Vision Benin 2060: a 35-year plan provokes virulent criticism from the PCB
On July 4, 2025, the Beninese National Assembly unanimously voted in favor of law no. 2025-16 outlining Benin’s development vision for 2060. This vision, considered a long-term roadmap, aims to implement rigorous planning, avoid any strategic discontinuity in the conduct of public action, and serve as a reference for all future governments.
Nevertheless, this initiative has sparked vigorous opposition from the Communist Party of Benin (PCB), which sees it as an attempt to perpetuate a neo-colonial governance model anchored in economic and institutional dependency.
In its July 12, 2025 issue, La Flamme, the political organ of the PCB, denounces the legislation as a rigid ideological projection that is incompatible with the rapid changes of the contemporary world. According to this analysis, any 35-year development vision can only be based on uncertain forecasting, in an era where knowledge, technology, and social dynamics are evolving at an accelerated rate.
The communists argue that setting such a direction for several decades equates to disregarding any adjustments based on national and international context changes.
The content of Vision 2060 is also criticized for its lack of novelty. Its phrasing, according to the PCB, echoes the main points of Benin 2025 Vision developed in the early 2000s, itself designed under the supervision of UNDP. Critical observers note this similarity questions the ability of the new vision to signify a real break from previous policies.
Communists claim that successive governments from Mathieu Kérékou to Patrice Talon, including Boni Yayi, implemented these strategic frameworks without the expected effects on governance, prosperity, or social well-being being realized. These regimes are accused of governance characterized by corruption, electoral fraud, dependency on foreign powers, and a marginalization of national cultural values.
The PCB’s critique goes further, noting that Vision 2060 seems to go against current dynamics driven by African youth and growing sovereignist movements on the continent. While several countries in the Sahel are questioning old patterns of postcolonial dependency, the PCB believes the new law demonstrates a willing to perpetuate a model inherited from FrançAfrique, in contradiction to patriotic aspirations for political, economic and cultural autonomy.
The PCB’s First Secretary, Philippe Noudjenoume, is quoted as proposing an alternative based on real sovereignty, valuing national languages, and the people’s capacity to integrate scientific advances without being subjected to externally imposed logics. For the party, only such a break can allow endogenous, just, and sustainable development.
In this reading, the law on Vision 2060 would not be a step toward a planned future, but a strategic impediment designed to prevent the emergence of a truly sovereign project tailored to the specific needs of the Beninese people.
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