Sir Kt. Bro. Epiphan Patrick Komla Seddoh who turned 90 years on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 was initiated into Council No. 10 (Accra) of the Noble Order of the Knights of Marshall in April, 1977. For well over 10 years when he was a nine degree knight; he served in every administration of Council No. 10. He was installed as a Diamond Jubilee Past Grand Knight on January 17, 1987. He thereafter, in quick succession, became a Grand Advisor and Past Grand Advisor.
Sir Kt. Bro. Seddoh who is bilingual, was appointed Assistant Supreme Secretary responsible for Francophone countries when it became necessary to provide effective co-ordination between the Supreme Council and the Noble Order in Togo and Benin. In 1995, he was promoted to the high office of Past Supreme Knight.
This promotion was later followed by his unanimous election as Liaison Officer to the International Alliance of Catholic Knights. He was for several years an adviser on the Editorial Board of The Bridge Magazine.
Sir Kt Bro. Patrick Komla Seddoh came to the Noble Order as an accomplished French scholar and distinguished career diplomat. He was Ambassador to several countries and was also the first African-South of the Sahara, to be elected to the prestigious post of Chairman of the Executive Board of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
He was born at Keta in the Volta Region on Epiphany day of the liturgical calendar, that is, 6th January, 1925. His parents were Mr. Aloysius Komi Seddoh and Madam Elizabeth Kwamba Seddoh (née Byll-Cataria) both of blessed memory.
The young Seddohbegan his basic education in 1930 at Keta Roman Catholic School and completed with Standard Seven School Leaving Certificate in 1941. For two years, he assisted his father, who was an agent of GB Olivant mercantile firm, at Atakpame in Togo.
He entered St. Augustine’s College at Cape Coast in 1944 and was among the exceptionally brilliant students that gained Cambridge School Certificate Grade One with exemption from London Matriculation in 1948.
With a three year scholarship, Patrick enrolled in the prestigious University of Paris Sorbonne and Alliance Francaise in Paris, France. After an intense academic work, he earned an Advanced Diploma in French Studies in 1950 and a Diploma in the teaching of French as a foreign language in 1952. He continued his education at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland where he graduated in 1955 with a master’s degree in Political Economy, Moral Philosophy and French.
Sir Kt. Bro. Seddoh returned to Ghana the same year and was posted to the Public Services Commission in 1956 as an Assistant Secretary. After two years, he was transferred to Kumasi as an Assistant Government Agent and acted as a Lay Magistrate. It was in the Ashanti regional capital that he married an old intimate friend working in Accra, Miss. Charity Acolatse on Boxing Day, December 26, 1959.
A major turn in Seddoh’s career came in 1960 when, on the orders of President Nkrumah, he was transferred to the Foreign Service and posted to the then politically volatile Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Accompanied by his wife and a skeleton staff, Seddoh eventually opened Ghana’s embassy in Leopoldville, as Kinshasa was then called.
He served as First Secretary and therefore as Charge d’Affaires for a while. In the face of heightened insecurity in the Congo he returned home followed later by the staff and was assigned, as a senior officer, to the African Affairs Secretariat at Flagstaff House which pursued PresidentNkrumah’s vision of African Unity. Significantly, Seddoh acted as interpreter on occasions of extreme confidentiality involving foreign political visitors to PresidentNkrumah. He also ran special courier services to Francophone Heads of State. He was a member of the Ghana delegation to the 18th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York in 1963.
When President Nkrumah’s government was overthrown in Ghana’s first coup d’etat in 1966, Seddoh’s command of the French language was considered vital to explaining the change, particularly to Francophone countries. He was, therefore, chosen willy-nilly by the new rulers to lead the Ghana delegation to the 1967 Ordinary Ministerial Council Meeting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa. It was a difficult and delicate mission for two reasons. First, Seddoh had enjoyed close working relationship with PresidentNkrumah and second, PresidentNkrumah was held in high esteem in Africa and on the global scene. Nonetheless, he was able to fulfill the mission with astute forbearance, unyielding tenacity, level-headedness and composure.
