Notorious cousin of President Akufo-Addo, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, has sucker-punched the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, over his directive, to have voting on the anti-Gay Bill before Parliament held in public.
In a tweet reacting to the Speaker’s directive, Mr. Otchere Darko, who is publicly pro-gay insinuated that the Speaker was a hypocrite because he is asking for a public vote from the same MPs who voted secretly to elect him.
“My good friend Mr. Speaker must first ask himself where would he have been today if MPs didn’t have a secret ballot on Jan 6?”He asked in a tweet.
The attack comes in the wake of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community in Ghana openly expressing frustration that the Speaker’s directive will dissuade MPs who wish to vote against the Bill from not doing so.
Some MPs of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) have been angling to vote against the Bill even though 93% of Ghanaians want the Bill to be passed.
The NPP MPs were hoping that the vote would be held in secret so that their individual identities would not be known after the vote. However, the Speaker dashed that hope when he announced the vote will be held in public.
However, the Speaker had burst that bubble by announcing that votes on that bill will be made in public.
“The seating of the Committee will be public and the decision of this House will be public. We will want to know where each Member of Parliament comes in. I know Ghanaians are expectant and there are over hundred petitions before the Committee of Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. But we will try not to allow any Filibustering of this bill. Because it is not only Africa, the whole world is looking for the outcome of this bill,” the Speaker said on Tuesday.
“In fact, it has assumed some different dimensions. For me, this is healthy for a maturing democracy like Ghana. It is important we allow various shapes of opinions to canvass their position on the bill. As Ghanaians, I want to plead that we accommodate the views of others on whatever perception they have and let’s maintain the peace that we have.
“It is a law that will take into consideration the richness of common sense, human decency, morality, fact and logic. At the end of the day it will be a law that will transform this country into something else,” he added.
Prior to the directive, the NPP MP, Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh had indicated the NPP’s intent to vote against the bill claiming it had problem areas.
Rt. Hon Bagbin’s directive sets up the stage for Ghanaian voters to know the MP’s who support homosexuality and lesbianism.
Since the directive, President Akufo-Addo’s longtime friend and personal lawyer, Akoto Ampaw, who has been leading a campaign against the bill expressed his frustration.
“It is for Members of Parliament to decide whether or not the Bill will be passed. I am sorry to say that this is bait by the Speaker that everybody votes in public so that Ghanaians will see whether they stand. It is a political bait,” Ampaw fumed.
“It is not a legislative process. So that the vast majority of Ghanaians who are opposed to homosexuality, as the CDD survey suggests, will use this as a benchmark for political elections, it has nothing to do with the constitutionality of the bill.”
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill was laid in the House on Monday, August 2 and read for the first time.
Reading for the first time, a clerk in the legislative assembly stated that the Bill proscribes lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) and other related activities and propaganda or advocacy and promotion for same.
Second Deputy Speaker Andrew Asiamah Amoako referred the Bill to the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Committee for consideration.