IN TOGO, THE BIG MAN LOOMS LARGE
 

Washington, September 7, 2001: Nightly newscasts mostly chronicle how President Gnassingbe Eyadema, Africa's longest-serving president, spent his day. Billboards with Eyadema's face adorn the country, lapel pins with his likeness are worn by senior government officials, and troupes of dancing women are brought out to welcome him when he visits the countryside. When he returns from his frequent trips abroad, the entire cabinet and other senior officials greet him to show their loyalty and affection.

So it was hardly surprising when, after months of speculation, Prime Minister Agbeyome Kodjo announced last week that he would seek a constitutional change to allow Eyadema, once a favorite of the United States and France, to seek yet another five-year term in elections set for 2003. The country, Kodjo said, preferred the "wisdom and experience of President Eyadema to the paths of adventure."

While much of West Africa has moved toward multiparty democracy and left behind the era of the Big Men who dominated post-independence politics for decades, Togo steadfastly remains a one-man show and is likely to continue as such, according to diplomats and political analysts. With a firm grip on the army -- in which 90 percent of the officer corps and 70 percent of soldiers are from Eyadema's minority Kabye ethnic group -- and control of 79 of the 81 seats in the legislature, the president would have little difficulty changing the constitution. There is little room for dissent in Togo, and Eyadema has used his "entrenched position to repress genuine opposition," according to a U.S. State Department report earlier this year.

Eyadema has not formally endorsed the prime minister's move. Instead, he issued a statement saying he would "scrupulously respect" the constitution, and did not voice any objection to amending it. Eyadema "says things to the outside world to make them believe Togo is becoming a democracy, but it is not even a one-party state, it is a one-man state or a one-family state," said an opposition party analyst who asked not to be identified. "Everyone knows he wants to stay in power until he dies, and he will try. And with his support in the army, it is difficult to see how we can have rapid, peaceful change."

Chris Fomunyoh, director of African affairs at the National Democratic Institute, which monitors democratic movements here, said another Eyadema term would "be terrible for the region, terrible for Togo and terrible for the continent." "One of the problems in moving to functioning democracies is that some of the players remain the same in Africa," Fomunyoh said. "Eyadema came to power through a military coup when Lyndon Johnson was president and has been a real disaster for the country. Togo is almost a pariah state, almost everyone shuns Togo, and this would make it worse."

Togo, an impoverished nation about half the size of Virginia with a population of about 5 million, was created from a German colony that was taken over by the British and French at the start of World War I because of its valuable phosphate reserves. In 1957 the western part of the territory joined English-speaking Ghana, and in 1960 the eastern side became an independent, French-speaking country. Eyadema led the first military coup in post-colonial Africa in 1963. According to his own accounts and historical records from the time, he killed the democratically elected president, Sylvanus Olympio, as Olympio sought to climb the wall of the U.S. Embassy to safety.

Eyadema, then a sergeant who had served in the French army in Indochina and Algiers, rapidly was promoted to military chief of staff. He seized power four years later in a bloodless coup and quickly banned political parties and suspended the constitution.

Surrounded by Ghana, Benin and Burkina Faso -- all countries that were undergoing Marxist revolutions -- Eyadema remained close to the West, though he maintained ties to North Korea. He was rewarded with lavish French military aid and a willingness by Washington, Paris and others to overlook his excesses.

Eyadema has maintained control through a combination of state patronage, pampering of the army -- in which two of his sons occupy key positions -- and repression learned from North Korean security trainers, according to diplomats, political analysts and politicians.

Emulating his close friend Mobutu Sese Seko, the longtime dictator of Zaire, Eyadema built one of the most pervasive cults of personality in the region. His official biography, distributed by the presidency, describes him as a "force of nature" and says he is "not a politician, and that is his strength . . . his patriotic sacrifice has earned him the trust and love of all his people."

Yet, diplomats and analysts here said, he is not as ostentatious as many other Big Men, who built elaborate palaces and flaunted their corruption. Togo has one of the best road networks in West Africa and, for those who can afford it, exceptional telephone service and electricity.

With the end of the Cold War, Togo's former allies applied heavy pressure for democratic reforms, and term limits and other electoral reforms were put in place in 1992. But according to a U.S. State Department report, elections since then -- including presidential and legislative elections in 1993, and Eyadema's disputed reelection in 1998 -- have been marred by "systematic fraud."

In 1994 the United States, the European Union and the international lending agencies cut Togo off from aid and loans because of electoral fraud and human rights concerns. The economy has deteriorated steadily since.

A 1999 Amnesty International report said Eyadema allies in the army had killed hundreds of opposition supporters during the 1998 presidential election, for which the vote count was halted when it showed that Eyadema was losing. The report said Eyadema carried out a "rule of terror in a climate of impunity."

Last year a U.N. investigation found that for years Togo had violated U.N. sanctions by importing massive amounts of weapons and ammunition for shipment to rebels fighting to overthrow the government of Angola. The rebels, known as the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), paid for the weapons with the more than $100 million they earn annually by illegally exporting diamonds, the report said.

UNITA "operated in Togo with the consent and cooperation of Togolese authorities," the report said. When the report was issued, the government denied any involvement in the arms transfers. But diplomats and sources with direct knowledge of some of the arms shipments said the weapons, carried in dozens of flights through Lome, were sanctioned by Eyadema and his son Ernest, the feared commander of an elite paratroop unit near the president's home town.

"If you come to do some small business here, you talk to the ministers or someone and arrange things," said a business source. "But if you want to do serious business, you have to see the president. That is how it works. For the military side, you see Ernest. Even the ministers fear him. The only one he is responsible to is his father."



 


 
 
 
The Washington Post
Douglas Farah
 
     
     
 

"Another Eyadema term would be terrible for the region, terrible for Togo and terrible for the continent."
Chris Fomunyoh
Director of African affairs
(National Democratic Institute)

 
     
     
     
 

Last year a U.N. investigation found that for years Togo had violated U.N. sanctions by importing massive amounts of weapons and ammunition for shipment to rebels fighting to overthrow the government of Angola. The rebels, known as the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), paid for the weapons with the more than $100 million they earn annually by illegally exporting diamonds, the report said. UNITA "operated in Togo with the consent and cooperation of Togolese authorities," the report said.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
 
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