News:
June 13, 2022
Member of Parliament for Ho West, Emmanuel Kwesi Bedzrah has called on leadership of the Majority side of the House to remove the chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi for not showing interest in expediting work on the passage of the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 popularly known as the (Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill)
His call comes in the wake of controversy surrounding delay in the passage of the (Anti-LGBTQ) Bill, and an alleged invitation extended to the leadership of the Committee by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Associations.
According to the Ho West lawmaker who is a member of those sponsoring the private members motion in the Ghanaian Parliament, the chairman has been compromised; “so far he is not prepared to work, I am calling for his removal for someone else there to do the work as we all want it done. Ghana is a sovereign nation, we have our own norms and culture, and we would not force our polygamy culture on any nation, so they should also not force things on us”.
And if the United Kingdom is prepared to tolerate polygamous culture, we are also prepared to accept anything coming from them; “any other country that says polygamy is not good then LGBTQ+ is also not good”, he stated.
As to whether the removal of the chairman would change the dynamics, he responded in the affirmative, stating that every Committee has a chairman being the head who direct affairs including the ranking.
“I bet you that this chairman has really delayed this bill, it has been more than six months not that the Bill has been with the committee, the report has not come to the plenary for us to discuss. What is he doing, does he need to go to Europe before writing a report?” he queried.
Again he has met all the groups and had zoom meetings with all manner of people who claim they are experts in the field and he cannot see why he cannot seat down but be jumping from country to country just, “because he wants the international community to do what? “If they are interested in it they should come down us, as we have the Canadian MPs coming down to interact with us”
And for him to be happy because he has been invited to the United Kingdom shows the kind of person he is and the attitude he has towards the Bill.
As to whether the sponsors of the Bill would not back down with the kind of pressure coming in, he noted that; “when the people are determined nothing can deter us. Granted that they are powerful, the same CDD that has put up a memo that the Committee should not allow the bill to pass, they have conducted a survey being sponsored by DANIDA. They have gone round and said getting to 75 percent of Ghanaians frown on this, if Ghanaians say they do not want it, I do not see why we in Parliament want to delay the bill from passing”.
On the mood in Parliament towards the Bill he said it has the support of both the Majority and Minority and a by partisan Bill and the only problem is, some amendment that needs to be done which would be ironed out when it gets to the consideration stage.
And where there should be amendment they are prepared to listen to people and “if those amendments fall in line with our culture, we would vote for it, but if it does not fall we would vote against it”, and was emphatic about it.
“We are a sovereign nation, our laws are not of the UK neither is it of any other commonwealth nation, despite the fact that we belong to committees of nations, we receive over 150 memoranda all over the world including people linking themselves to human right activist as well as the United Nations experts on human right”
They have been worried since then, on the external influence on this particular bill has been too much on them and those of them who are sponsors of the bill are worried because their expectation is that this bill could have been passed as the Speaker mentioned last year before they want on recess.
“Unfortunately the committee chair has deliberately delayed the bill to the extent that he mentioned that they have been invited by another parliament”.
Mr Bedzrah revealed that when some Canadian Parliamentary delegation visited Ghana’s Parliament some weeks back and they met the Speaker Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Bagbin, one of the MPs touched on the Anti-Gay Bill on two occasions.
And it shows the international Community are watching whether Ghana would pass this Bill or not, and Ghana would not be the first to pass it; Nigeria and Uganda have passed it, and wonders what is wrong if Ghana is also doing same to have its frontier culture protected.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Abuja-Nigeria