Issifou Okoulou-Kantchati (23 January 1951[1] – 20 October 2016) was a Togolese politician, who last served in the government of Togo as Minister of City Planning and Housing.
Okoulou-Kantchati was born in Mango, located in the Oti Prefecture of Togo. He studied in France and became a member of the Central Committee of the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) in 1977.[1] In the 1990s, Okoulou-Kantchati headed the Alliance of Democrats for the Republic (ADR), a political party.[2] He was Quaestor of the High Council of the Republic, which was established as the transitional parliament in 1991.[1] In an August 1996 by-election for a seat in the National Assembly from Oti, Okoulou-Kantchati, standing as the ADR candidate, placed second in the first round, receiving 32.89% of the vote against 40.19% for RPT candidate Stanislas Baba.[3] Baba then narrowly defeated him in the second round, receiving 51.41% of the vote.[4]
Okoulou-Kantchati later joined the RPT. In the March 1999 parliamentary election, he was elected to the National Assembly as the RPT candidate in the First Constituency of Oti Prefecture; he faced no opposition and won the seat with 100% of the vote.[5] He was re-elected to the National Assembly in the October 2002 parliamentary election and served as President of the Finance Commission in the National Assembly.[6] On 29 July 2003, Okoulou-Kantchati was appointed to the government as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.[7] [8]
His house in Mango was attacked by opposition supporters amidst the violence that surrounded the April 2005 presidential election.[9] After that election, he was moved to the post of Minister of the Environment and Forest Resources on 20 June 2005.[8] He was the first candidate on the RPT's candidate list for Oti constituency in the October 2007 parliamentary election[10] and won a seat.[11] At the time of the election, he was the RPT Coordinator in Savanes Region.[12] Following the election, he was designated as one of seven members of a committee to amend the National Assembly's rules of procedure on 14 November 2007.[13] He remained in the government that was formed after the election in December 2007.[8]
Okoulou-Kantchati remained in his post as Minister of the Environment and Forest Resources until 15 September 2008, when he was instead appointed as Minister of City Planning and Housing.[8] [14]