The End of the Facade of Democracy in Togo

Faure Gnassingbé has been the president of Togo since 2005. Prior to that his father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, had been the president of Togo from 1967 until 2005. This means that since 1967, Togo has been under the control of a single family.

For much of Faure’s presidency, he has maintained himself in power through a facade of democracy. This was necessary from the onset given that his seizure of power in 2005 resulted in Togo being pressured by ECOWAS. Togo moved to elections, which Faure won. The 2005 elections itself was marred by repressive violence which was unleashed by Faure’s regime to retain power. Since then, Togo has managed to avoid condemnation from ECOWAS and from the international community due to hosting elections, which have provided a sense of legitimacy for what has otherwise been a ruthless and brutal military dictatorship which has been imposed on the people of Togo. Faure has been so effective at presenting this democratic image that in 2012, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had praised the “democratic gains” in Togo.

Things changed very rapidly in 2017 when Faure’s government was confronted with massive protests which called for him to step down as president. The massive protests combined with the repressive measures utilized by the government to put down the protests exposed Faure’s government in a way that it has never truly recovered from.

Since the protests in 2017, Faure has had to justify himself. He claimed that he’s really a “simple man” who has been turned into a bloody dictator by social media. He’s also stated that he did not feel like a dictator prior to the 2020 election — one has to wonder what a dictator feels like. The quest for credibility has even included a recent shift towards Pan-Africanism by attempting to host a Pan-African Congress.

The protests in 2017 have also forced Faure to make changes to the structure of the government in Togo to further consolidate his power. This brings me to the primary focus of this article, which is the recent political development in Togo in which Togo now has two presidents, with the position of the President of the Republic becoming a ceremonial position which has been replaced by the President of the Council of Ministers.

The President of the Council of Ministers is a position without term limits. Moreover, the President of the Council of Ministers is not elected by the citizens of Togo. Rather, the President of the Council of Ministers is elected by the party with a majority. This shift to a parliamentary system makes it so that Faure can only be removed from power if his party losses its majority. Meanwhile, he has no fixed term limits, so he is free to rule for life as his father did.

This constitutional change, which was carried out without the will or the support of the Togolese people, is the latest display of Faure’s desperation to retain power. It also demonstrates that the regime in Togo is no longer able to sustain itself in power while also upholding a facade of democracy. Faure is making it plain that he wants a system in which he is not only able to rule for life, but a system in which the people of Togo are unable to remove him from power.