Almost two and a half years after his official defeat in the Togolese presidential election of 2020 - which he has since contested -, from his exile, Agbéyomé Messan Kodjo answers questions from the Journal de l'Afrique. The opponent returns to his exile, to the steps he took after the presidential election or even to his relations with Western diplomats. Interview.
Le Journal de l'Afrique: You proclaimed your victory the day after the Togolese presidential election. What makes you say, even today, that the results were distorted?
Agbéyomé Messan Kodjo: We have a whole body of evidence showing the regime's desire to "steer" this election. Togolese electoral law thus prescribes the obligation for the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to have all the minutes of the 9 polling stations nationwide before any official publication of the results.
The electoral code provides for a period of six days for this general census and the delivery of all the results, due to the state of our road infrastructures. However, in this case, Faure Gnassingbé declared himself the winner 24 hours after the ballot. It has a name: it's a coup d'etat.
I would add that the landslide electoral victory of the Dynamique Monseigneur Kpodzro (DMK) on February 22, 2020 was hailed by the main political formations of the Togolese opposition and civil society, and recognized by certain diplomats from the Western world. They then confided to us their conviction that, despite this reality at the ballot box, Faure Gnassingbé did not want to leave power.
Added to this are two major elements: first, Faure Gnassingbé's attempt to buy my complacency in exchange for a post of Prime Minister with extended powers and a suitcase of 15 million euros. The proposal was explicitly made to me by Minister Atcha Adédji who, moreover, recognized during our interview the defeat of his boss, while asking me to keep my claims silent. Then, the production by Faure Gnassingbé of fake congratulatory messages broadcast on RFI to discourage protest movements against his presumed victory.
“I was detained in humiliating conditions”
You were then arrested and, according to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), you did not benefit from the right to freedom of expression which was your right. How did you experience the situation?
As a relief and as confirmation of the legal excesses in my country. Having declined the offer of bribery, my home was surrounded for two months by heavily armed soldiers. This lasted until April 25, 2020, with an attack of rare violence. My house was thus ransacked, the service personnel, the family and the supporters were abused, most thrown in prison.
I myself was taken manu militari to the gendarmerie where I was detained in humiliating conditions and where I underwent tough interrogation for four days under police custody. At the end of this ordeal, we were forbidden to claim ever in the future the crushing electoral victory of the Togolese people carried on our person.
Blind violence spared no one. Even the 92-year-old Prelate, Bishop Kpodzro, despite his age and his liturgical vestment — the skullcap — was not spared military brutality.
Despite this bullying on my person, my family and my collaborators, the group of ambassadors from Western countries remained silent. However, he confirmed to us a few days earlier, the overwhelming victory of the Togolese people marking the political alternation in Togo after 53 years of chaotic reign of the Gnassingbé family.
It is for having derogated from the formal prohibition of no longer claiming this victory that my life was put in danger and that I am obliged to protect myself by living in hiding.
Naturally, the ECOWAS Court of Justice declared the law by condemning the Togolese State for three reasons: the ransacking of my home and my kidnapping, my confinement to the gendarmerie, and the illegal prohibition to claim victory for the Togolese people.
Despite the deadline set for the execution of judgment No ECW/CCJ/JUD/11/2022 of March 24, 2022 of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, to date, Faure Gnassingbé is in no hurry to to obey the orders of community justice, in violation of international law.
“I cannot explain the attitude of Paris which supports a fifty-year-old dictatorship”
Do you feel you lacked international support? What do you think of the support of the current Togolese regime by the international community, in particular by Paris?
I am surprised and outraged by the silence and therefore by a form of complicity from the group of ambassadors from Western countries. I cannot explain the attitude of Paris, which in fact supports a fiftieth-year-old dictatorship atomized at the polls and is complicit in the fabrication of false messages. It is actually violence against the Togolese people.
It is also on the part of the European Union and the United Nations a variable geometry application of international law. The Togolese people have as much right to respect for their choices as all the other peoples of the planet.
I think that France, with which we have historical ties, should ask itself about the underlying reasons for the rejection to which it is subject in a growing part of our populations. It cannot accommodate a double standard when it comes to the universal right of peoples to decide their destiny with sovereignty. It is a question of loyalty to its historical image as a champion of democracy and human rights.
French women, under my roof, were molested, handcuffed, humiliated by the soldiers of Faure Gnassingbé, without any French official having expressed the slightest protest, the slightest support, nor the slightest compassion.
