Akufo-Addo will have no option but to sign the anti-gay bill
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will have no option but to sign the anti-gay bill in to law if it is approved by Parliament, an International Relations Expert and the Dean of the Ghana Armed Forces Staff and Command College, Professor Vladimir Antwi Danso, has said.
He said Mr Akufo-Addo will have to realize that it is the people’s voice that had spoken against the practice of homosexuality in Ghana hence he must act in the interest of the governed.
“Let us hope that this time our president knows that is the feeling of Ghanaians , it is a bill from Parliament but I strongly suspect that if our voices are strong , it is the people’s voice , I don’t think the president will keep the bill, otherwise he will do that at his own detriment,” Professor Antwi Danso told TV3’s Evelyn Tengmaa in an interview.
He further noted that Ghana will not be violating any international law if the anti-Gay bill is passed into law.
He said there will be no sanctions against the oil-producing West African nation following the move to criminalize homosexuality in the country.
The bill which is being sponsored by Ningo Prampram lawmaker Samuel Nartey George and some other lawmakers will be laid in Parliament today, August 2 for the first reading.
Portions of the bill reads “A person who, by use of media, technological platform, technological account or any other means, produces, procures, markets, broadcasts, disseminates, publishes or distributes a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill, or a person uses an electronic device, the Internet service, a film, or any other device capable of electronic storage or transmission to produce, procure, market, broadcast, disseminate, publishes or distribute a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than ten years.”
The proponents of the bill have been receiving flak from some quarters.
For instance, Ghanaian musician Sister Derby who is also a known advocate of LGBT+ rights in Ghana said “obsessed with people’s sexual orientation” and tagged Sam George as a pervert and backward thinker.”
Former Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, Gabby Otchere-Darko also said the activities of homosexuals are already illegal in Ghana.
He said the new anti-gay bill will only lead to Ghana being blacklisted for promoting hate.
“Gay+ activities are already illegal in our country. But, we aren’t known to hate. The President has given his word he won’t legalise it.
“This Bill only serves one purpose: to get Ghana blacklisted for promoting hate! Surely, the promoters of the Bill can’t say they aren’t aware,” the leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) said in a tweet.
But Professor Antwi Danso said “I do not have to kill myself just because you feed me. The international system is such that each country will have to respect the other country’s rights, rules, norms, and the way people do their things.
“We are not doing anything against international law. Why are they not selling this thing soo strongly in Saudi Arabia which is one of their best friends?”
