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Togo is hosting from Monday, July 30, a series of meetings at the continental level including the summit of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Communique of West African States (ECOWAS). A conclave that comes in a context where the dialogue requested by the subregional body and led by Ghana and Guinea struggles to bring the country out of the crisis. Also, the protest front consisting of opposition political parties as well as civil society movements, is impatient and intends to put pressure on the leaders of the sub-region. Hence the wish that was issued by the citizen front "Togo Débout" to demonstrate yesterday Saturday to send a message. But the authorities opposed it, arguing that the climate of serenity should not be disrupted, while the country hosts guests from both West and Central Africa. From this and many other things, we spoke with Prof. David Ekoué Dosseh, spokesperson for the "Togo Débout" citizen front. Read the interview he gave to our special correspondent.
Why did you need to demonstrate?
We believe that Togo is at an important moment in its history. After decades of dictatorship, we have the impression that this time, the struggle can lead to something positive for the people. That is to say the end of the dictatorship and the advent of the alternation we have been looking for for decades. And ECOWAS plays a crucial role in this struggle, since it is the one that has established the dialogue in a certain way and, on the basis of what we have learned, it is it that should offer us roadmap at the end of the summit on 31 July. The Togolese people must therefore demonstrate that they are totally involved and that they have no desire to wait until the road map falls from the sky. So, through this rally, the Togolese people via civil society, meant, regardless of the content of the roadmap that we do not know yet, deliver a specific message. If in this road map, there is not a pattern of peaceful political alternation, I think that ECOWAS will have failed in its duty. So it was a demonstration, a rally to deliver a message to ECOWAS
Why is it necessary to warn ECOWAS?
If we analyze what has happened in Togo in recent years, starting with the events of 2005, we think that ECOWAS has missed its mission. You remember that the current head of state, Mr. Faure Gnassingbé, had inherited power, on the death of his father. According to the constitution, it was up to the president of the National Assembly to ensure the interim until the next elections. But the military confiscated the power and handed it over to Faure Gnassingbe who inherited the power, in total contradiction with the constitutional provisions. ECOWAS was then involved with the hope that we would help put things back in order. But what she did was to force the Togolese people to go to elections with institutions that were not credible and it was certain that with these institutions, power would be handed over to Faure Gnassingbe. So it was a masquerade, a way of endorsing the coup that had been perpetrated. Based on this experience, at the level of the Togolese people, we therefore ask ourselves questions. Especially since the beginning of the dialogue, even the simple measures of appeasement (release prisoners, loosen the grip around cities, allow people to demonstrate peacefully, etc.) are not implemented. So, all of this brings together, we are wondering about the effectiveness of the work that ECOWAS is doing. Can this regional body be able to take the steps that will enable the Togolese people to regain their freedom and dignity?
Beyond ECOWAS as a whole, what do you think of the mediation carried out in particular by Ghana and Guinea?
I admit that even at this level we ask ourselves questions. We ask ourselves questions first of all about the change that has occurred in this mediation. A first time, we were told that Guinea would lead this mediation with President Alpha Conde, with a preliminary mission to obtain the appeasement measures before the start of the dialogue itself. Precisely, knowing President Alpha Condé, knowing that he has character, we were convinced that he could at least obtain the release of prisoners of conscience. Except that, as I said, so far, people have not been released. And that still leads us to ask questions. Is it because, in front of them, the Togolese authorities do not want to obey at all, do not want to listen to the advice they are given, or they themselves do not put enough in the discussion to make reason to Togolese power? As for the Ghanaian president, he said at the opening ceremony of the dialogue where I was present, that he listened to the Togolese people and said that they will not do anything that goes against the people's benefits. Togolese. But we are still waiting. I also mention that President Alpha Condé once said that ECOWAS is not a union of heads of state. We hope that beyond words, this time there will be acts that will bring hope to the Togolese people and beyond the Togolese people, to the African people. And the facilitators, ECOWAS and all other partners need to take this into account. The question is even international in scope. In short, if you give hope to the African youth, beyond the Togolese youth, people will no longer have to go to jeopardize their lives in the Libyan desert or in the Mediterranean Sea. It's as simple as that. "
However, one has the impression that the protest was somewhat out of breath compared to what we experienced in August and September 2017?
