On January 13, 1963, in Lomé, the first President of the independent Togolese Republic, Sylvanus Olympio, was assassinated. Sixty-two years later, the circumstances of his assassination have still not been clarified. But since then, he has rested in Agoué, Benin.
Recently, Awa Nana-Daboya, mediator of the Togolese Republic and president of the High Commission for Reconciliation and Strengthening National Unity (HCRRUN), raised the possibility of repatriating the remains of Sylvanus Olympio to Togo. This approach is, according to her, in line with the recommendations of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (CVJR) of 2014.
To return to the assassination of Sylvanus Olympio, DW interviewed Ekue Foly Gada, former advisor to Gilchrist Olympio, the president of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC) and also son of the late president. Ekue Foly Gada is also the director of the Institute of Strategic Studies (IES) at the University of Lomé.
Dead Foly Gada : There were two major issues at the heart of this assassination, a national issue which is notably that of integration within the Togolese army. The small Togolese army Soldiers who returned from the French army returned from the campaigns of Algeria and other theaters where the French army conducted colonial wars. They returned, they were demobilized by France. They wanted to return to their respective countries to be integrated into the army. Sylvanus Olympio did not agree, because this integration posed budget problems.
And beyond the national question, there is the file of Sylvanus Olympio's monetary reform.
Sylvanus Olympio had expressed his disapproval of the establishment of the operating account system, that is to say the CFA franc mechanism which enriched the French Treasury to the detriment of the Togolese State.
He did not want France to control the Togolese economy through import contracts, export contracts and prospecting contracts for strategic and ordinary mineral resources.
Here are the two immediate and distant files which caused the assassination of Sylvanus Olympio on January 13, 1963.
DW: According to our information, the High Commission for Reconciliation and the Strengthening of National Unity (HCRRUN) recommends the repatriation of the remains of Sylvanus Olympio. Why now?
-The interview with Ekue Foly Gada
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Dead Foly Gada : It is in the interest of the State, if only from a symbolic point of view, that his remains be transferred to Togo and that the national honors which are due to the rank of the head of state which he been returned to him post-mortem and returned to his family.
Now the problem is twofold. Since it was the family who refused to allow the remains to be transferred to Togo.
But it should be remembered that we do not consider Agoué to be part of Beninese territory.
The separatists and in particular the family consider that the president is still in Togo because there is a territorial dispute between Dahomey and Togo which has not been duly resolved.
And therefore, once this dispute is resolved and the new agreements on the drawing of the maritime borders between Togo and Benin are signed, then we will see if it will indeed be necessary to transfer it to the definitive Togo, or it will rather be better to keep it in this part which will become Togo.
