In Togo, a new Constitution provokes an outcry from the opposition

Is this the beginning of a retreat on the part of the president, Faure Gnassingbé, or a diversion to try to put an end to the controversy? The Togolese head of state sent the new Constitution, which transforms the presidential regime into a parliamentary regime, back to the National Assembly on Friday March 29 for a second reading.

“Everything being perfectible, and in view of the interest aroused within the population by the text since its adoption, the President of the Republic today asked the President of the National Assembly to carry out a second reading of the law adopted,” government spokesperson Yawa Kouigan said on state television.

No details were given on the modifications which could be introduced at second reading by the deputies, but Faure Gnassingbé, who succeeded his father at the head of state nineteen years ago, faces a unprecedented outcry from the opposition and civil society, who accuse him of wanting to remain at the head of the country indefinitely.

While all eyes were on Senegal, where the large victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye in the presidential election marks a new peaceful change in a country considered one of the beacons of democracy in Africa, the secret modification of the Basic Law in Togo has been widely criticized. The opposition emphasized in particular that the law, which has yet to be promulgated, “violates” article 59 of the Constitution, according to which the method of election of the President of the Republic can only be changed by referendum.

The adopted text, which comes from a group of nineteen deputies from the UNIR (Union for the Republic) party, some of whom are very close to the presidency, establishes a parliamentary regime. It was designed to strengthen the weight of the head of government, to the detriment of that of the President of the Republic. The latter, elected “without debate” for a single mandate of six years by Parliament meeting in congress, would now only have an honorary role. Real power would be concentrated in the hands of a “president of the council of ministers” appointed by the National Assembly, with no term limits.

Head of the armed forces and responsible for foreign policy, this “super prime minister” would decide on the country’s major directions. A position which seems cut out for the current head of state and which could return to him, if his party wins the legislative and regional elections scheduled for April 20.

“It all happened on the sly, while everyone was asleep. We knew, since mid-March, that a bill was in preparation, but we were far from imagining that we were going to completely change the regime,” chokes up Isabelle Ameganvi, former MP and vice-president of the National Alliance for Change, one of the main opposition parties.

“The head of state wants to give himself a new lease”

Furthermore, the mandate of the deputies officially expired on January 7. “They should have just dealt with business as usual. It’s not up to 89 people who were poorly elected five years ago [one MP voted against, another abstained] to decide for 5 million Togolese voters! The country’s problem is not its political regime, it’s that the authorities do not respect the law,” she asserts.

Officially, the new Constitution is supposed to “bring new impetus to the management of public affairs”, we can read on the National Assembly website. But why then opt for a parliamentary regime and not amend the 1992 text, as was already done in 2002, 2007 and 2019 to, according to the opposition, allow the leader in place to stand again after one or more warrants arguing for a reset of the counters?

“There have been no real debates on this point, or any debates at all, because the nature of the regime is just a legal guise for the balance of political power. It is very clear that the head of state wants to give himself a new lease,” said Togolese economist Kako Nubukpo, commissioner for agriculture at the West African Economic and Monetary Union and former minister to the president, Faure. Gnassingbé. Contacted by Le Monde, the Minister of Communication and government spokesperson, Yawa Kouigan, did not respond.

Faure Gnassingbé, “the young dean”

Since 1967, Togo has only had two presidents: Gnassingbé Eyadéma, a former soldier in the French army who became head of state following a putsch and who remained there until his death. in 2005, then his son, Faure Gnassingbé, comfortably re-elected in 2010, 2015 and 2020.

At 57 years old, “the young dean”, as his peers in West Africa call him, appears to be one of the best established in power, while the sub-region has experienced, over the last three years, a series of putsches in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger.

Did the Togolese government want to capitalize on the distrust inspired today by the democratic model which was deployed in West Africa from the 1990s, and of which military regimes are today the main megaphone? “It is in the spirit of the times to criticize the failures and fragility of representative democracy. One of the arguments put forward by the UNIR party to justify the need to move to parliamentary governance is that this new regime would be a guarantee of stability and a model more suited to African societies. Which is in no way established,” underlines Mr. Nubukpo.

The opposition, which seeks to mobilize public opinion against what it considers to be a constitutional coup, has little room for maneuver. The second reading of this text, in the coming days, could open the way to negotiations. But neither the opposition nor civil society expect a renunciation from the president. “It is not Faure Gnassingbé’s habit to back down,” said Kako Nubukpo, his former minister.