“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” Hark, all nations! Hear these words from hearts heavy-laden with our people’s long oppression. We beseech thee: turn thine eyes toward Togo, where liberty lies captive and justice finds no home.
By equity’s law—what serves one must serve all—we call upon thee. When tyranny hath risen elsewhere, ye have cried with one voice: “This shall not stand!” Yet wherefore doth Togo languish forgotten? Are not her people God’s children too, deserving equal measure?
Evil doth flourish when good men stand idle. For sixty years and more, Togo hath groaned beneath despotic rule, passed from father to son as mere inheritance, her subjects made bondsmen. Is this not tyranny ‘against which ye’ve drawn swords in foreign lands?
“By their fruits shall ye know them”—and bitter are these fruits: voices silenced, elections made mockery, dissent crushed beneath iron authority.
Remember those international laws thy hand did pen, thy oath did seal. They proclaim sovereignty shields not iniquity. To whom much power is given, much is required. Those who wield the scepter must answer to a higher law—that of human dignity, which knows no border and bows not to tyrants’ claims of boundless sovereignty.
Methinks I hear thy protest: “Who art we to meddle in sovereign realms?” Yet this doth ring most hollow against thy former deeds. Thou didst intervene in Kosovo for humanity’s sake, in Libya when princes turned war upon their subjects, and laid sanctions upon Russia, Korea, and Iran, proclaiming no nation stands alone.
“What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander”—if intervention be just in one case, how unjust in another? Intervention most selective, founded upon convenience rather than principle, doth undermine the very pillars of international law.
The Apostle James writ truly: “If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin.” When intervention cometh only where strategic interests align, when African suffering is deemed less urgent than European—then human rights become “a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Let it ne’er be said “out of sight, out of mind.” Togo’s distance from great capitals doth not diminish, by one jot, her people’s humanity. The blood in Togolese veins runneth as red as thine own; their tears fall as salt; their yearning for freedom burneth no less fierce than that which moved thine ancestors to cast off bondage’s chains.
Hearken well to posterity’s judgment upon this hour! “As thou sow’st, so shalt thou reap”—today’s indifference shall yield tomorrow’s bitter harvest. When future generations ask, “Where stood the nations when Togo languished?” what answer shall ye give? That ye knew not? Yet news of tyranny flies swiftly in this age. That ye could not act? Yet the same powers that moved thee elsewhere remain at hand. Or shall ye confess, shame writ upon thy brow, that Togo mattered not?
“To whom much is given, much is required.” Those nations blessed with power bear sacred trust to serve mankind’s commonweal. The Universal Declaration was never “respecter of persons”—it protects the Togolese farmer no less than citizens of Paris or London.
Moreover, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Act now whilst Togo’s troubles may yet be managed, ere civil war demands far greater cost in treasure, lives, and regional peace. “A stitch in time saveth nine.”
History teaches that instability spreads like wildfire—”one apple corrupted spoils the barrel entire.” Authoritarianism unchallenged in Togo emboldens tyrants throughout the region. But democratic transformation there might prove “a city upon a hill,” inspiring liberty across West Africa.
“Do unto others as thou wouldst have them do unto thee”—this Golden Rule must govern nations as it doth men. If thine own land faced such extremity, wouldst thou not hope for international succor?
A Final Entreaty
Harken, O peoples! The hour is upon us—delay not, for hesitation breeds perdition. Each idle day doth dim hope’s flame within Togolese hearts. Time tarrieth for none; history’s tide floweth now toward justice, yet requireth thy steady hand to steer Togo’s ship to harbor. Remember well: no man standeth alone. Togo’s suffering diminisheth thee; her liberation shall enrich all mankind. We are our brother’s keepers, and the Togolese cry out for thy aid. Let history record that when Togo called, ye answered with justice and mercy—not as the priest and Levite who passed by the wounded, but as the Good Samaritan, moved to compassionate action.
The same measure ye have shown elsewhere must now be brought to Togo. Ought less betrayeth thine own professed ideals—mere “sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.” The moral arc bendeth toward justice only when righteous souls grasp and pull it. Be ye among those who act, not those who stand idle. Evil triumpheth when good men do nothing. We await thy response with hope unquenched. “Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened.” (“Doctrine and Covenants 4”) We have asked. We have knocked. Now we await thine answer. May posterity say that when Togo cried, the nations heard. May justice roll down like waters, bringing at last to Togo liberty, democracy, and peace. Truth crushed to earth shall rise again—and with thy help, shall rise in Togo forevermore. What doth befit the one in station and in circumstance must, by all sacred bonds of equity and the immutable laws of natural justice, befit the other in equal measure and degree
By: Ben Djagba Salt Lake City. February 25th 2026
Togo : Of Justice and Duty Toward Togolese