Not long after his mission to Addis Ababa, Seddoh saw himself back to serving his country abroad. His postings included Ambassador to France and Spain in 1967 and Permanent Delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France. In 1970, he was responsible for the Benelux countries comprising Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg with residence in The Hague. He made history in the Foreign Ministry when in 1972 he was appointed Ambassador to France and Spain for the second time regarded as an unprecedented act in diplomatic accreditation.
At the end of his duty tour in 1976, Seddoh returned to Ghana and was seconded to the Ministry of Cocoa Affairs as Senior Principal Secretary. In the absence of the Commissioner, that is, the sector Minister, he worked directly to the Head of State, General Ignatius KutuAcheampong. In that capacity, he had the opportunity of leading Ghana’s delegation to the UN Conference on Re-negotiation of the 1975 International Cocoa Agreement in Geneva.
Sir Kt. Bro. Seddoh retired from the Civil Service in 1979 during the AFRC Revolution.
In 1980 he was sponsored by the government of Dr. Hilla Limann for election to the Board of UNESCO for a five-year term. He was the first elected African member to chair the board of UNESCO from 1983 to 1985.
At the end of his term, the 23rd session of UNESCO General Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, passed a resolution paying glowing tribute to him and expressing deep gratitude for his distinguished services to UNESCO during its most stressful period.
On his retirement from UNESCO, Seddoh did not hesitate to put his experience and expertise at the benefit of the country. In 1987, he delivered the Golden Jubilee Lectures of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). From 1988 to 1993, he served as Chairman of the GBC Board of Directors, and from August 1989 to April 1990, he was concurrently the Acting Director-General. From 1989 to 1990, he was a member of Cape Coast University Council and served on the International Panel of UNESCO Advisors. In 1990, he was a member of the Peace Corps National Council; from 1987 to 1996, he was President of the Alliance Francaise of Accra; and from 1992 to 1996, Patrick served as a member of the Board of Directors of Dubois Memorial Centre for Pan-Africanism in Accra and from 2001 to 2002 he served on the ECOWAS Council of Elders as one of its first members.
Sir Kt. Bro. Seddoh is a recipient of notable awards for dedicated and selfless service to country and humanity. These are the National Order of Dahomey (now Benin Republic) in 1963, the Order of Merit of Egypt (during the reign of President Gamel Abdel Nasser), a Gold Medal as UNESCO Executive Board Chairman for 1983 to 1985, the French National Order of Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1990, and Ghana’s Order of the Companion of the Volta in 2006.
Sir Kt. Bro. Patrick Seddoh’s dedication and commitment to Holy Mother, the Catholic Church, has been great. Baptized in infancy as a Presbyterian, like his mother; he voluntarily converted to Catholicism, his father’s faith, just before his secondary education. While a student in Paris he went on a group pilgrimage to Rome in 1950. In 1975, while he was Ambassador to France, he made another pilgrimage with his wife and daughter during which he initiated talks with Pope Paul VI for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Ghana.
He had been a great supporter of the Church in Ghana. He and his wife are noted financiers of the Holy Family Catholic Church at Woe in the Volta Region. In Accra, he worships at the Christ the King Catholic Church in Cantonments.
He was for several years a member of the Christ the King Parish Pastoral Council. It was during his term of office as President of the Parish Council that a firm decision was taken to build the modern Parish Presbytery.
In April 2004, on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Christ the King Church, the Holy Father Pope John Paul II, now a saint, imparted his apostolic blessing on Sir Kt. Bro. Patrick Seddoh.
A great devotee of Holy Virgin Mary, never a day goes without he praying the Holy Rosary. On the special of occasion of his 90th birthday he joined numerous friends and brothers and sisters in the Noble Order of the Knights and Ladies of Marshall at the Christ the King Catholic Church at Cantonments-Accra on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 10:00 a.m.to thank God in a Holy Mass that was concelebrated by five priests with the main celebrant being Most Rev. Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra.
The Marshallan Website joins all in thanking God for the life of Sir Kt. Bro. Patrick Komla Seddoh and wishes him a happy 90th birthday. Akpe Na Mawu! Akpe Na Mawu!