Gnassingbe bucks the trend

His family has ruled Togo for more than 50 years but President Faure Gnassingbe is facing unprecedented public pressure to step down. He and his country stand alone in West Africa in resisting calls for constitutional reform, even as parliament begins to look again at the issue. ‘Togo is the only Ecowas country never to have seen any real democratic change,’ said political analyst Gilles Yabi, referring to the West African regional bloc. ‘The current regime is carrying on the one before it, which was one of the most brutal Africa had ever known,’ he reportedly told AFP. A report on the News24 site notes that with The Gambia, Togo was the only Ecowas member to reject a proposal to limit the number of presidential terms across the region, during a summit in Accra in May 2015. After peaceful changes in power in Benin and Ghana, popular uprisings in Burkina Faso, Togo and The Gambia won them a ‘bad boy’ reputation in a region often cited as an example in a continent where many leaders cling to power.