Prime Minister from August 31, 2000 to June 29, 2002, you knew the system from the inside. Did you imagine becoming the target of Faure Gnassingbé?
The gratuitous acts of violence of which I have been the victim from him for a decade are impressive and crystallize a form of morbid detestation, perhaps of fascination for me. I can only wish him to pull himself together before it's too late. I remain confident in my ability to carry out my mission.
“I will continue relentlessly”
Two years after the presidential election, how do you see things evolving. And why continue to claim victory, is it not a waste of time?
I will continue relentlessly, because beyond my person, it is the Togolese people who have been robbed, it is the decision of the Togolese people who have been flouted. It is a scandal with the bribery of several personalities, who know and are silent. These people ignore the tragedy of the Togolese people, the fate of political prisoners and the draconian system that governs the lives of our people.
I will therefore never give up because it is the entire Togolese Nation in question. My fight is part of the fight of patriots from all walks of life who work tirelessly for the emergence of a united and prosperous democratic Togo.
I remain convinced that the time for clarification is not far off. We cannot stay in denial forever. Each season has its fruits! Since Faure Gnassingbé's hold-up, all initiatives since 2020 for a peaceful demonstration have been systematically banned. The latest is that of July 16, 2022 for security reasons, while the ruling party and other political or cultural groups exercise this constitutional right without any hindrance. Judge for yourself.
You have appointed ministers or diplomats. Are you obliged to have to make “communication moves” to stay present on the front of the stage?
It's not about “communication shots”, not at all. Any pioneering work proceeds above all from an assumption of responsibility and audacity, and this is indeed what it is about through the establishment of the legitimate government of Togo in exile. This is the reason why we have legitimately set up an ecosystem capable of carrying the fight for the defense of the Integral Sovereignty of Togo, the raison d'être of the struggle of Patriots from all walks of life.
Today more than ever, sovereigntist battles are being waged everywhere and it would be an insult to consider that, avant-garde, of the Togolese people on the African continent as a vulgar “communication stunt”.
We have seen it in other countries – as with Jean Ping in Gabon – despite a claimed victory, political life continues. How do you live it?
Each season has its fruits, as I told you previously. The dynamics are not the same despite the ambient gravity, hence the tactical and strategic difference. There are certainly many similarities with the political situation in Gabon, but the case of Togo is atypical in many respects. The presidential election of February 22, 2020 was a popular tidal wave that we are trying to hold in check, with the tensions and frustrations that are still visible. For two years, all peaceful demonstrations organized by the DMK have been systematically banned or put down.
At a time when Africa is in the grip of convulsions, when the terrorist risk is everywhere and even now at home in Lomé, the deadline of June 23, 2022 for the execution of the judgment of March 24, 2022 of the Court of Justice of ECOWAS, combined with the resolute action of the legitimate Government of Togo, are undeniably catalysts for the change so long awaited by the Togolese people.
The fight of the Togolese people is above all carried by patriots convinced of their mission of soul in this particular season of great world upheavals which will inevitably lead to the true independence of the peoples of Africa with the African renaissance.
I am only one link in the great chain of Builders of the New Africa, and I wish our detractors and the predators of peoples' sovereignty to stop behaving like firefighters and arsonists. I remain serene. I trust in divine power for the fulfillment of His Perfect Plan for Togo.
“I remain convinced that I will return to my country shortly”
How is your daily life summed up? Are you exiled? Will you return to Togo one day?
Above all, I meditate and do the spiritual work necessary for our collective mission of National Liberation of Togo. I follow national and international political activities on a daily basis, I deepen my thoughts and work constantly on the most appropriate measures to get my fellow citizens out of the impasse in which Togo finds itself, in the current global geopolitical context. I read a lot, prepare the major files for the Council of Ministers. I also take some time for myself and mine. Of course, exile is not easy and living far from one's land is suffering. But I remain convinced that I will return to my country shortly, by the grace of God.
What steps are you going to take, particularly with international bodies?
We have seized all the international bodies that count, in particular ECOWAS, the African Union, the European Union, the United Nations, the Francophonie... Mgr Philippe Fanoko Kpodzro, eponymous sponsor of the DMK, who supported my candidacy and is threatened of death and exiled like me, went in May 2021 to Brussels to the European Commission then in October 2021 to Paris before the National Assembly to demand that justice be done to the Togolese people.
He is still waiting for the reaction of these institutions to return to the country to end his life there. Our fight continues, ours and that of so many Togolese patriots...