It Will Require More Than $1,500 an Hour To Fix Faure’s Image

It was uncovered recently that President Faure Gnassingbé sough the services of Global Specialty LLC to help him improve his tainted image. The contract below notes that Faure agreed to pay an hourly rate of $1,500 for Global Specialty LLC’s services.

The money and effort which the government of Togo spends to improve its image internationally would be better spent fixing the country’s problems, then Faure would not have to worry so much about his image. But this is the web of confusion and contradiction that many dictators often tangle themselves in. Rather than improving the infrastructure in Togo, the government instead spends a great deal of money and effort in presenting the façade of stability and progress. For example, in 2016 the government of Togo spent a lot of money for an African Union summit, which included renovating the airport and building new hotels for journalists, all in an attempt to give a false perception of Togo to the journalists and other foreigners who come to the country.

The reality in Togo is less glamorous. Togo is a country where doctors are forced to perform surgeries using lights from their cellphones. There are Togolese citizens without clean drinking water.

Students in Togo are made to go to schools like this one pictured below.

Women in Togo are also made to give birth to their babies on the floor.

Prisons in Togo are overcrowded.

The military equipment and training that the government of Togo receives from other countries is utilized so that the security force in Togo can teargas infants.

This is the just some of the suffering that the people of Togo have had to endure under Faure Gnassingbé. This is the very suffering that Faure wishes that the rest of the world will ignore and forget, but $1,500 an hour is not enough. In fact, it is an insult to the people of Togo that Faure even thinks that any amount of money will improve his image to the international community.

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Dwayne is the author of several books on the history and experiences of African people, both on the continent and in the diaspora. His books are available through Amazon. You can also follow Dwayne on Facebook and Twitter.