I assure you that the mobilization she is there, she is present. We have at a moment announced the dialogue and for our part, at the level of the civil society, we have made every effort to give all the chance to this dialogue. Although we are aware that hopes are rather slim in relation to this dialogue, we wanted to give him every opportunity. It is a way of peacefully resolving the crisis. And that's the message we gave to the people. And so people wait accordingly, but they remain sensitized and mobilized. There is also the problem in relation to the strong repression used by the power when there is a general mobilization. So with this strong crackdown, people prefer to stay at home. Because there is no point in going out to demonstrate peacefully, if we risk being beaten or end up in prison and thus cut off from his family for months or even lose his job. But if at any given moment, we realize that there is no hope for dialogue and that we must change our strategy, I guarantee you that people will be surprised by the extent of the mobilization. Togolese population to say that it is tired of this exception within the West African community. Because in all the other countries of the ECOWAS region, we had alternation, except in Togo. This is inadmissible
However, one has the impression that you are doing a bad trial to Faure Gnassingbé. On the one hand, you can not impute to him the management of his father. On the other hand, there is no provision in the constitution that currently governs Togo that limits the number of mandates?
I remind you that in 1992, the overwhelming majority of the Togolese people voted for a constitution that limited the number of terms to two. At the time, I still remember, even General Gnassingbe Eyadema had called to vote for the constitution. But in 2002, we were surprised to see a group in parliament give themselves the right to traffic what the whole people had chosen. By voting on the constitution, the people had chosen a code of conduct to help them manage the country at best. But as I said, a group allowed itself to modify this constitution, to fiddle with it. And in 2005, we also saw what happened. President Faure Gnassingbé, in one night, went from the post of minister, to that of deputy, then to that of president of the National Assembly, to finally be president of the Republic. Obviously, it was a coup d'etat. And since you mentioned it, the current constitution, in its article 148 in particular said suddenly that it is an "imprescriptible" crime. That is to say that even from this legal point of view Faure Gnassingbé was no longer entitled to run for an elective office in Togo. I also add that recently President Faure himself, in remarks made in Germany and whose video clips circulate on social networks, said that in order to guarantee democracy in Africa, it is necessary to limit the number of mandates to two or at three. Someone who expresses this way and who arrives in his own country at the end of his third term, the slightest thing would be that he applies himself to this recommendation.
Is it not that it would have been necessary to get up in 2002 then, at the moment when the constitution was modified? Why did you wait so long ?
By observing the history of Togo, we realize that events take place cyclically. There was the 90s in particular. In 2002, when the constitution was changed, it was true that the environment was not conducive to a popular uprising. In 2005, President Eyadema dies of his beautiful death, all Togolese had hope that it was the year of change, the year of alternation. But the coup perpetrated by the military, subsequently stopped by ECOWAS, which nevertheless allowed President Faure to stand for election, with totally flattened dice, meant that we had elections that were held not spent in very bad conditions. The results were vigorously contested by the people. We know what happened afterwards. So a president who comes to power in his blood, who has three terms and who wants us to make a clean sweep, reset the counters to allow him to make a fourth or even a fifth term. I think it is in the interest of the development of Africa that we put an end to this kind of regime.
The power proposes a set of reforms with sufficiently independent institutions to ensure alternation even with the Faure Gnassingbé's participation in the 2020 deadline. That does not reassure you?
Not at all. I do not think you will have Togolese who believe in alternation via the ballot box, through elections organized by the current power. If we want to go to elections in Togo, there must be reforms. And for these reforms to be well conducted, credible institutions need to be put in place. We think that the power that is currently in place does not have this capacity.
But a priori alternation was more unlikely in The Gambia?
It is true that one can ask the question of why one would not apply the Gambian model to the Togolese situation. President Yahyah Jammeh had a lot of specificities, but I think there are still differences that make Gambians have more facilities than Togolese. There is the factor of the army. I do not think that the Gambian army was clannish as it is the case in Togo. And beyond President Faure, we know that there are also senior officers who are working to keep the system in place. In the Gambia, President Jammeh certainly had a strong personality. But I do not think the Gambian army had this rootedness in the system. So, there are certainly similarities, but there are also differences that if you ask the Togolese to get alternation only through the ballot box, many will be skeptical. The alternation by the ballot boxes, that supposes a democratic regime, whereas Togo is not a democratic regime. Togo is a dictatorship and it is a totalitarian regime where much more radical measures are needed to achieve this change.
Interview by Boubacar Sanso Barry
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