Togo; A Tiny Revolution

TOGO

A Tiny Revolution

For almost a year, protesters in the tiny West African country of Togo have been taking to the streets to demand an end to the harsh rule of the Gnassingbé family.

Faure Gnassingbé has been president since 2005. He took over after the death of his father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who had been head of state for 38 years after a coup d’état.

Such reigns are not unusual in Africa, where many leaders have remained in office for decades even though their country’s laws technically bar them from serving so long.

But the Togolese people appear to be balking at remaining part of that trend. Since last August, demonstrators have held mass protests aimed at ending the presidency of Faure Gnassingbé. They’re not backing down, even though Gnassingbé has gone to great – and sometimes dastardly – lengths to shut them up.

“Imourane Issa braced himself for the next crack of a whip across his back,” wrote the Los Angeles Times, recounting the torture of one man by the Togolese secret police for participating in an anti-Gnassingbé demonstration. “His head felt heavy on the concrete floor. He estimated that he was one of about two dozen men being tortured in the garage.”

The protesters want to impose term limits and prevent Gnassingbé from running for re-election by going back to a 1992 constitution that was overturned in 2002. They also want to reform voting laws to allow expatriate Togolese citizens who joined the refugee wave to Europe to cast ballots.

Sensing the scale of the threat, the government has budged. Last year, Gnassingbé said he would accept a two-term limit, but only if he could still run in 2020 and 2025 – meaning he would exit office around age 64.

The proposal failed to win lawmakers’ approval and is now supposed to go to voters in an as-yet-unscheduled referendum.

The gridlock is hurting a desperately poor country. Doctors, the clergy and neighboring politicians, like the president of Ghana, have been speaking up to end the conflict.

“To get out of this crisis, dialogue has to continue,” implored Catholic bishops in a pastoral letter quoted in Crux. The bishops urged the protagonists to rise above political interests “and to have as the only priority, the general interest of the people.”

Critics of the president are trying a new strategy: calling on their fellow citizens to stay home to express their disfavor with Gnassingbé rather than risking violence by taking to the streets. A recent action of that type was called “Ghost Monday,” reported Al Jazeera.

Togo is little. But its people appear to be willing to make great sacrifices to live in the place they want and deserve.