As much as the popular Burkinabe uprising that made Blaise Compaore leave power in 2014, was a test for François Hollande, as much Togo is for his successor Emmanuel Macron. "I will act towards Africa away from networks of connivance". This phrase is from the current French president. He thus pronounced on French relations a few hours after his accession to power. Today his reaction is expected in front of the thirst for alternation that the Togolese expresses by going down the streets to demand the return to the Constitution of 1992 and not a referendum that the power would plan behind the scenes.
The elections in Africa also have economic stakes for foreign powers. In the fever of the deep aspiration of the peoples, the multinationals make calculations for the preservation of their interests to the detriment of the populations. In Togo, the Bolloré group, one of the flagship of the French economy, which develops economic imperialism, such as an insatiable appetite for a shark on the African coasts, is often present in electoral intrigues. He managed to make leave the group Progosa of the Autonomous Port of Lomé (PAL). Nicolas Sarkozy, former French president and friend of Vincent Bolloré, was able to snatch the juicy PAL market. Economic interests very often disguise the destiny of Francophone African countries.
Macron to test in Togo
During his five-year term, Francois Hollande only continued in the sequel of his predecessors (Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou, François Mitterand, Jacques Chirac, etc.) and it was under the presidency of the latter that Faure Gnassingbé was imposed to the Togolese) by protecting the interest, if not the French interests in Africa and especially in francophone countries. However, French multinationals (Total, Bolloré, France Telecom, etc.) are levers to which the successive governments of France are striving to consolidate their paternalistic position with regard to their African colonies and to shape the profile presidentiables. This economic aspect which also characterizes the diplomatic relations between France and its ex-colonies makes it possible to apprehend the turn of the events in Togo since the bloody repression of the protestants of the Pan-African National Party (PNP) on 19 August last. The economic aspect is not negligible in the follow-up given by France to the mobilization expressed by the Togolese people. From then on, it seems sensible to see the outcome that the French head of state Emmanuel Macron (the youngest of presidents who incarnates a renewal in the French political sphere with his movement La République Mar) will reserve for the Togolese thirsting for alternation.
Undoubtedly, it faces a test life-size in its management of the current political situation that crosses Togo. Although the intermittent crisis in Cote d'Ivoire with the mutineers' claims preoccupies Paris, Emmanuel Macron is much more expected to face a regime that stands out in West Africa by its obstinate refusal to achieve the alternation to power relying on the army. And the Togolese authorities have always relied on a certain stability (which is actually false) political by playing on the preservation of French multinationals to establish their long reign over a country that has become a curiosity in the West African subregion.
This argument, which has always been used by Gnassingbe as a father and son to legitimize their electoral blows, has always led France to "take note" or "legitimize" the fraudulent elections, the bloody repressions that characterize the long reign of Gnassingbé since January 13, 1963. Such complacency of the French presidents with respect to Lomé 2 had outraged Yawovi Agboyibo, former prime minister and president of the action committee for the renewal (CAR). He was offended by the fact that the Quai d'Orsay (African Cell of the Elysium where the fate of the African heads of state is played) yields to the argument of preserving stability with the backdrop safeguarding French interests, brandished by the party in power to cover in reality its repetitive forfeitures. This alibi behind which the fiftieth anniversary regime is used to deceive the French authorities is not justified because the opposition, by acceding to power, will know how to take the share of things. And this is why the current French president must play its credibility in the current political Togolese by responding to the aspirations of the Togolese people who demands the return to the Constitution of 1992.
The Presidential Council for Africa, a simple screen? The announcement seems to stand out from the French-African networks that retain survivals in the former colonies of Africa. Emmanuel Macron created the Presidential Council for Africa to, it is said, assess democracy in the French-speaking countries of the Black continent. Innovation seems to be another approach to relations between France and its former colonies. But the step of the one who embodies The Republic On March at the Elysee should not arouse a runaway. It imposes caution because it can be a recycling of the old methods that have rooted dictatorships in Africa, like those of Togo, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Chad, and so on.
Emmanuel Macron must play fair play. Otherwise, if he comes to continue in the rotten paths dug by his predecessors and who delay the French-speaking countries of Africa in relation to the ex-English colonies, he will no longer admire him the Togolese. Already, the long reign of one family, Internet cuts, political trials, and the muzzling of the press are indications that the power in Togo is anachronistic to the new the alternation which has gained almost all the countries of Africa. And these are all elements that must underpin the approach of Emmanuel Macron by translating in fact the will of the Togolese people who bend under a dynasty.
Attempting to evaluate a political regime such as that governing Togo, would be a complacency. The power in place that has always backed the army to repress its populations and the 2005 reports have shown sufficiently that it is not in step with democracy. And it is right that some call it "democratic". Thus the formulas "peaceful democracies" used by some political scientists to caress dictatorships like that of Togo must no longer be justifications for granting a third half-time to a power whose wear and tear negatively affects the lives of the Togolese. The French head of state must show that he will really act in Togo "far from the French-African networks". And this means its capacity to give substance to the deep aspirations of the Togolese who want, like their neighbors Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso, enjoy the alternation at the top of the state. And they are very mobilized from all over the world saying to Faure Gnassingbé, "Enough! Faure must go ", otherwise," Too much is too much! Faure must leave "
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