Monday’s dialogue was the first by President Akufo-Addo since the outbreak of political disturbances in that country last year.

Since September last year, opposition parties in Togo and their supporters have been agitating for the removal of the incumbent President, Faure Gnassingbe, and an end to the Gnassingbe Dynasty in Togo.

The meeting was aimed at kick-starting a formal dialogue process between the 14 opposition parties and the incumbent administration to find ways by which the impasse between the two could be brought to an end.

Delivering an address prior to the start of the dialogue, President Akufo-Addo said it was important that the Togolese themselves determine the future of their country.

But beyond that, he said, it was even more important to recognise that the destinies of nations were in the hands of their own people.

“Therefore, whatever emerges out of this dialogue represents the solutions that the Togolese people are looking for,” he said.

National interest

President Akufo-Addo said what was required, therefore, was for all those assembled to recognise that “the dialogue, the spirit of compromise, the spirit of accommodation” had to be at the forefront of the very pre-occupations of their work.

That, he said, was because “the national interest of Togo demands it and that has to be the overriding concern of everyone who participates in this dialogue”.

The President said the national interest of Togo was the desire of the people for a better life, to live in security and freedom and in a state governed by the rule of law and the principles of democratic accountability.

Those, he said, were the desires that the political actors assembled at the multiparty meeting were meant to fulfil.

One-on-one

Prior to the meeting, the Director of Communications at the Office of the President, Mr Eugene Arhin, had said the President had met the various opposition leaders one-on-one in Accra and held several meetings with President Gnassingbe.

Over the course of the year, Mr Arhin said, the President had had cause to invite the various factions in the Togolose impasse to ensure that the Togolese people were able to live their lives normally.

He said the move by the President would also ensure that there was ground for the opposition and the government to sit together and dialogue and explained that the move was an initiative that President Akufo-Addo had undertaken since he became President.

The interest of Ghana

“At the end of the day, we know we are bordered to the east by Togo and they are our immediate neighbours and so whatever problems occur there, Ghana will definitely be the country to bear the brunt,” Mr Arhin explained.

He indicated that it was to avoid those things that President Akufo-Addo had taken it upon himself to facilitate the dialogue between the leaders of the opposition and the government.

Mr Arhin said in the course of the year, the opposition had had meetings with President Akufo-Addo and tabled their concerns to him and he too had relayed those concerns to President Gnassingbe.

“This will be the first opportunity they will have face-to-face to address whatever concerns they have,” he further explained.

In addition to the political parties that the President would be meeting, Mr Arhin said, he would also meet with leaders of civil society groups who also had a credible voice in that country.

That engagement, he said, would be centred on how they could also join the cause to restore common grounds among all the political players.