Togo president faure gnassingbe biography
President faure gnassingbe biography!
Mr Faure is the only one of his many siblings who went into politics |
It was no great surprise when 39-year-old Faure Gnassingbe was hurriedly installed by the military as Togo's new president in February 2005 when his father Gnassingbe Eyadema died.
What was unexpected was that West African neighbours demanded the constitution be adhered to and he stepped down in order to contest elections on 24 April.
Togo president faure gnassingbe biography
Like his father - one of Africa's longest serving leaders - Mr Faure is a man of very few words.
But he does have the fierce loyalty of the West African country's well-organised and well-equipped military, says the BBC's Ebow Godwin.
Born in 1966 to a mother who hails from Atakpame in central Togo, he was one of Eyadema's many sons; and according to journalist Andrew Manley, seen as the most level-headed.
"He was always regarded as the most pliable by the military clique surrounding Eyadema for the last 15 to 20 years," he told the BBC's Network Africa program