RE: What is happening in the Volta Region?
The publication referred to above in the Daily Graphic of Friday, March 24, 2017. Page 10 is misleading and is damaging to me personally.
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In the first place let me make the following corrections:
1. Mr Essuman should know that we are in ECOWAS and he does not necessarily need a passport to visit his fake or genuine relatives in the Volta Region. You see, he is rather the pretender!
2. It is very clear that Mr Essuman is quite ignorant and frustrated about the difference between Volta Region and British Togoland. He needs some well-structured education on the issue. I offer to help.
3. His unprovoked attack on the National Liberation Movement (NLM), New Patriotic Party (NPP) and President Akufo-Addo is unfortunate and uncalled for. But I know the President and the NPP can competently and adequately defend themselves
4. If there is any oil find in the Volta Region, as he claims, it is inconsequential to the Togoland Question because so far as I know no oil has been discovered in British Togoland
5. He talked with anger about federalism. But federalism in itself is not a bad political concept. It depends on how it is operated and by whom. The most stable, progressive and prosperous countries in this world practise federalism and some of the most unstable, miserable and deprived countries practise unitary system of government.
If Ghana should degenerate into chaos and instability the fault will not come from federalism. The main causes of Ghana’s social and economic woes will be, for sure, chieftaincy and tribal hegemony coupled with land conflict, galamsey, indiscipline, greed, corruption and moral perversion. Alas! Ghana seemed to be so confused that 60 years after independence Ghanaians are yet to discover and agree on the founder of the nation.
Ghana is still searching desperately for a just, responsive, equitable and fair political system. Maybe, after all, federalism is or could be the answer to her problems.
6. I was totally shocked and dismayed that Essuman should recklessly drop my name in the middle of nowhere. He cynically associates me with people preaching and plotting secession. I am not a secessionist and I do not intend to be one.
I know Essuman’s evil agenda, very evil and sinister. He wants to frame me or set me up for the kill without any cogent reason. I do not understand. God will judge him.
7. He wrongly accused me of nursing the ambition to become the president of the Volta Region.
Volta Region? See, he does not know what he is talking about. At any rate, and honestly, looking at the type of presidents we have had so far in Africa, what does it take to become a president in Africa? Excuse me to say that even Essuman can become a president in Africa! That is the tragedy of Africa.
8. Why does Hon. Essuman find it normal and acceptable for people to write and talk about the Gold Coast but thinks that the heavens will fall or it is an abomination to write and talk about the British Togoland? In a democracy like Ghana, why should discussions or writings on Togoland be criminalised? There is no doubt that Essuman and his gang want to suppress and obliterate the history and culture of British Togoland. Someone should tell them that they are late. It will not happen.
The cork will not, and cannot, be submerged no matter how hard Essuman and co scheme or try. British Togoland calls their bluff.
9. I have had the privilege and opportunity to petition and appear before the National Reconciliation Commission (2002) and the Constitution Review Commission (2010/11) on the Togoland Question. None of them called me a secessionist. How come that Essuman of all people would want to label me as one?
My stand on the Togoland Question is well known. It is simple, straightforward and consistent. I will, without any apology, re-state it here for the benefit of Essuman and co. If they disagree with me or have any contrary views the honourable thing to do is to come up with their own version, if any, for the true and accurate history on the
Togoland Question to be compiled. There is no need for Essuman to resort to yellow/gutter journalism. I urge him to grow up.
1. I totally reject Britain’s incongruous and farcical reasons that British Togoland was too small, too poor, landlocked, not economically viable to stand on her own as an independent state; that her destiny was bound with the Gold Coast and, therefore, integration was the only good thing for her.
This is total unheard of rubbish coming from a democratic country which should know better! Indeed, no person in charge of his faculties can use these puerile and untenable reasons to deprive a whole nation of her fundamental and inalienable rights to sovereignty, independence, national dignity, territorial integrity and freedom.
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The absurdity of Britain’s stand is unbelievable. By the way, when did reasons of size, wealth and access to the sea become requirements for granting independence to a people?
In fact, such reasons are in total conflict with the United Nations (UN) Charter, the Principles which gave birth to the UN, UN Resolution 1514(XV) and Dr Nkrumah’s famous declaration that Ghana prefers “self- government with danger to servitude in tranquillity” Who says the people of Togoland disagree with Dr Nkrumah?
2. For now, de facto Ghana consists of Ghana and British Togoland. We, therefore, insist that this geo-political reality should be recognised. We totally oppose the practice where government officials, scholars and journalists in Ghana define and describe Ghana only as the former Gold Coast leaving out completely the British Togoland.
3. The most important request I have made, and will continue to make, is that if Britain claims that she truly established a union between Ghana and British Togoland, then she must produce the Union Document (Act, Protocol, Treaty, Convention or even an MOU) that established and gave legal backing to the so-called Ghana-Togoland Union.
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It should be noted that the plebiscite results alone did not and could not have translated automatically into a political union. Due process and practical constitutional and political efforts were needed to establish a democratic political union.
Again, it is important to realise that even loose unions like the African Union (AU), European Union (EU) and ECOWAS are supported by legal documents. Political unions everywhere, in modern times, do not just happen.
They are created or established through due process, negotiation and dialogue; making sure that the interests and responsibilities of the partners in the union are guaranteed and safeguarded.
Why should the case of Ghana and Togoland be different? Why? Britain has tried desperately to hoodwink us by claiming that the Union was established by the Ghana Independence Act, 1957. A careful look at that Act and the Ghana (Constitution) order in Council, 1957 reveals that these documents are not and were not meant to be Union documents.
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4. If there is no union document, we must be bold to admit it. It should be accepted that a very serious constitutional, legal and political error was committed by Britain and her collaborators in the UN. My stand is that this grievous and fatal error must be corrected and rectified by due process to pave the way for regularising the relationship between Ghana and British Togoland.
5. However, if the parties cannot reach an understanding or lack the political will to correct the error then the relationship between them must be re-examined to enable events to take their own obvious and natural course.
In the end, it is my view that the Togoland Question should be recognised.
We can no longer ignore it and continue to live a lie or live perpetually in denial. Again, the Question cannot be solved by violence, prosecution, suppression, intimidation or threats of secession or Essuman’s bravado and gutter journalism. A just, peaceful, fair and lasting solution can only be achieved through tolerance, dialogue, negotiation and preventive diplomacy. And here, we want the UN to come in and assist.