Arbitrary arrests expose the fragility of Togo’s governance
Recent detentions of two French nationals in northern Togo have cast a harsh light on the nation’s faltering leadership. Following a brief detention by intelligence services, the suspects have been formally charged a decision reportedly ordered directly by Faure Gnassingbé. According to reports, the Togolese president personally instructed the Justice Minister, Pacôme Adjourouvi, to ‘resist all foreign pressure’ in handling the case.
The diplomatic fallout is merely symptomatic of a deeper crisis: the erosion of institutional legitimacy in Togo. Public discourse has increasingly questioned the foundations of the country’s leadership. With each passing day, the question grows louder: Who truly wields power, and under what authority?
A constitutional sleight-of-hand
Faure Gnassingbé, who has held the presidency since 2005, is no longer the titular head of state in any meaningful sense. Through a 2024 constitutional amendment, the regime engineered a transition from a presidential to a pseudo-parliamentary system. The ceremonial role of ‘President of the Republic’ now held by Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové has been stripped of executive authority. Instead, a newly created position, ‘President of the Council,’ now concentrates all real governance: national policy, military command, civil service appointments, international representation, and regulatory power. Since May 3, 2025, Gnassingbé has occupied this post.
Unlike the previous two-term presidential limit enshrined in the 1992 Constitution (as amended), the new framework imposes no restrictions on tenure. Compounding this, the president of the ruling party automatically becomes head of government. After the 2024 legislative elections marked by widespread opposition boycotts and a UNIR party victory of 108 out of 113 seats this transfer of power was a foregone conclusion. What remains is not democratic rotation, but a dynastic perpetuation under a renamed office.
The weaponization of the judiciary
The arrest of journalists Sébastien Perez Pezzani and Gaël Mocaër, detained while filming a piece for France Télévisions, is not an isolated incident. It exemplifies a broader pattern: intelligence services and the Ministry of Justice act on direct executive orders. The alleged instruction to ‘resist all pressure’ underscores a command chain that bypasses judicial independence entirely. When the head of state dictates legal outcomes to magistrates, the separation of powers ceases to exist.
This practice has persisted across multiple crises: the suppression of protests in June 2025, the prosecution of dissenting voices, and the selective enforcement of laws. Law, in effect, becomes a political instrument deployed or shelved based on expediency.
The erosion of democratic legitimacy
Faure Gnassingbé has transformed governance from a republican system into a personalized structure with no constitutional guardrails. The 2024 constitutional reform was not submitted to a public referendum, nor were citizens consulted on such a fundamental shift. Legislative elections were conducted amid boycotts and allegations of irregularities. The Senate, with one-third of its members appointed by the President of the Council, further reinforces executive control.
This is not reform it is the entrenchment of unchecked authority beneath a veneer of institutional legitimacy. Titles change; powers remain concentrated. The center of decision-making remains fixed: Faure Gnassingbé, now President of the Council, leader of the majority bloc, commander of the armed forces, and ultimate arbiter of state policy.
A regime at the brink
When legality is subsumed by arbitrary rule, when institutions function as hollow shells, and when justice becomes an extension of political will, the social contract frays. Togo is no longer debating a constitutional transition it is confronting a regime that has jettisoned republican norms in favor of permanent, unaccountable dominance.
The critical question is no longer merely who governs? It has become: how long can such a system endure before internal fractures or popular dissent force a reckoning?
