02/06/2023.
A rejoinder by the PLC.
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The https://www.graphic.com.gh/features/opinion/western-togoland-my-take-on-the-enigma.html
The People’s Liberation Council
(PLC) of Western Togoland has read with some reservations an opinion article written by Wg. Cdr. Kwesi Kekrebesi a retired Ghanaian pilot and published by Graphic Online on Wednesday May. 31, with the above caption and reproduced on other media platforms.
We wish to state that, while the writer’s summary analysis is ok, we totally disagree with his position that no country will agree to have its borders split in this 21st century.
That not withstanding, we are surprised at the level of ignorance deliberate or otherwise in his assertion.
The Separatist School of Thought:
Has the writer forgotten Eritrea, South Sudan, the split of Yogoslavia, etc – When did these take place – 18th century? Yes there were bloodsheds. Of course hardly any independence struggle happens without bloodshed. Even Gold Coast independence struggle occasioned some bloodshed and imprisonments. It’s up to those who stole British/Western Togoland to decide how much blood they are willing to shed and property to lose before doing the right thing – returning the stolen property.
The Unionist School of Thought:
Western Togoland was not legally joined to Gold Coast/Ghana at the time of the latter’s independence. What happened was a forceful integration of the UN Trust Territory into the Gold Coast, hence Ghana has no legal official border to lose upon Western Togoland separation.
The Gold Coast border was well defined at it’s independence as per colonial Britain’s Allan Clarke’s telegram to the UN. It did not include Western/British Togoland.
Since the fraudulent Plebiscite was meant for a POLITICAL UNION, the UN after the Plebiscite mandated the Administering Authority (Britain) of its Trust Territory through its resolution 1044(XI) of 13 December 1956, to EFFECT THE UNION. This meant first effecting the independence granted UNANIMOUSLY by the UN to make both nations legally eligible to enter a political UNION as INDEPENDENT STATES. While Britain deliberately FAILED to do both, effecting the independence of Western/British Togoland and establishing the UNION between it and Gold Coast/Ghana, it DECEIVED the UN that it had complied with its resolution mandate through a telegram by Allan Clarke to the UN Secretary-General on.March 6, 1957. And by this FALSE report and without exercising any due diligence of verification, the UN cancelled its Trusteeship Agreement with Britain, leaving Western/British Togoland an unprotected Orphan State.
This made room for Nkrumah with British collaboration, to use military force to push the new orphan UN Territory of Western/British Togoland, into Gold Coast/Ghana.
Many were massacred, and many more exiled, with many dying in exile. It’s a pain Western Togolanders will never forget, in addition to their perpetual underdevelopment within the Ghana they had been forced into.
Indeed, the so called “Notification Letter” by Britain to the UN, claimed that the UNION was formed under the 1957 Ghana Independence Act. But the 1957 Ghana Independence Act was wrongly applied to Togoland. It was an inappropriate and wrong Act which was not suitable or appropriate for effecting or bringing about the Ghana-Togoland UNION. The Act did not maintain a single word about the UNION !!
So did the 1957 Ghana Independence Act bring about the Ghana-British Togoland UNION? Of course not!. But if Britain and her collaborators in the UN claimed it did then they have to answer the following questions:
1. How and where was the UNION negotiated and enacted and who were the contracting parties?
2. Where was the UNION Document/Agreement/Deal that recognized, supported and gave the union legal acceptance and backing?
3. Where was the UNION government and how was it constituted?
4. Where and when was the UNION celebrated or marked?
5. Where and what were the UNION’s coat of arms, flag and union anthem?
6. What type of UNION government was formed?
7. Did the so-called partner in the UNION, independent Gold Coast (Ghana), accept and approve of the UNION?
It is worth noting that the “Notification Letter’ was not only misleading, bogus and fraudulent but also a sham and it should have been treated as such by the UN.
The PLC has always maintained that separation of Western Togoland from Ghana (indeed the two states have not been officially joined by any charter or convention) was not the right way to go and that the UNION that should have been established between the two separate states following the 1956 Plebiscite must necessarily be effected.
The PLC is still of the strongest conviction that not until the UNION between Western Togoland and Ghana is effected, the question of Western Togoland will remain unsolved and the back and forth will never cease.
By People’s Liberation Council (PLC) Communications bureau.