Léopold Gnininvi
Encyclopedia
Léopold Messan Kokou Gnininvi (born December 19, 1942) is a Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...

lese politician and the Secretary-General of the Democratic Convention of African Peoples
Democratic Convention of African Peoples
The Democratic Convention of African Peoples is a political party in Togo.The CDPA boycotted the August 1993 presidential election and the February 1994 parliamentary election. Its Secretary-General, Léopold Gnininvi, was a candidate in the June 1998 presidential election, receiving less than 1%...

 (CDPA). He served in the government of Togo as Minister of State for Mines and Energy from 2006 to 2007, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration from 2007 to 2008, and Minister of State for Industry, Crafts, and Technological Innovations from 2008 to 2009.

Gnininvi was born in Aného
Aneho
Aného is a town in southeastern Togo. It is situated 45 km east of the capital Lomé, between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Togo in Maritime Region. Historically it was known under the name Little Popo and it had a Portuguese slave market. It later became the first German capital of Togo in the...

, Lacs Prefecture
Lacs, Togo
Lacs is a prefecture located in the Maritime Region of Togo. The prefecture seat is located in Aného. It contains Togo's farthest east point....

. He is a Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, having received his doctorat d'Etat from the University of Dijon in France in 1977. He became a full professor in 1981. From 1978 to 1993, he was the head of the solar energy laboratory at the University of Lomé
University of Lomé
The University of Lomé is the largest university in the African country of Togo. Located in the city of Lomé, it was originally founded in 1970 as University of Benin before changing its name.-2011 student riots:...

. He was Director of the National Institute of Educational Science from 1979 to 1988 and National Director of Scientific Research from 1987 to 1993. He retired from teaching at the University of Lomé in 1997.

Gnininvi was elected as Secretary-General of the CDPA in March 1991. At the 1991 Sovereign National Conference, Gnininvi was the opposition's initial choice for the position of Prime Minister, but he withdrew in favor of Joseph Kokou Koffigoh
Joseph Kokou Koffigoh
Joseph Kokou Koffigoh is a Togolese politician who served as Prime Minister of Togo from 27 August 1991 to 25 April 1994. Elected as Prime Minister by the opposition-dominated National Conference in 1991, Koffigoh was given full executive powers and tasked with overseeing a transition to...

, the leader of the Togolese League of Human Rights, who was better known than Gnininvi, for the sake of opposition unity. He became the President-in-Office
Chairman-in-Office
A Chairman-in-Office or President-in-Office is the ambassador, foreign minister, or other official of the member state holding the presidency of an international organization, who is the individual actually chairing the meeting of the representatives from member states.The head of government of...

 of the Collective of the Democratic Opposition (COD2), the main opposition coalition, in August 1992. In 1992 and August 1997, he was re-elected as Secretary-General of the CDPA.

He was the CDPA candidate in the June 1998 presidential election
Togolese presidential election, 1998
A presidential election was held in Togo on 21 June 1998. President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, in power since 1967, was re-elected with 52.1% of the total vote according to official results...

, and was the first declared candidate in the election. Two weeks prior to the election, he sent a letter to the electoral commission in which he stated his "concern over anomalies and delays surrounding the organization of the election". Two days before the election, he joined other opposition candidates in criticizing alleged problems in the electoral preparations and calling for the election to be delayed. According to official results, he placed fifth in the election, taking 0.80% of the vote. In November 1998, after President Gnassingbé Eyadéma
Gnassingbé Eyadéma
General Gnassingbé Eyadéma , was the President of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005. He participated in two successful military coups, in January 1963 and January 1967, and became President on April 14, 1967...

 called for the opposition to engage in talks, Gnininvi said that the CDPA would not participate because the talks were only intended to legitimize the rule of Eyadéma's Rally of the Togolese People
Rally of the Togolese People
The Rally of the Togolese People is the ruling political party in Togo. The President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé, is also the National President of the RPT....

 (RPT) party.

Gnininvi initially ran as a candidate in the presidential election
Togolese presidential election, 2003
Presidential elections were held in Togo on 1 June 2003. The result was a victory for incumbent President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who won 57.8% of the vote.-Results:* Gnininvi withdrew his candidacy in May but remained on the ballot paper....

 of June 1, 2003, but he announced his withdrawal from the election on May 26, choosing to back fellow opposition candidate Emmanuel Bob-Akitani
Emmanuel Bob-Akitani
Emmanuel Bob-Akitani is a Togolese politician who was the main opposition candidate in the 2003 and 2005 Togolese presidential elections. He is the Honorary President of the Union of Forces for Change ....

 of the Union of Forces for Change
Union of Forces for Change
The Union of Forces for Change is the main opposition political party in Togo. The President of the UFC was Gilchrist Olympio and its Secretary-General is Jean-Pierre Fabre until August 10th 2010. Olympio is the son of the first President of Togo, Sylvanus Olympio, who was assassinated in a 1963...

 (UFC) instead. He said he made this decision because he had already mobilized his supporters for the election and because he wanted the opposition to unite behind the strongest candidate from its ranks. His name remained on the ballot, however, and received 0.017% of the vote.

He was appointed as Minister of State for Mines and Energy in the government of Prime Minister Yawovi Agboyibo
Yawovi Agboyibo
Yawovi Madji Agboyibo is a Togolese politician. He served as Prime Minister of Togo from September 2006 to December 2007 and was National President of the Action Committee for Renewal , an opposition political party, from 1991 to 2008...

, named on September 20, 2006. In the run-up to the October 2007 parliamentary election
Togolese parliamentary election, 2007
A parliamentary election was held in Togo on October 14, 2007 for the 81 seats in the National Assembly. There were over 2,000 candidates, with 32 parties and 41 lists of independent candidates competing. The ruling Rally of the Togolese People was victorious, winning a majority of 50 seats...

, Gnininivi praised the "remarkable work" of the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) and said that the electoral census conducted by CENI had ensured "a credible process". Gnininvi was the first candidate on the CDPA's candidate list for Lomé
Lomé
Lomé, with an estimated population of 737,751, is the capital and largest city of Togo. Located on the Gulf of Guinea, Lomé is the country's administrative and industrial center and its chief port. The city exports coffee, cocoa, copra, and palm kernels...

 in the 2007 election, but the party did not win any seats in the election. Following the election, Gnininvi remained in the government appointed on December 13, 2007 under Prime Minister Komlan Mally
Komlan Mally
Komlan Mally is a Togolese politician who served as Prime Minister of Togo from December 2007 to September 2008. He was Minister of State for Health from September 2008 to June 2011.-Early life and political career:...

 and was moved to the position of Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.

In the next government, appointed on September 15, 2008 and headed by Prime Minister Gilbert Houngbo
Gilbert Houngbo
Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo is the Prime Minister of Togo since 8 September 2008.-Education and career at the UN:Houngbo holds an advanced degree in business management from the University of Lomé in Togo, as well as a degree in accounting and finance from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in...

, Gnininvi was moved to the position of Minister of State for Industry, Crafts, and Technological Innovations. He remained in that post for one year; on September 10, 2009, he resigned from the government, together with the other CDPA minister, Mensan Adowayom, so that the CDPA would not be tied to the government in the period preceding the 2010 presidential election
Togolese presidential election, 2010
A presidential election was held in Togo on 4 March 2010. Incumbent President Faure Gnassingbé—who won his first term in a presidential election that followed the death of his father, long-time President Gnassingbé Eyadema, in 2005—faced radical opposition candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre,...

.
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