The Togolese opposition activist, Francis Pedro Amuzun severely tackles the RPT-UNIR Minister Katari Foli-Bazi for these paternalistic remarks on the political opposition in Togo. Good reading .
My Response to Minister Foli-Bazi
A few days ago, Mr. Foli-Bazi Katari thought it necessary to make an exit in which he said, and I quote: “If a party is concerned about the current situation of the opposition formations, it is indeed UNIR. The Head of State has always said that you cannot dance and enjoy yourself. He always wanted a strong opposition opposite. But unfortunately ! » end of quote,
And this, following the late Kondi Agba who was the first to make a bad joke, saying “there is no more opposition in Togo”. For several days, I meditated on this risky outing to grasp the motive. I admit that I have come to no other conclusion than it is an insult that Mr. Foli-Bazi Katari is doing to the intelligence of the Togolese that we are by making believe that the Head of State and UNIR are concerned about the situation. opposition in our country. And, the time has long passed when some give themselves the right to throw over our heads all their fantasies and all their bile because, they think, they have become gods and it is to do with us what they want.
This time has really passed dear Mr. Foli-Bazi and you deserve an answer this time: You cannot therefore ignore that the cantankerous governance of the RPT / UNIR has screwed up the good living together on the Earth of our ancestors for 60 years? You must not, either, ignore that this Togo which belongs to us all, everything is allowed to the RPT / UNIR but to the other political parties, nothing? Very pretentious of you to want to introduce us to the head of state that all Togolese know by his coming to power after the killings of 2005? Would it be true that you are reminding yourself of all the obstacles (unfair laws on individual and collective freedoms) that your governance has set in motion to silence any dispute that lays bare the deviations that you have forged by the sword? and lead for the sole purpose of eternalizing you in power against the wishes of the more than eight million souls that we are? One thing is true in your exit there is no opposition even less division in the National Assembly since you are among yourselves there and I want proof of this: You say among yourselves that some are brought to drink milk and not to count oxen. I also remind your kind attention that the statute of the opposition, a law that you have created to mix the political class as you wish, provides in its first article that the opposition is understood as a parliamentarian and you cannot apropos amalgamation since no one can take advantage of his own turpitudes.
Whether you like it or not, Mr. Foli-Bazi, there is indeed a strong opposition in Togo and it is the vast majority of Togolese men and women who are fundamentally against the way they are governed by you, the minority which monopolizes all the wealth of our country by relegating to the status of poor wretches this immense majority which eyes you despite everything. Plus, there is a firm and determined opposition before you, the one you are trying to destroy with malicious artifices imbued with lies, denigrations and attempts at corruption without succeeding, because in Togo, not everyone is not false.
You think you can hide your growing fear of the popular support of the people for the cause of democracy, the rule of law and the well-being that the opposition stands for, the real one. If not how to understand that you are doing everything to still defraud the upcoming elections at each of its stages. I do not want as proof, the enrollment of minors and foreigners on the electoral lists and the suspension, in violation of the law, of the enrollment of citizens who are adults in the maritime region. If the Head of State and the RPT-UNIR were so sure that the opposition no longer exists in Togo, you would no longer need fraud before you hope to win.
I would also like to let you know that you missed the opportunity to be silent because you have to remember the role you played in 2005, when you took the interim at the Ministry of the Interior following the hasty departure of Mr. Akila Esso BOCO during the questionable and disputed presidential election of March 24. You would like to remember your words which froze the blood of the whole nation, I quote: “’fikè mi lé yio, we have already pacified Lomé, come back”, end of quote. You were addressing these words to fellow citizens who were fleeing the atrocities of the soldiery that were sweeping through the capital, smashing everything in its path.
In my opinion, you must make amends or keep quiet so as not to rekindle unhealed wounds. And that is why the rest of us, although difficult, strive to maintain national cohesion by not trying to give back the blow for once in order to arrive at a united Togo where the 42 or 43 ethnic groups who populate it. It is for this noble cause that I would like to remind you and myself of the second stanza of our Hymn:
“In unity we want to serve you,
It is there in our hearts,
the most ardent desire,
Let’s loudly proclaim our motto,
That nothing can tarnish.
Sole craftsman of your happiness,
as well as your future,
let us break everywhere the chains of treachery,
And we always swear fidelity to you,
And love to serve, to excel,
Do more of you without getting tired of us,
Dear Togo, the gold of humanity”.
Yours, dear bench comrade Foli-Bazi Katari.
Francis Pedro Amuzun (June 19, 2023)
