The recent detention of two French nationals in northern Togo has cast a harsh spotlight on the country’s governance practices. Charged this Monday after days in the custody of intelligence services, their fate appears to have been sealed on direct orders from President Faure Gnassingbé. Sources indicate he personally instructed Justice Minister Pacôme Adjourouvi to ‘resist any external interference’ in their case.
Yet this episode transcends a mere diplomatic incident. It exposes a deeper crisis the erosion of institutional legitimacy. In Togo today, a pressing question looms: who truly holds power, and on what authority?
Constitutional engineering: a presidency reshaped into a council
Faure Gnassingbé no longer formally serves as President of the Republic. Through a constitutional overhaul in 2024, orchestrated by a parliament dominated by his ruling UNIR party, the presidency was stripped of executive functions. These were transferred to a newly created office: President of the Council a position now occupied by Gnassingbé himself since May 3, 2025. The ceremonial head of state, Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové, retains no real authority.
The implications are staggering. The 2024 amendments removed term limits entirely, allowing the head of the majority party to serve indefinitely. With 108 out of 113 seats controlled by UNIR secured in elections widely boycotted by the opposition the outcome was predetermined. The shift wasn’t democratic reform; it was a carefully engineered perpetuation of leadership under a different title.
A judiciary stripped of independence
The detention of French journalists Sébastien Perez Pezzani and Gaël Mocaër arrested while filming for a France Télévisions program is not an isolated incident. It reflects a broader pattern in which intelligence agencies and the Ministry of Justice act under direct executive command. The reported instruction to ‘resist influence’ underscores a command chain that bypasses judicial autonomy entirely. When the head of government dictates legal outcomes, the separation of powers collapses.
This pattern extends beyond the current case. It was evident during the repression of June 2025 protests, in the prosecution of dissenting voices, and in the handling of politically sensitive files. Law becomes an instrument of political control, enforced or suppressed as needed.
Legitimacy eroded: a system built on exclusion
Who governs Togo today? The answer is clear: a leader who assumed power in 2005, entrenched it over two decades, and then redesigned the state to retain it indefinitely. The 2024 constitutional changes were never submitted to a national referendum. Legislative elections were held amid widespread boycotts and accusations of irregularities. Even the Senate with one-third of its members appointed by the President of the Council reinforces centralized control.
This is no transition. It is a consolidation of personal rule disguised in institutional form. Titles may change, procedures may multiply, but the locus of power remains unchanged: Faure Gnassingbé, concurrently President of the Council, head of the ruling party, commander of the armed forces, and ultimate decision-maker.
A regime out of balance
Where arbitrary rule replaces constitutional order, where institutions exist only as empty shells, and where justice serves political directives, the social contract frays. Togo is no longer grappling with a constitutional debate. It is confronting a system that has abandoned republican principles in favor of unchecked personal authority.
The question is no longer merely ‘who leads?’ It has become: how long can such a system persist before internal contradictions and public pressure force its collapse?
