In 1935, with five classmates including Justin Ahomadégbé,[4] he was shortlisted on the basis of his marks and admitted to the École normale supérieure William Ponty in Gorée in Senegal, known at the time as the principal training ground of the elite from French West Africa.

[7][8] He was a member of the school theatre group with the future Dahomeyan political elite, Hubert Maga, Émile Derlin Zinsou, François Djibodé Aplogan[a] and Antoine Boya.

[16] He served until 27 October of the same year when Colonel Christophe Soglo, Chief of Staff of the Army, forced the president to resign the office and took control of the country in a bloodless operation in order to prevent a civil war.

[21] In his memoirs, Bruno Amoussou related some confessions that Adrien Degbey made regarding this military transition period which led to the Nation's Second Republic.

[23] Promptly, economic problems, social issues, strikes, differing opinions on politics and irreversible tensions contributed to the government's instability that led to the resignation of Sourou-Migan Apithy on 27 November 1965 and Justin Ahomadégbé's one two days later.

He formed a restricted cabinet of five members; Antoine Boya succeeded both Adrien Degbey and François Aplogan as secretary of State for Finance, Economy, Rural Development and Cooperation.

[24] But Christophe Soglo (since promoted to the rank of general) was dissatisfied with the actions taken by Tahirou Congacou and decided to remove the latter from power on 22 December 1965.