In July 2017, the Speaker of Ghana’s 7th Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye hit out at the international community for their constant pressure on African leaders to legalize gay rights.
The seasoned lawyer stated that it’s unacceptable for the international bodies to champion the promotion of acts like homosexuality which is alien to the African continent in the name of human rights.
“Following what Tony Blair said which I personally wrote him a letter that if we do not go the homosexual way, it was going to affect their aid to us. Honestly, in view of these developments, we Africans are also concerned about certain things that may appear really intellectual.”
Read the full story originally published on May 11, 2018, on Ghanaweb
Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, has chastised the Western world over attempts to lure African leaders into embracing homosexuality.
Expressing his abhorrence for the act on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana, Prof. Oquaye said it was impossible for African leaders to accept same-sex marriages because they are accountable to none other than the citizens who elected them.
He downplayed any possibility of homosexuality being decriminalized, emphasizing President Akufo-Addo’s stance on the issue.
“They should stop tempting our African leaders. What they asked Museveni, asked Nana Akufo-Addo and all these things. No wonder our president told them to get off because he does not answer to anybody but Ghanaians. He is accountable not to some global homosexual lobbying but to Ghanaians. He’s made it clear that to the best of his knowledge, Ghanaians are not interested in that agenda,” Prof. Oquaye asserted.
He argued that the lifespan of an American homosexual is likely to surpass that of an African homosexual due to the availability of medications in the West, which prolong the lifespans of foreign homosexuals.
“In the United States, a lot of people who are suffering from AIDS are able to live as a result of new medication found, but you know they are extremely expensive. So when an African gets AIDS Vis a Vis an American, the American will live for a while whiles the African is long gone. Is that the thing they want to recommend to us for our people?” he inquired.
The Speaker of Parliament maintained that considering pressing issues such as poverty, diseases, disasters, facing government and the country as a whole, homosexuality is not an issue that should be debated.
At the recent Commonwealth heads of government meeting, Prime Minister for the United Kingdom, Theresa May urged Commonwealth nations including Ghana to overhaul legislation that treats LGBT people as criminals.
According to her, the U.K deeply regrets its role in the legacy of violence and discrimination.
Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye was Speaker of Ghana’s 7th Parliament