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The politics of succession in West Africa in the immediate post-third wave era has left much to be desired and by extension has affected the quality of democracy in the sub-region. By means of descriptive approach and content-analysis of primary documentary sources as well as data collected from fieldwork in Lome, the article describes the geo-political setting of Togo, process of constitutional summersault, the transitional politics and election that legitimise the Faure Eyadema regime against the background of a sustained opposition from political as well as civil rights movement. The article concludes by observing that the crisis is not over yet as the struggle straddles the continuing manipulation of the geo-ethnic divide in Togo.
INTRODUCTION
Succession is broadly understood to mean the process of changing leadership. It basically involves three stages: the vacating of power by the older ruler, the selection of the new and the legitimization of the new leader. Succession times are often tense times for all types of regimes, even where there are established procedures and easy legitimization, but even more precarious for authoritarian regimes. With reference to the West African sub-region, no country has been spared the tensions and pressures associated with the succession process since the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election in Nigeria.
Articulated in different ways and at different inter-locking levels in each of the countries of West Africa, the politics of succession has, for two basic reasons, clearly become worthy of closer scrutiny both from a policy dimension and in terms of the kinds of follow-up research work that would need to be undertaken. The first reason centres on the fact that succession politics is, by definition, central to the quality of civil rule and its long-term sustainability. Secondly, the ramifications of the succession process are integral to the apparent disconnect between the actual practice of democracy as experienced across West Africa and the democratic aspirations of the bulk of citizenry.
As eloquently put by Council for Development and Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and Open Society for West Africa (OSIWA), to focus on the politics of succession at this point in the history of efforts at extending the frontiers of political reforms and citizen rights in West Africa represents a concrete contribution to...