In Togo, the prime minister, Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, resigned suddenly a week ago. Why he resigned still remains a mystery. PM Houngbo was a close collaborator of President Faure Gnassingbé. There is some speculation that he was effectively sacked by President Gnassingbé, even though the president doesn’t formally have this power. However, the reasons are currently unknown.

Anyway, President Gnassingbé has now appointed a new PM. He is Kwessi Séléagodji Ahoomey-Zunu. He was a minister in the previous government. He is a member of the Convergence Patriotique Panafricaine (CPP) party. In other words, he is not a member of President Gnassingbé’s Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT) party.

The details of the government are available here. The key point is that Gilchrist Olympio’s L’Union des forces de changement (UFC) party remains in the government. Olympio was the ‘historic’ opposition figure to the RPT regime. His party joined the government in 2010. They now have eight ministers.

Given the UFC has joined the regime, there are now other opposition movements, notably a group called ‘Sauvons le Togo’. They refused the offer of joining the government. Generally, what appears to be happening is that President Gnassingbé is shoring up his own power by bringing as many forces as possible into the government, so that there is no strong united opposition to him. Expect him to be in power for some time.