At a CPP congress in late April 2009, Kodjo announced that he was retiring from day-to-day politics in order to make way for younger leadership. He also said that he would not be a candidate in the 2010 presidential election. Acting as the Special Envoy of La Francophonie, he arrived in Madagascar to help mediate in that country's political crisis on May 8, 2009. In an interview with "Jeune Afrique", published in May 2009, he said that he had served his country in all possible capacities, except that of President: "I have made my contribution to the construction of my country". According to Kodjo, he had lost interest in "internal politics" and preferred to devote himself to Pan-Africanism by working to facilitate a cooperative approach to finding solutions to African problems.