The Director of Academic Affairs of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Dr Vladmir Antwi-Danso, has said the secession campaign by the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF) can cause tribal war in Ghana.
Dr Antwi-Danso said the activities of HSGF are similar to those that triggered tribal wars and even genocide in some countries.
Speaking on Adom FM’s Burning Issue, a current affairs programme, on Monday, November 25, 2019, Dr. Antwi-Danso said tribal issues are sensitive hence must be dealt before the current session campaign spirals out of control.
The security expert, however, suspects the actions of the group may be engineered by politicians to fuel rage for tribal sentiments.
He recounted how a similar group emerged some time ago but faded away when then government offered their leader an ambassadorial position.
He suspects that the leader of the HSGF wants a similar opportunity.
Speaking on the same show, Prof. Yayo Kwame Wilson of the Centre for African and International Studies at the University of Cape Coast said the Trans Volta Togoland, controlled by the Germans, did not even include Anlo, Peki and Tongu so he is surprised that the leader of the secession movement was Anlo.
Speaking in Twi, Prof Wilson said: Ho, Kpando, Hohoe, Kejebi and their environs were those that formed Trans Volta Togoland and were controlled by the Germans who signed a petition in 1886 to be part of the British colony and Anlo, Peki and Tongu were not part of them.
Prof. Wilson further said there was a need to teach history from the basic level of education to prevent possible historical distortions by people with vile agenda.
We don’t know our history in this country and I’m glad the President has put measures in place for it to be taught from the primary school else there will be confusion, he said in Twi.
The HSGF is a group based in the Volta Region that has been calling for the secession of the region from Ghana.
The group claims the Volta Region (formerly Western Togoland) was an independent state before it was made to join Ghana in a plebiscite.
The leader of the group, Charles Kormi Kudzodzi – popularly known as Papavi Hogbedetor – was arrested with seven others in early May when they were at one of the group’s regular study meetings.
The Attorney-General dropped all charges against the group and their leader, Papavi Hobedetor, made an independence declaration at a public gathering in Ho on Saturday, November 16, 2019.
He cited the omission of roads in the Volta Region from the Critical Roads list in the 2020 budget as evidence that they have been neglected by the government.
The Volta Regional Security Council arrested 10 members of the group after the independence declaration.
