Zarifou Ayéva 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 President of the Party for Democracy and Renewal

Party for Democracy and Renewal

The Party for Democracy and Renewal is a political party in Togo. It was founded on May 1, 1991, and its National President is Zarifou Ayéva....

 (PDR). He served in the government of Togo as a minister during the 1970s and became an opposition leader in the early 1990s. He was a minor candidate in the 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 later served as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs

Foreign minister

A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...

 from 2005 to 2007.

Ayéva was born in Sokodé

Sokodé

Sokodé is the second largest city in Togo and seat of the Tchaoudjo and Centrale Region in the center of the country, north of Lomé. With a population of 86,500 , currently at around 113,000, the city is situated between the Mo and Mono rivers, and it is a commercial center for the surrounding...

, Tchaoudjo Prefecture

Tchaoudjo

Tchaoudjo is a prefecture located in the Centrale Region of Togo. The capital city is Sokodé....

. He was appointed to the government as Minister of Trade, Industry, and Transport on March 5, 1975, and he was appointed as Deputy Director-General of the National Iron and Steel Company (Société Nationale de Sidérurgie, SNS) in 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 1977. He was also appointed as Secretary-General of the Togolese National Olympic Committee on March 17, 1977.

He was retained in the government as Minister of Trade and Transport on January 17, 1978 before being moved to the position of Minister of Information on November 14, 1978. He was dismissed from the government on March 19, 1979 and was appointed as Director-General of SNS on the same day, remaining in that post until 1982.

Ayéva subsequently became the President of the PDR, which was founded in May 1991, and from 1991 to 1993 he was a member of the High Council of the Republic (HCR), which acted as the transitional parliament; on the HCR, he served as President of the Commission on Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Security. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the June 1998 presidential election, taking fourth place with 3.02% of the vote. On June 18, three days before the election, he and fellow opposition candidate 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...

 called for the election to be delayed due to irregularities during electoral preparations and difficulties they faced in campaigning, including their treatment by the High Audiovisual and Communication Authority. A residence belonging to Ayéva was ransacked by security forces on August 17, 1998.

In the government named on June 20, 2005, which included members of the opposition, Ayéva was appointed as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and African Integration.

At the PDR's Third Statutory Congress, held on February 24, 2007, was re-elected as the party's president. In 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...

, he was the first candidate on the PDR's candidate list for Tchaoudjo Prefecture, but the PDR did not win any seats in the election.

Following the election, Ayéva was replaced as Foreign Minister by another opposition leader, Léopold Gnininvi

Léopold Gnininvi

Léopold Messan Kokou Gnininvi is a Togolese politician and the Secretary-General of the Democratic Convention of African Peoples...

, in the government of 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:...

, named on December 13, 2007.