AKUFO-ADDO’S ENDORSEMENT OF HOMOSEXUAL PRACTICE ATTRACTS MORE WESTERN LEADERS TO GHANA

Some people in the mainline politics today who to defend that dangerous statement made by President Akufo-Addo on Al-Jazeera and those who want to see some sort of accommodation made to committed homosexual unions do so by rationalising the practice by describing it as “not that bad a sin” or at least a lesser evil than, say, promiscuous homosexual behavior.

The President himself per his actions and comments is exhibiting same behaviour.

We heard how he spoke vehemently against happenings in Libya and the vigour with which he condemned the atrocities being meted out to some African citizens in the north African country. Why didn’t he exhibit same strength and seriousness when he commented on the same sex marriage issue on Al-Jazeera?. Proponents of same sex practice often recoil in horror at the thought of any comparison with consensual incest or with adultery precisely because they operate with a notion that some sins are truly more severe than others. May be, our President thinks the Libya issue is more dangerous and sinful than endorsing same sex marriage in his country. Is the President being reasonable in giving precedence to some sins over others?What our President must know is that our partnership with the West must always be grounded in mutual responsibility and mutual respect. Western nations and their homosexual unions are exerting pressure on their leaders to ensure that the issue of anti- gay discrimination and endorsing homosexual practice are discussed at summits held between the west and Africa. They pursue this agenda through their human right organizations. Some of these groups overtly engage our leaders and offer them opportunities and huge financial support. Homosexual unions in the United States and in some western nations are aggressively working in 37 African countries with more than 800 million residents to convince their leaders and political actors to scrap laws criminalising LGBT relationship. They invited some African leaders including Yoweri Museveni to of Uganda and Goodluck Jonathan who signed harsh anti gay laws in their countries. The US reacted aggressively to Uganda’s stance on the homosexual issue by imposing visa ban on some Ugandan officials and halted funding from institutions involved in what it described as human right abuses. Shawn Gaylord, human rights First’s advocacy counsel for LGBT rights, called on the Obama administration to conduct a full diplomatic review of US policy in Nigeria. That is how dangerous and complex the gay situation has become and the kind of pressure being put on our leaders to succumb to this evil practice.

President Akufo-Addo made his famous same sex marriage comment few days before the Europe-African summit. Some western leaders have started visiting him to have bilateral discussions with him. They have a policy called “protectionism”. They will shower praises on leaders who endorses the homosexual practice to keep them in office. The irony is that, these western leaders offer same protection to dictators who are ready to protect homosexuals and pass legislations to support their activities. Incumbents who stand up against the practice or refuse to succumb to their demands suffer serious regime change agenda. They [Western leaders and gay groups] quickly support opposition parties to remove incumbents they deem uncompromising. We have started seeing signs of that in Ghana. Our President’s statement on the homosexual issue was clear and emphatic. He endorsed the practice, and gave the activists the assurance that his government will not put any impediment in their way if they decide to embark on massive agitation and demonstrations. That was tacit endorsement of the practice. His position has won him massive admiration among western leaders and homosexual unions across the globe. We are going to hear and see more visits and praises from the west and they are going to give our President huge media attention and project him as their torchbearer.

The world has seen very openly homosexual world leaders, who have become increasingly common in recent decades. These leaders most of them from the west, use their media and homosexual unions to manipulate vulnerable leaders to endorse the practice of same sex marriage.

Belgium Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, Johanna Sigurdardottir, came to power in the late 2008, passed the same sex marriage legislation in 2010 which allowed her to marry her longtime partner Jonina Leosdottir. Prime Minister Xavier Bettel became Prime Minister of Luxembourg in 2013. He legalised same sex marriage in 2015 allowing Bettel to marry his partner Gauthier Destenay. His deputy was also a gay. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar became prime minister of Ireland in 2017 following the resignation of PM Edna Kenny. He has a boyfriend and the two have proposed marriage soon. Ana Brnabic who was nominated as Prime Minister of Serbia by President Aleksandar Vucic, also a member. We have many other world leaders in other continents.

Yoweri Museveni was manipulated by these western leaders to endorse the homosexual practice culminating in that statement he made on BBC’s Hard Talk show in 2012 that “Homosexuals in small numbers have always existed in our part of black Africa. They were never prosecuted. They were never discriminated” This reckless statement by the Ugandan leader attracted serious internal and external condemnation. He quickly reversed himself and signed the anti homosexuality Bill in the full glare of the media.

Can our civil society organizations, the media, the clergy etc exert same pressure on our President to reverse himself? We have social commentators who have appointed themselves grammar tutors and interpretors giving all kinds of interpretations to that unambiguous statement by the President. The President stated his conviction and position on the issue and will continue to dance around it for political convenience.