Hobson's Choice

free script provided by

Togo Archive

Watch out Togo

February 15, 2005

The president of Togo, Gnassingbe [Étienne] Eyadema, has just died (AP; BBC). He had come to power in a coup in April 1967 and ruled as an autocrat, although in 1991 he allowed multiparty elections to take place.

The military high command has appointed his son, Faure Gnassingbe, acting president in his stead. This violates the Togolese constitution, under which the Speaker of Parliament Fanbare Tchaba is supposed to take his place. Togo has been under military rule almost continuously since 1963, and is heavily dependent upon foreign aid. Essentially, Togo gets paid to implement economic reforms, and it is an example of a country where the state relies on repression in order to implement structural adjustment programs (SAP's) imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). So it's going to be interesting to observe if this becomes a struggle over the future of the SAP regime for West Africa.

ADDITIONAL READING: Amnesty International page for Togo.

Togo's constitutional crisis deepens

February 15, 2005

A few days ago I posted about the death of Pres. Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo (HC); in violation of the Togolese constitution, the military junta running the country appointed his son Faure Gnassingbe President rather than the speaker of the Parliament, Fambare Ouattara Natchaba (who is supposed to succeed the president in the event of his death). This has been denounced by ECOWAS and led to a political crisis in the tiny West African nation:

IRIN: At least three people were killed in Togo at the weekend when troops fired into groups of opposition demonstrators protesting at Faure Gnassingbe’s military-backed seizure of power following the death in office of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema.
The street protests took place on Saturday as Prime Minister Koffi Sama flew to Niamey for talks with Mamadou Tandja, the President of Niger on demands by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
He led a delegation that was summoned to hear Tandja, the current chairman of ECOWAS, outline demands that Togo apply the constitution as it stood before Eyadema died suddenly after 38 years in power on 5 February.

See also Jonathan Edelstein (Head Heeb). For those interested in the evolution of ECOWAS—now a premier actor in West Africa—we have these links to the Head Heeb to get one started: 1, 2; Library of Congress (1, 2, 3, 4) and IRIN (1, 2, 3, 4).

Comments on this Post:

The son takes the reign held by the father for nearly 4 decades. Very unparliamentary, but does this matter to the bulk of the population? Do they see it through a less European lens? 69 is a decade younger than Greenspan, so this 'sudden' death is suspicious? The son, a highly placed and probably elected official within the government, has reasons for skipping the parliamentary procedures or is he merely ambitious? There appear to be no outside interests. Do we have an example of 'might is right' here following America's example?

Posted by: cm at February 16, 2005 05:03 PM

I probably need to address this in a future post. Yes, I do think it matters to ordinary Togolese; it certainly affects them.

Partly in recent decades there's been a trend for heads of state in African countries to respond chiefly to pressures from multilateral development agencies; as they implement unpopular austerity measures, they're likely to offset this with intensified patronage to key elites. A better-known exxample of this happening is in Ivory Coast.

Posted by: James R MacLean at February 16, 2005 07:08 PM

Togo's President steps down

February 26, 2005

The son of late Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema, Faure Gnassingbe, has announced he will step down less than a month after being appointed successor by the ruling military council (BBC, IRIN). I would advise against reading very much into this; the younger Gnassingbe has been unanimously chosen as leader of the ruling party:

Gnassingbe, the son of Togo's late president Gnassingbe Eyadema, was acclaimed chairman of the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) by a show of hands at a special congress of the party founded by his father.
The 3,000 delegates also endorsed him unanimously as the party's candidate in the forthcoming presidential election.
Gnassingbe, who seized power with the backing of the army following the death of his father on 5 February, called for party unity in his acceptance speech.

See the Head Heeb for additional details.

UPDATE: The Mail & Guardian says that Gnassingbe is indeed stepping down:

Gnassingbe had been under growing pressure from the United States, the United Nations and West African leaders to resign since he was installed on February 5 after the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled the country for 38 years and was Africa's longest-serving leader. His earlier refusal to step down had prompted the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to impose sanctions on the government of this West African nation, including an arms embargo and a travel ban. The African Union announced it was joining in the sanctions and suspended the country from all AU activities.
[link added—JRM]

The younger Gnassingbe is standing for the Presidency in elections to be held in April. Deputy Speaker Bonfoh Abbass was chosen as interim president.

Togo Aflame Again

April 26, 2005

Massive demonstrations in February against the unconstitutional accession of Faure Gnassinbe as President of Togo have sharply intensified (IRIN):

Minutes after the announcement of Gnassingbe’s victory on state radio and television on Tuesday, an IRIN correspondent saw crowds of angry youths spill onto the streets of the capital Lome, some waving machetes and hurling stones.
Barricades made of concrete slabs or wooden market traders’ tables mushroomed in no time across major traffic arteries and a heavy pall of black smoke spread over the city as protesters set fire to tyres.
Gnassingbe, the son of the late president Gnassingbe Eyadema and candidate of the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), won 60.22 percent of the vote in Sunday’s poll, while the main opposition candidate Emmanuel Bob-Akitani captured 38.19 percent, according to provisional results from the electoral commission.

Those keeping lists of EDSA-style Movements (ESMs) for the year will already have Togo on them (HC); the younger Gnassingbe reluctantly agreed to stand in elections then.

I say, "intensified," because there had already been vehement public expressions of anger with the elections as a powegrab (IRIN):

Thousands of opposition supporters swathed in yellow took to the streets of Lome on Friday insisting that people power would remove the government, even if opposition candidate Emmanuel Bob Akitani were declared the loser of Sunday's presidential election.
Many of them carried knives, hammers and iron bars, a sign of possible trouble to come as Togo heads towards a hastily organised poll which one influential minister tried to cancel at the last moment. He voiced fears that it would plunge this small West African country into bloody conflict.
[...] He called for a transitional government to be formed, headed by a figure from the opposition, to rule Togo for a period of one to two years while the country drew up a new constitution.
"It is essential that the President of the Republic takes into account the very real risks which are visible on the horizon by ending this suicidal electoral process," Esso Boko said.
"We have reliable information that there is a very real risk of a slide into bloodshed as a result of this poll whose outcome is uncertain," said the interior minister, former officer in the paramilitary gendarmerie, who was charged with maintaining internal security.
But a few hours later, Interim President Abass Bonfoh sacked Esso Boko and announced that the election would go ahead as planned.

Unfortunately, such "people-power" activities have reliably trashed the economies of African nations that experienced them.