In an exclusive interview with Peace FM, Mario Mètonou, the special prosecutor of CRIET, shared how his father’s attention to his academic performance left a significant impact on his youth and shaped his perspective on education.
During his revelation, Mario Mètonou talked about a peculiar habit of his father, a retired finance administrator, who would routinely inquire about his school results.
“My father had a habit. Every time you come home at noon, he asks you about what you’ve done. If you’ve had a test, especially when you’re under assignment, he says ‘So, you’ve worked?’ You say ‘Yes.’ ‘How much?’ Then, he asks you the same question several times a day. In the evening, when you come back, he asks you exactly the same question. And it annoyed me”, confessed Mario Mètonou.
From annoyance to gratitude …
This perception changed when one of his friends, clearly upset, confessed that no family member showed interest in his school activities.
“Except that I had a friend at the time who is my neighbor. Their house was next to ours. He was in the same class as me. And he tells me… I was in sixth grade. I remember it very clearly. He comes to see me. He was very sad. And I ask him the question ‘Why are you so sad?'”, revealed Mario Mètonou before sharing a secret of his friend.
“He tells me ‘Mario, at home, no one cares about what I become, what I do at school,’ he said.
“And there was such depth, such sadness in his gaze that it made me realize how lucky I was to have parents who cared about what I did in my day, who cared about the grades I got, who cared about my state of mind, how I behaved at school”
This revelation transformed his annoyance into gratitude. “Since that day, every time my father would ask me if I’ve worked well, what we’ve done at school and all that, I no longer took it as a burden. He could ask the question ten times a day, I would always reply with more enthusiasm and give him the answer.”, he adds.
Mario Mètonou, now a central figure in Beninese justice, graduated from the National School of Administration as a labor and social security inspector in 2001. He also holds a master’s degree in business law and judicial careers. Admitted to the justice auditors competition, he graduated as a magistrate from the National School of Administration and Magistracy in 2009.
A former prosecutor of the Republic near the first-class court of first instance of Cotonou, he currently holds the position of special prosecutor near the Court for the Repression of Economic Crimes and Terrorism (CRIET).