The Assassination of Sylvanus Olympio and The Rise of Eyadéma Part 3

After engineering the coup that resulted in Olympio’s death in 1963, Eyadéma invited Nicolas Grunitzky, Togo’s first prime minister, back to head the country. (Grunitzky had lost power to Olympio in 1958.) Grunitzky attempted to institute a constitutional multiparty government in Togo, but his efforts came to naught, and the increasingly popular Eyadéma began to court support among the military and the civilian populace. In January of 1967, Eyadéma, by then army chief of staff, assumed the political leadership of Togo in a nonviolent coup. He reorganized the government, named himself president, and scheduled a referendum on a new constitution. That referendum was later canceled, and by 1969 Eyadéma had enough popular support that he was able to form and head a new political party, the Togolese People’s Rally (RPT). The RPT was Togo’s only legal political party until the 1990s, and its simple platform rested on theories of “national unity” and “cultural authenticity.” Under his authority many members of the Kabiye tribe came to dominate leadership in Togo’s military and political institutions. Eyadéma’s dictatorship could not entirely quell opposition, however. As early as 1970 he was forced to suppress a plot to overthrow him, and by the mid-1970s several exiled dissenters—including the sons of ex-president Olympio—were viewed as real threats to the regime. On the other hand, foreign aid from France, Germany, and the United States introduced new industries into Togo, and a growing world market for phosphates brought improvement to the country’s economy. As the relative prosperity continued into the 1980s, Togo became known as “Africa’s little Switzerland.” The capital of Lome, stocked with luxurious imports from Europe and America, was also a regional banking center and a bustling deepwater port. Colleen Lowe Morna noted that the trappings of prosperity failed to cover severe problems in Togo. “The casual visitor might be forgiven for concluding that Togo is at the top of the African achievement league,” she wrote. “Ironically, in 1982, Togo, along with a handful of other Third World countries, was officially designated by the UN General Assembly as one of the ‘least developed countries among developing nations.’ With an average GNP per capita of $300 per annum, Togo’s 3 million people rank among the poorest in the world.” A downturn in the phosphate market late in the 1980s accelerated an economic decline and, not surprisingly, produced new hostility toward the Eyadéma regime. A series of bomb attacks in Lome during the summer of 1985 led to the arrest of more than a dozen people who were subsequently accused of terrorism and distributing subversive literature. The Togolese Movement for Democracy (MTD), made up of a group of exiled dissenters, claimed that members of Eyadéma’s government had perpetrated the bombings and then used them as an excuse to launch a “wave of repression.” When one of the detainees charged with the bombings died mysteriously in prison—and allegations surfaced that others may have been tortured—the human rights organization Amnesty International tried to send investigators to Togo. They were unable to enter the country, but a delegation of French observers did report evidence of torture among political prisoners. Eyadéma responded to these charges by issuing a presidential pardon to several of the detainees. A more serious coup attempt against the Eyadéma regime occurred in September of 1986. A paramilitary unit occupied the Lome military barracks, the RPT headquarters, and the national radio station, killing about a dozen people during the attack. Eyadéma appealed to his French allies for assistance, and France sent 250 paratroopers to restore order. In December of 1986, 13 people were sentenced to death, and 14 to life imprisonment for the attack. One of three people to receive the death sentence in absentia was Gilchrist Olympio, an exiled son of the former Togolese president. These and other demonstrations against Eyadéma’s regime were the first harbingers of resistance to the dictator and his one-party rule. In an effort to silence the opposition, Eyadéma called for an election in the winter of 1986. Kenneth Noble described the voting procedure in the New York Times : “Gnassingbe Eyadéma held a referendum on his reign as President of Togo. As soldiers stood guard, voters were obliged to hold up a card of one color for ‘yes’ or another for ‘no.’ Given these circumstances, there were visible few signs of discontent, and Mr. Eyadéma, the sole candidate, polled 99 percent of the vote.” Eyadéma was shrewd enough to realize, however, that he could not ignore the calls for multiparty democracy. By 1989 he was assuring the United States government—and his own people—that the process of democratization of Togo would begin shortly. To be Continued… Sources : http://African-research.com and https://biography.jrank.org/pages/2747/Eyad-ma-Gnassingb.html