By Melanie Nathan, November 22, 2024, Country Conditions expert witness for LGBTQI+ Asylum seekers from Ghana
Sam George has revived a long standing unfounded and now heightened criticism targeting President Akufo-Addo and the Supreme Court in in an interview on TV3's NewDay accusing them of loving and favoring gays and praising the defeat of VP Kamala Harris
Sam George, MP for Ningo-Prampram, unleashed a series of controversial allegations against President Nana Akufo-Addo and the Supreme Court Chief Justice during an appearance on TV3's NewDay on November 20, 2024, while reflecting on the President's refusal to accept delivery for attestation of the anti homosexuality Bill, known as the The Family Values Bill, that passed Parliament in February, 2024.
The Family Values Bill is pending attestation by the President or a ruling of Constitutionality by the Supreme Court, which after controversial delays is scheduled for December 18, 2024. The President of Ghana, has refused to accept delivery of the Bill, defeating an injunction, avoidant of the time period during which he is either compelled to attest to it or reject it. Instead, he is waiting for a ruling by the Court in two current challenges to the law. By the time the ruling is handed down, a new President will be voted into office. Akufo-Addo is not running for another term.
The President has turned down receipt, despite an attempt by Parliament to force him to receive delivery through an injunction. The President asserted that he will decide whether to attest to the Act or not after the current Supreme Court rules on the challenge to the constitutionality of the new law. The President has hence delayed deciding on the bill.
MP Sam George accused the President of being pro-LGBTQ, of loving gays, noting he is unwilling to assent to the anti-LGBTQ bill because of ties to homosexuals through his late relative, Paul Danquah, now deceased and a well known gay, whom the President stayed with during his studies at Oxford University.
George further alleged that Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo and the Supreme Court are deliberately delaying judgment until after the President leaves office, to help him avoid signing or rejecting the anti-LGBTQ bill, under the assertion that the President has a proclivity for liking gays. His accusations implies the President is avoiding signing the Bill because he favors gay. Because over 90 % of Ghanaians are anti LGBTI rights and intolerant of gays, lesbians, trans and queer people, the implication is that the President would rather not be seen to be rejecting the Bill. This false assertion by George evidences how LGBTI people are used in scapegoating and as political pawns. In the meantime Ghana will elect a new President on December 09, 2024, and Akufo-Addo is not running for re-election, while his Vice President Bawumia, notoriously anti LGBT, is running for the presidency.
George claimed the President's 2017 Al-Jazeera interview emboldened LGBTQ+ advocacy in Ghana and criticized the President's failure to vehemently oppose LGBTQI+ rights during U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' visit, linking her recent electoral defeat to his rhetoric by insinuating that her support of gays deservedly led to her firing by the American people, a ridiculous notion.
He went on to accuse VP Bawumia, who is a known homophobe and a candidate for the presidency of avoiding criticism over the bill and accused the government of sidelining former Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu due to his role in facilitating the bill's passage in Parliament. This indicates politicization of LGBTI rights, highly charged and controversial issue during this election period, enhancing the already dangerous climate for Ghana's LGBTQI+ community.
Most of these accusations do nothing more than stir the tide against LGBTQI people ensuring the ongoing dangers and violence to any person who may be exposed or perceived as LGBTQI+. HERE IS THE INTERVIEW - words can barely describe what you will see and hear here:
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