Akufo-Addo’s Lawyer Beats Hasty Retreat from Pro-Gay Blowback

President Akufo-Addo’s personal lawyer and longtime friend, Akoto Ampaw, has been thrown into panic and is attempting to parry the public scorn over his controversial pro-gay stance that is being linked to the President.

Akoto Ampaw is leading a crack team of 18 intellectuals to oppose the “Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values” bill before Parliament that seeks to criminalise homosexual activities and activism in Ghana. 

But after an overwhelming majority of Ghanaians (97%) showed support for moves against homosexuality in the country and have aimed vitriolic attacks on pro-gay advocates, Akoto has been forced to come out to extricate President Akufo Addo from his pro-gay adventure, saying it was solely a move undertaken under his own volition and is without recourse to the President.

“I do not represent the President of Ghana, I do not. I am his lawyer alright but in terms of my views on public issues, I do not parrot the views of the President. There are policies that they pursue that I do not agree with,” Akoto Ampaw claimed, saying, “I am an independent person.”

The President’s lawyer also claimed that he is not sycophantic towards the Ghanaian leader like most people would be. “I am not like those Ghanaians who because of money and other things will say that my friend is the President so everything he says I will accept. That is not how I have led my life.” 

Akoto Ampaw’s pro-gay stance and the fact that he is a close friend and legal advisor to the President makes his claim of independence dubious. This is because, in 2017 when he was put on the spot, President Akufo Addo told Al Jazeera that his newly formulated government then cannot take a stance on the clamour for gay rights in Ghana because there hadn’t been enough advocacy.

“I think it is something that is bound to happen like elsewhere in the world,” President Akufo-Addo had said.

His remarks were taken as a signal for pro-gay rights advocates to reinforce their push to make Ghana an ultra-liberal country that allows open homosexual activities, despite its current criminalization in the country’s statutes.

Many blame the boldness that a normally obscure and cowering gay community in Ghana has suddenly mustered under his presidency to his 2017 interview with Qatari cable TV, Aljazeera.

That interview provoked a national tongue-lash with the President’s spokespeople scurrying to explain away his words in damage control. Akufo-Addo would later recant and say that his government will never legalized gay rights in Ghana. 

But his posturing has sent mixed signals to critics. For instance, President Akufo Addo commissioned world-renowned UK-based Ghanaian Architect, David Adjaye to construct the controversial National Cathedral that President Akufo Addo claims is his personal promise to God. Yet, David Adjaye is a strong LGBTQ advocate.

He had been part of renowned celebrities like Idris Elba and Naomi Campbell who has in March 2021 written a strongly-worded letter to President Akufo Addo to liberalise Ghana for LGBTQ activities.

Being a close pal to the Jubilee House, there are reports that Adjaye is breathing down the neck of the President to use all his powers to scuttle the anti-LGBTQ bill tabled by Sam George.

In February 2021, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer (LGBTQ) community had opened an office at Kwabenya causing a national outcry which sent the Police on clampdown response.

The current bill seeking to criminalise LGBTQ activities in Ghana is sponsored by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Ningo Prampram, Sam Nartey George.

But since the idea of the bill was mooted, the country has been thrown into intense debate for and against the bill, with the majority of Ghanaians being extremely conservative and opposed to a liberalized LGBTQ environment in the country.

Also, International communities and foreign countries have mounted intense pressure on the country to open itself up to become an LGBTQ society, with soft pressure being exerted on the country’s leadership.

Recently, the Embassy of Netherlands in Ghana refused to grant travel visas to three MPs they suspected to be in favour of criminalizing LGBTQ In the country.

Several other MPs with conservative stances against liberalizing LGBTQ in the country have been threatened, including the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin.