Several West African countries are going through troubling social and political turmoil.
Some of the countries in the region have experienced coups, whilst others exist in what can only be described as uneasy peace.
The latest country that seems to be heading towards social and political unrest is Ghana’s eastern neighbour, Togo.
An organization called the Africa Development Council (ADC) has taken leaders in the ECOWAS Block to the cleaners for sitting by whilst a constitutional coup takes place in the Republic of Togo.
They say that they have observed with dismay, the lukewarm attitude of the sub-regional Bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), towards the Constitutional Coup being carried out by the Togolese President, Faure Gnassingbé.
This was contained in a release titled ‘The People of Togo must resist the Oppressors’ Rule’.
They called on ECOWAS and AU to intervene in Togo’s Self-imposed Constitutional Crisis before it is too late.
“The Leadership of ECOWAS will be blamed squarely if there is a political turmoil in Togo, in the coming days or months,” the group warned.
The Daily Searchlight agrees with the concerns expressed by this group. The fact of the matter is that the sub-regional block, ECOWAS, has always adopted the approach of only intervening when the horse has already bolted from the stable, instead of a proactive stance that works to prevent trouble.
The fact of the matter is that Togo’s leader is working to entrench his family dynasty in that country, using what has been termed as a ‘constitutional arrangement’. We have no doubt at all, that the efforts could be greeted with failure, with disaster to follow.
We hope that West African and African leaders would not wait for troubles to break out, before attempting to stamp out the fire when it is already raging and we have dead bodies on the streets of Lome, the capital of Togo.
The time to act in Togo is now, and not when the shooting has started.
