 13 months to the elections in March 2011.

“A former cabinet minister, Africa Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, then president of the West Africa Development Bank Bank (BOAD), he has a good range of international and regional experiences that will be useful in the development of Benin,” said former minister Roger Gbegnonvi. The former Literacy Minister under current head of state Yayi Boni said, in a statement issued Thursday, that the BOAD president has the intellectual capacity and human resources enabling him to head Benin for the next five-years.

“Abdoulaye Bio Tchane is open-minded, able to work out a political greatness for Benin, and this reassures me,” he said. Former minister Roger Gbegnonvi thinks Abdoulaye Bio Tchane will have three fundamental tasks once he comes to power in April 2011.

“Once you head the country in April 2011, you will have to cope with three tasks ; that of restoring national unity, restoring justice and eradicating illiteracy,” he added.

Apart from this statement by Roger Gbegnonvi, several elected officials, including MPs and councilors, have been making several statements, discussions and even organizing support marches to incite the nomination of the current BOAD president as a candidate to the highest office in the country, in recent months.

In addition to these statements, pocket calendars and key holders with the effigy of Tchane are currently being distributed in the country.