Help stop the fire in Togo

Togo is boiling. The anti-Gnassingbe protests in Lomé the capital town of Togo, with parallel demonstrations in Sokode are getting out of hand. I am taking up this issue because of its potential for destabilising the sub region as a whole and the immediate bordering nations.

If something is surprising me now, it is the silence of Ghana, both the government and civil society, but my worry is, for how long?

My stand is not against the demonstrators. Their grievances are seen by many open-minded pro-democracy observers as legitimate. Indeed, going through their four major grievances, I see parallels in the history of Ghanaians’ struggles over the years to throw off the yoke of oppression.

Opposition demands

The demands by the united forces of opposition parties, namely Jean-Pierre Fabre’s National Alliance for Change, Tchaboure Gogue’s Alliance of Democrats for Integral Development, Gerry Tamaa’s New Togolese Commitment and Mohamed Tchassona-Traoré’s Citizens' Movement for Democracy and Development are simple.

The chant of “50 years is too long” is in reference to the fact that between the present President, Faure, and his late dad, Eyadema, Togo has been ruled by one family for half a century.

The initial demand, therefore, was for a return to the constitution of 1992. In it, there is a cap on the term of the President – any and every Togolese President – to two terms, no more. Going by that provision, Faure should not stand in the next elections, having already served three terms.

The opposition forces are also demanding that the result of the next election (which is only a year away) should be declared on the basis of a “Fifty Plus One” arrangement – just like Ghana’s.

A third demand represents their fears about possible bias and manipulation by the Constitutional Court, which, like its opposite number in La Cote d’Ivoire, is the only body mandated to declare election results. Their beef is that this Court is heavily laden with pro-government persons.

They have a similar accusation against the Electoral Commission itself. Before the next election, they say, the EC must be overhauled and its membership reconstituted.
These are not unreasonable demands. As I intimated earlier, these are concerns which any democratic minded individual, whatever their colour, can identify with.

Dinosaurs once walked upon the earth, but they are extinct – except in Africa where dinosaurs in human form, strut the stage, thumping their breast and clawing down opposition, with the help of bombs, guns and ammunition imported with the tax-payer’s money. We in Ghana are all too familiar with this scenario.

New dimensions

But now a new dimension has emerged out of the already overheated cauldron. A certain Pan African party has emerged with the demand that Faure step down. This demand is recipe for civil war. Faure has the support of his Union for the Republic party whose members, by the last count numbered 1,221,756 or 58.75 of the voters in the last election. To force him to stand down is to incur the wrath of this sizeable population of Togo.

What is more, Faure has less than a year to go. Why don’t we rather jaw-jaw him out of office, with the rest of Africa at the negotiation table.
By this demand, I can only foresee Togo in flames.

ECOWAS mediation?

The sub-regional body, ECOWAS, would have been the ideal mediator. Unfortunately, Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe is also the current chair of ECOWAS. That leaves the matter in the hands of the African Union, perhaps aided by France.

This article actually started as a letter – to the President of Ghana. Nana Akufo Addo is a big brother who, fortunately, speaks French with the fluency of a French national. He will be the surest voice to influence the events in Togo. Ghana has done it before. Once upon a time, we hosted Nigeria’s warring factions here for peace talks.

We can no longer afford to shout, “Dzi wo fie asem”. Togo is too close to Ghana; indeed, it is said that there are houses part of which sit on Ghana soil