Olympio unhappy about Kufuor's visit to Togo

Mr. Gilchrist Olympio, the exiled Togolese main opposition leader on Monday expressed reservations about President John Agyekum Kufuor's visit to Togo to celebrate the 34th anniversary of the coup that brought President Gnassingbe Eyadema to power.

The anniversary, dubbed National Liberation Day, was marked last Saturday.

"President Kufuor was ill-advised" (to undertake such a trip), he said in an interview with the BBC monitored in Accra.

Mr. Olympio, who heads the Union of Forces for Change (UFC) in Togo, said the opposition is very puzzled at Mr. Kufuor's action, coming just a few days after his inauguration as President in a fair and transparent democratic election.

"We are very puzzled that President Kufuor's first visit outside Ghana should be to a political dinosaur called Mr. Eyadema who has been in power for 38 years after assassinating the first President of Togo..."

Mr. Olympio is the son of the late President Sylvanus Olympio who has been living in exile in Ghana and has, over the past 20 years, been championing democratic change in Togo.

The anniversary ceremony, attended by the Central Band of the Ghana Armed Forces, took place at the Presidential Palace in Lome as one of the high points in celebrations.

The visit, the first foreign trip by Mr Kufuor since his inauguration on January 7, as Ghana's sixth elected President, was at the invitation of President Eyadema.

Mr Olympio said he has the highest regard for President Kufuor, whom he has known since their university years at Oxford.

He said they (opposition) would not want to blame President Kufuor for going to Togo. "All that we are saying is that he should have had better advice. He should have been a little circumspect before going to Togo.

"What we want to bring to his attention is that Togo, unlike Ghana is not ready for democratic change and peaceful change," Mr Olympio said. "I do not feel betrayed by the visit. I just feel that President Kufuor should have been more circumspect."

He recalled that last year, former President Jerry Rawlings sent a military band to the celebration, which the Togolese opposition protested against.

Mr Olympio said; "what President Kufuor is preoccupied about is good neighbourliness, having good relations with Togo, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso."

However, Mr Olympio said, it is significant that no other president showed up at the ceremony, except President Kufuor.

"It is also significant that the ambassadors of the European Union, the United States and Canada were not present. It is clear that it is a ceremony that nobody accepts either locally or outside."

He said President Kufuor could be excused because he has been in power for only a week and needs time to settle down and make up his mind.

He said the President was taken in by the presence of Presidents Eyadema and Obasanjo at his inauguration and wanted to pay back courtesies.

"However, let us say it was not a very appropriate thing to do."

Mr Olympio said he did not fear going to Ghana or feel he might not get support from President Kufuor: "Let's put it this way. I go to Ghana because I have family, friends and business there. We do not depend on Ghana for political support. We have never had it.

"Since the EU began sponsoring discussions between the opposition and government in Togo, the position of Ghana particularly in the last two years has not been in our favour".

He said he comes to Ghana to see family and friends and not for political purposes.

Mr Olympio said his party would, in the next few days, protest formally to the Ghana Embassy in Togo.

Requiem masses and Muslim prayers were held on the 12th, 13th and 14th of January all over Togo in the churches and mosques to remember what happened on 13th of January 1963.

"That was when Eyadema then a 26 year-old sergeant freshly back from French colonial war in Indo-China and Algeria shot down the President and proclaimed himself president", Mr Olympio said.

President Eyadema, the longest serving leader in Africa will complete a second five-year term in 2003, which he has indicated, will be his final.