Open letter of august 18, 2022, from the legitimate president of Togo, his excellency, Dr Gabriel Agbeyome Messan Kodjo, to the current President of Ecowas, Umaro Sissoco Embalo.
“Great nations are born in faith and enthusiasm. They die in disbelief and cynicism. » Alfred Noyes, Speech to students in 1939.
Excellency,
At a time when more than ever, the Sovereignty of Peoples is at the heart of current world balances, and when the geopolitical force represented by sub-Saharan Africa must be put into perspective with enlightenment, I would like to wish you success in your exquisite mission at the head of our community organization, ECOWAS.
Amongst the severe political and geopolitical crises that shape sub-Saharan Africa as the platitude of the African Renaissance, the current state of nature in Togo is fuddled. Togo’s headship has been bicephalous since the presidential election of February 22, 2020. On February 03, 2022, with supporting evidence, I challenged the status quo by sending an open letter to all the Heads of State of ECOWAS on the fivefold misnomers: electoral, military, judicial, mediatic, and diplomatic coup d’état carried out in the outcome of the said presidential thus to ensure justice is done to the Togolese people.
I congratulate the Judges of our Community Organization who dignified our continent by rending the right through judgment No ECW / CCJ / JUD / 11/2022 of March 24, 2022, condemning Togo and Faure Gnassingbé who tried to lure me into bribery after this umpteenth coup-de-force which disgraced the electoral code’s agenda and violated the devotedness of the votes of the so-embittered Togolese people on whom a permanent state of emergency has been imposed since March 2020 under the pretext of COVID-19 and jihadist terrorism.
The cruelty of the Togolese crisis is captured through the scale of the debacle of Faure Gnassingbé, who declared himself the winner on February 23, 2020, for a fourth consecutive term by reversing the scores from the ballot boxes 24 hours after the ballot. Such a hasty action is something unprecedented in the electoral history of Togo. Besides, let me remind you that the Gnassingbé family makes 55 y-e-a-r-s in power, from father to son.
According to the electoral law, no official provisional result can be announced without having collected all the reports for a general census of the votes; collecting reports from all voting bureaux is physically impossible within a day in Togo, given Togo’s road infrastructure.
Due to the widespread fury against this umpteenth coup d’état, Faure Gnassingbé sent one of his ministers to me with this clear message: “we have stolen your victory. You cannot send us to prison because we have the monopoly of control of the defense and security forces; accept the post of Prime Minister, and Faure Gnassingbé himself will give you a Suitcase — money.”
Another minister urged me, through my lawyer, to abandon my claims for the judgment of the unfounded legal proceedings against my person to benefit from the presidential offer.
The Group of Ambassadors of Western countries confirmed the resounding victory of the Togolese people. However, sadly, the group confessed its inability to defend the verdict on the ballot. Note that this same group possessed all the congratulatory messages hailing the Alternation emanating from political parties and civil society. Moreover, it is crucial to outline that the group of ambassadors is subject to blackmail and threats from the fiftyfive-year-old neo-colonial dictatorship, which does not want to respect the utmost Sovereign choice of the Togolese people.
My refusal to be bribed has led to despicable and degrading acts of violence against my family members, my relatives, my collaborators, and young Patriots with varying fortunes, prison, torture, rape, and judicial review to this day. Moreover, due to recurring death threats against me, I have taken refuge — out of Togo — for more than two years alike the Patriarch of the Nation, Dean of the episcopal body, Monseigneur Philippe Fanoko Kpodzro, and his assistant, Mr. Marc Mondji who are both resettled in Sweden as refugees.
Seizing the file in 2020, the ECOWAS Justice Court sentenced Faure Gnassingbé on March 24, 2022, and demanded him to restore my rights and make reparations within three months — by the end of June 23, 2022. Today, Faure Gnassingbe is yet to abide by the ECOWAS Justice Court recommendations.
Need it to recall the instrumentalization and perversion of international law in this crisis through the diplomatic coup aimed at defrauding the Togolese populations with illicit recognitions improperly broadcasted by Radio France Internationale (RFI)? Emmanuel Macron will ratify the day after the dissemination of this apocryphal recognition that: “neither France, nor Germany, nor the European Union has recognized it.” The French deputy Sébastien NADOT of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the French parliament noted that no trace of such an alleged congratulatory letter from Emmanuel Macron appears on the sites of the Elysée, the Quai d’Orsay, nor the Embassy of France in Togo — as usual. With the same finding in Brussels and Berlin, deputy NADOT concluded that an electoral coup with the support of the Army had occurred. Therefore, the French deputy Sébastien NADOT called on the French President and asked Emmanuel Macron to denounce the forfeiture of the imitation of his signature. Unfortunately, Emmanuel Macron, till now, has done nothing from this illegal congratulatory message that emanated from Elysée. Later, thirteen months after the ballot, Faure Gnassingbé was received at the Elysée Palace on April 09, 2021, in contempt for the reaffirmed sovereignty of the Togolese people, contrary to the democratic ideals so proclaimed by France, the Francophonie, the EU, and the UN.
The Togolese people are standing steadfastly to vanquish with faith, following God and the Patriarch of the Nation, His Excellency Mgr. P. F. Kpodzro, towards the reconquest of their integral sovereignty. The enucleation of this unprecedented political crisis is an ethical and virtuous imperative for ECOWAS since it is from Togo that the anomaly that introduced the severe malignant infection of political stability in our sub-region that you are tasked to heal.
At this turning point in the history of Humanity, with an emerging multi-polar world, ONLY a consistent and virtuous etiological theory of political and geopolitical crises will restore life and prospects to countries within the ECOWAS.
We do not respond to dystopia with a fairyland that would quickly turn into a dystopia. It is instead answered by the reign of truth and respect for deeds’ sake; and this means, in this case, following the execution of judgment No ECW/CCJ/JUD/11/2022 of March 24, 2022, of the Court of Justice of ECOWAS and the peaceful transfer of power to the sovereign President democratically elected by the Togolese people.
Based on the legitimate results from the ballot following the presidential election on February 20th of 2020, I count on your sense of accountability, justice, promotion of democracy, and good governance within ECOWAS to advise on the above.
Faithfully,
Signed by:
Dr Gabriel Agbéyomé Messan Kodjo
Democratically Elected President of Togo
Good. Well-written and structured open letter.
But Agbeyome is false politician and gangster !