The ‘coup’ in Togo

President Faure Gnassingbé of Togo early this month signed into law a new constitution for his country that is suspected aimed at indefinitely prolonging his stay in power. The new law essentially swaps the tiny West African nation’s presidential system with parliamentary system, adjusts the presidential tenure, and creates a new position of head of government that could offer the 57-year-old, who has been in power for two decades already, a platform for a lifetime of rulership. 

Under the new framework, Togolese voters will no longer directly choose the country’s president, as parliament will now have that power. Besides, the constitution raises the presidential term from five to six years and introduces a single-term limit. The nearly 20 years Gnassingbé has been in office would not count and he is eligible to take office under the new law when his current tenure expires in 2025. The constitution also creates a new office of de facto head of government known as ‘president of the council of ministers’ – a position reserved for the leader of the ruling party or coalition in parliament.

Gnassingbé signed the constitution into law on the heels of Togo’s electoral commission announcing his ruling Union for the Republic (UNIR) party as having won the country’s parliamentary poll held on April 29th by landslide. Ahead of that election, there was crackdown on civic and media freedoms in Togo. The government prohibited protests by civil society actors as well as politicians against the proposed new constitution and arrested opposition figures. The electoral commission banned the Catholic Church from deploying observers for the election. About mid-April, a French journalist who arrived in Togo to cover the elections was reported arrested, assaulted and expelled; and the country’s media regulator subsequently suspended accreditation of foreign journalists for the poll. With his party credited with winning 108 out of 113 seats in parliament, and 137 out of 179 seats in the senate, Gnassingbé – already in his fourth term in power – is well placed to be voted for another term in 2025 that will last until 2031 under the new framework.

The president’s supporters argue that the reworked constitution curtails his powers by changing the presidency into a ceremonial role. One of his ministers was reported saying the move would “improve democracy” in the country, while an adviser to the president claimed the constitutional changes would strengthen democracy and improve political stability because “the aspirations of our people are not served by the current constitution.” But Togolese opposition argue that Gnassingbé is looking beyond the 2031 expiration of the presidential tenure to an indefinite stay in the newly-created position of ‘president of the council of ministers.’ Under the new constitution, the presidency will become a largely symbolic role and power will reside with the president of the council of ministers – a sort of prime ministerial post that opposition suspect Gnassingbé aims to assume so he could bypass the presidential term limit. The position is reserved for the leader of the party with the majority in parliament, and it is Gnassingbé who currently fits in that profile. 

Togo, a French-speaking country of about nine million people, has been ruled by the same family for 57 years. Faure Gnassingbé came to power in 2005 after the death of his father, Gnassingbé Eyadema, who seized power in a 1967 military coup and ruled the country with iron fist for 38 years. It was the military that installed Faure Gnassingbé as president on the heels of his father’s death, but following intense domestic and international pressure he called an election that he won at the cost of hundreds of Togolese nationals losing their lives in crackdowns against protests over that poll victory. Gnassingbé has since won three more elections: in 2010, 2015 and 2020 – all of which were disputed as shams by the opposition.

“Togolese people need help to resist the new law that is foisting a lifetime hegemony on them.”

Let’s be clear: the new constitution in Togo was ostensibly at the behest of the parliament, which mid-April gave final approval to the changes. The law was initially approved by the lawmakers in March; but in the face of public outrage, President Gnassingbé paused the reforms and said they should be subjected to further  consultations and a second parliamentary vote. Pro-government lawmakers travelled round the country to “listen to, and inform civilians on the constitutional reforms.” They met with traditional rulers and select opinion leaders, although they eventually didn’t effect any change to the constitution before passing it again in April. Opposition figures and civil society activists plied resistance to the new law, which they dubbed a constitutional coup, but they were harshly repressed by Togolese security forces. In March, an opposition press conference under the banner of “Don't Touch My Constitution” was broken up by the police. Amid the turmoil, the president momentarily held down the parliamentary poll, but that move further fuelled the unrest. The government then announced that the election would go ahead after all and rescheduled it to April 29th, which was just over a week later than the original date. The ruling party emerged with a sweeping victory in that poll, thereby securing the leverage needed to implement the new law to self-advantage. It was on the heels of that outcome the president signed the constitution into law.

Prior to Gnassingbé signing the constitution into law, Togo’s opposition parties filed a lawsuit with the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in a bid to overturn the controversial law, which they contend is illegal because the parliament lost its mandate already by virtue of elections having been delayed beyond its statutory tenure. In the lawsuit, 13 opposition parties and groups requested the court to condemn Gnassingbé’s government for violating democracy and good governance, according to court documents seen by AFP. The litigants also argued that the constitutional reform was “made in absence of any prior public debate and without political consensus,” and that the opposition had their rights violated by the state of Togo. 

Another front of opposition since Gnassingbé signed the constitution early in May has been by a group of Togolese civil society organisations that called for protests to defend and preserve the old constitution. “We will never accept this new constitution, even after its promulgation. The Togolese people must decisively look towards 2025,” a spokesperson for the civil society groups told The Associated Press, adding: “A presidential election is absolutely necessary for the people to choose a new president and finally achieve a democratic transition in Togo.” But there hasn’t been much these objectors could do because the authorities have blocked all protests against the new law. Violent crackdowns on political demonstrations have been routine under President Gnassingbé, as they were during his father’s long rule. Meanwhile, an implication of the new law is that there will be no election in Togo in 2025, but Gnassingbé will most likely be handed a six-year tenure renewal by the parliament that is under his party’s control. 

Togolese people need help to resist the new law that is foisting a lifetime hegemony on them. Democracy is embattled enough in the West and Central African region that has witnessed eight military coups in three years, and forced constitutional alterations in some countries allowing rulers to prolong their stay in office. Gnassingbé apparently has the Togolese military under his thumb, but that is no reason why the world should ignore the travails of democracy in his country. The least ECOWAS leadership can do at this time is speak out against harsh suppression of dissent and authoritarian enactment of the new constitution in that country. Actually, the regional authority should work at mediation in Togo’s crisis. The bloc shouldn’t only be fighting military adventurers who illegally seize power in member-states, it should also exert moderating influence on civilian leaders who hold their citizens in oppressive thrall while overreaching the bounds of democracy. The bloc did that deftly when Senegal was recently in crisis, and it can do same now for Togo. If ECOWAS posts proactive oversight on member-nations during political crises, that might go a long way to avert intervention by military goons.