Togo is not a poor country. But sadly, few citizens of the small, West African nation share in whatever wealth this country produces. This is documented by the pathetic $1,600 per-capita GDP – a bit less than Haiti ($1,800) and a bit more than Afghanistan ($1,500) (sources: Wikipedia and CIA).

Nothing illustrates better the wealth of Togo than the lifestyle of those Togolese with their fingers in the pie. Like the gentleman in the picture, who is the Defense Minister of Togo, and who runs the Togolese state cotton production monopoly and the gold mining operations, and who’s twin brother runs the Mills of Togo. According to LeTogolais Monsieur Kpatcha recently treated himself to a new, comfortable mode of transportation: a Rolls Royce Phantom – and apparently not just one, or two, but – count ’em (if you can) – three!! Three Rolls Royce Phantom – each for the tidy sum of €300,000 ($340,000). And he probably also had Route Nationale No. 1 re-paved between Lomé and Kara, so his new ride won’t suffer.

Kpatcha Gnassingbe – yes, of course he is a Gnassingbe – is another son of Gnassinbe Eyadema, the former strongman of Togo. Apparently Kpatcha is locked in a struggle for power with his little brother Faure (the current president of Togo). This power struggle could be bad news for the Togolese people, because “when the elephants fight, the grass suffers.” The average Togolese has nothing to gain in this fight. If anything, Kpatcha may be worse, and less scrupulous than Faure. Let’s hope this struggle won’t be taken out on the backs of the average Togolese.

[update 4/23: see some more info about Kpatcha below the fold]

Portrait of Kpatcha Gnassingbe on the TogoPlus.com:
http://www.togoplus.com/kpatcha.html

Strong indictment of Kpatcha Gnassingbe by one Kofi Folikpo (includes some graphic images):
http://www.togoforum.com/TL/TL2006/folikpo022806.pdf

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2007 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Just plain nuts, Palmwine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.