Togo - Country Profile

New Internationalist, August, 2003 by Themon Djaksam

1 June was Day of the Dinosaur in Togo--a red-letter day for that dwindling band of dictators who have held sway over a country for decades but a very bad day for African democracy. On that date Gnassingbe Eyadema duly recorded his third crushing victory in an 'open' presidential election, having changed the constitution to allow himself to stand for another term only two years after swearing that he would stand down.

In the good old days Eyadema--who came to power in a coup d'etat in 1967--could present himself as the only candidate and be rewarded, as in 1985, with 99.95 per cent of the vote. These days he has to participate in elections designed to pay lip-service to the inconvenient modern addiction to multi-party ballots. His people, moreover, are so much less grateful than they used to be--his share of the vote was only 57 per cent. Not only that but opposition politicians insist on giving out alternative results that claim he was actually defeated.

International observers stopped short of ruling the election corrupt, though the Francophone group--which was headed by former Senegalese President Abdou Diouf and had the largest number of observers--said the results should be taken with a significant pinch of salt. In the department of Zio protestors destroyed ballot boxes which they said had been stuffed with fictitious votes for the President.

Even if voting itself had been as free and fair as the West African air, critics could point to Eyadema's 'creative' use of a new ruling that anyone who has not lived continuously in the country for the previous four years cannot run for President. This conveniently ruled out Gilchrist Olympio, who was not only his main rival in the last election in 1998 but is also the son of the country's first President, murdered in 1963 by army officers rumoured to include Eyadema.

Olympio, currently in Paris, has pledged to form a government of national reconstruction in exile. French President Jacques Chirac, In contrast, has sent Eyadema his congratulations and his hope that European Union sanctions in place since the fraudulent elections in 1993 can now be lifted. France itself resumed aid as soon as it could, in 1994, and has consistently acted as an apologist for the man who styles himself, in a strange echo of Mao Zedong, The Helmsman or Le Guide. Chirac joined Eyadema in dismissing as 'manipulation' a 1999 Amnesty International report that described a 'persistent pattern' of extra judicial executions, 'disappearances', arbitrary arrest and torture.

As this sorry saga suggests, Togo has not realized a fraction of its potential since achieving independence from France in April 1960. The country gave the name of its capital to one of the key agreements in development history--the Lome Convention which regulated trade and aid between the African, Caribbean and the Pacific group of countries and the former European Economic Community. It is also the world's fourth-largest producer of phosphate, the main component in fertilizer.

Real development that benefits ordinary people has, however, been notable for its absence. In the period when the country has been shunned by the European Union for its human-rights abuses; the main international players in Togo have been the World Bank and the IMF, which both offered structural-adjustment money on condition that a major privatization programme proceeded apace--and among the sell-offs to private and international investors, inevitably, has been part of the Togolese Office of Phosphates.

The Togo charade looks set to continue for the foreseeable future, while its people are the proverbial grass which continues to suffer.

AT A GLANCE

Leader: President Gnassingbe Eyadema.

Economy: Gross national income (GNI) per capita $270 (Benin $360, France $22,690).

Monetary unit: CFA franc.

Main exports: Phosphates (traditionally 40% of the total); cocoa; cotton; coffee.

Eyadema's economic strategy was from the first too dependent on phosphates and was rocked by low international prices. Electricity supply has been a major problem leading sometimes to rationing.

People: 4.8 million. People per square kilometre 88 (Britain 238).

Health: Infant mortality 79 per 1,000 live births (Benin 94, France 6). 54% have access to safe water and 34% to adequate sanitation.

Environment: There is concern about the high level of cadmium in Togolese phosphate rock. The switch from subsistence to export crops in the north may endanger soil fertility.

Culture: The main ethnic groups are the Ewe (43%), Kabye (27%) and Gurma (16%). The descendants of formerly enslaved Africans who returned to Togo from Brazil form a caste with great influence.

Religion: Traditional African religions 50%; Christian 35%; Muslim 15%.

Language: French is the official language but each ethnic group has its own tongue.

Sources: World Guide 2003/2004; State of the World's Children 2003; Africa Review.

Previously profiled May 1986

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INCOME DISTRIBUTION **

The economy shrank by an average 0.5% a year between 1990 and 2001. Structural adjustment and privatization have certainly not benefited the poor. 1986 **