[1] He served as Director of the Autonomous Port of Lomé during the 1970s and was appointed to the government as Minister of Mines, Energy, and Water Resources on March 19, 1979.
[3] Considered a devoted loyalist of Eyadéma,[4] he served in many positions in the government over the following 20 years,[5] becoming a powerful "baron" of the ruling party, the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT).
[8] Barqué was Special Adviser to the President of the Republic for a time[7] before being appointed as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation on November 29, 1995;[9][10] he held the latter position until 1996.
[citation needed] He subsequently became Minister of State for Finance and Privatization in 1996[11][12] until departing from the government in June 1999; he was instead appointed as a Special Advisor to the President at that time.
Barqué was included as part of a Togolese delegation that travelled to Niamey on February 12 in an attempt to explain and defend Gnassingbé's succession to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which had reacted to it with hostility.