No business as usual for Baby Eyadema
The Situation in Togo since the death of its long-term dictator, Gnassingbe Eyadema, has not shown any sign of being resolved. The sub-regional organisation, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), backed by the African Union and supported by the United Nations and the EU, has led global opinion in rejecting the succession of Baby Eyadema. All the right noises have been made and in an unprecedented consensus, Faure Eyadema has been told that this time around the answer is Non!
However strengthened by Togo's army, which is nothing but a personal militia of his father, Baby Eyadema and the ancient forces of reaction built by his father have continued to ignore the wishes of their people and advise of neighbours and the rest of the international community. Their tactics are very simple. They intend to sit it out hoping that with time their unconstitutional change may become a fait accompli and all concerned will shut up so that even if he is not accepted by de jeur he will remain leader by de facto. After all his father, even when democratisation through the Movement for Sovereign National Conferences in many former French colonies in the 1990s swept aside fellow dictators, managed to weather the storm. A divided opposition and a ruthless capacity to intimidate, co-opt or eliminate the opposition helped him to maintain an iron grip on power for almost four decades. He also relied on liberal exploitation of ethnic and regional fault lines to divide his opponents and the country in addition to presenting himself as the only 'strong leader who can hold the country together'.
However Baby Eyadema cannot be as lucky as his father for many reasons. One, the Togolese people, brutalised and silenced by his father and his henchmen for many years, have remained consistent in fighting for their democratic rights against all the odds. They fought his aged father to a standstill, often betrayed by opportunistic and factionalised opposition parties and leaders. Eyadema was a lame duck leader for many years but held on to power by subterfuge, intimidation, corruption and luck in his choice of formal opponents. It was not just raw power and its use that helped him to remain in charge. The fact that most people under the age of forty did not know any other leader other than Eyadema conspired to create a psychological situation of 'if not him who can?' His son does not have all these advantages, but more importantly the Togolese were no longer afraid of his dad by the time he gave up the ghost. The opposition is not just within the political class but spread across the whole society.
Two, the sub regional situation in West Africa has changed in favour of democratic constitutional rule. Related to this is a willingness of ECOWAS to intervene in the affairs of erring member states. Liberia, Sierra-Leone and Ivory Coast are clear examples of the region acting together, sometimes with great contradictions, to help stabilise a neighbouring country. This precedence compels ECOWAS countries to reverse the military coup in Togo. Three, what is further strengthening the regional resolve is the qualitative changes that have occurred at the continental level through the more proactive provisions of the charter of the new African Union. The Act of Union makes it clear that it is not only military coups that are no longer tolerated but also all unconstitutional changes of government.
From 1999 when the Algiers principles were unanimously adopted the continental body has shown its willingness to put its money where its mouth is. The first casualty was the hapless military regime of General Gueye in Cote d'Ivore. The OAU refused to recognise his regime precipitating the uncompleted transition that forced Gueye out of power. Since that first example Central Africa, Madagascar, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia, with different outcomes, have provided opportunities to test the principle. Whatever the contradictions it is now clear that the old narrow definition of sovereignty and territorial integrity that operated as 'leave my victims to me and I leave yours to you' is no longer operational in Africa. We have moved from non-interference into 'non-indifference'. In 1980, Samuel Doe assassinated the then Chairman of the OAU, William Tolbert, and he was able to sit in the next summit because it was considered an 'internal affair'. This is no longer possible in Africa today therefore the internal affairs of all member states have become legitimate concern of the AU.
Three, the international environment has also changed dramatically. The cold war is over even if it has mutated into another kind of war, no less intense. However the old practice of 'their bastard and our bastard' that turned every dictator into a bride is becoming obsolete. Structural Adjustment Programmes, the IMF/World Bank and globalisation have delivered African countries to imperialism in a way that makes it increasingly insignificant who is in power as they will follow the neo-liberal hegemony. Therefore interests of former colonial powers are no longer tied to that of one individual or group in a particular country. Though there are still notions of 'strong man' or 'the best they have got' that feed the ego of reluctant democrats across this continent, the tolerance level for unreconstructed dictatorship and personal rule has become very high. Eyadema relied on France for most of his rule and when he had contradictions with France he could flirt with the Eastern bloc, but all these are gone now.
The odds are weighted against Baby Eyadema and the Togolese army. If they go peacefully that will be good for Togo and the rest of Africa but if they refuse, targeted sanctions and swift military intervention when necessary should be deployed to get rid of them. It will be a signal to other political megalomaniacs who think that their countries are their personal property to be ruled in perpetuity by themselves or their offspring that Africans no longer accept self proclaimed divine misrule.
ECOWAS has to learn from the horror of Ivory coast where regional pressure forced out Gueye but produced an inconclusive outcome that is still wasting that once prosperous country. While pressures must be unrelenting in restoring constitutional rule in Togo immediately there is a need for wider engagement with the broad democratic forces: political parties, civil society groups, professional associations, trade unions, etc so that Eyadema's people do not exploit the situation to create chaos. Togo is not just a test for ECOWAS but an opportunity to show the rest of the world that Africa is no longer prepared to continue 'business as usual'.
* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa
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