• He said this was happening when he was growing up in the '60s
• There is a Bill seeking to criminalise homosexuality in Ghana
Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, a policy analyst, has urged Ghanaians to be tolerant of 'Kojo Basia' people - the Ghanaian description for homosexuals.
“I grew up in Kumasi where the society of the 1960s was tolerant of ‘Kojo Basias’ through to the '80s and '90s in Ghana where the most popular night spots [hosted] openly gays mixing with openly heterosexuals and there was everybody tolerating each other,” Dr Wereko-Brobby recounted on Newsfile monitored by GhanaWeb on Saturday 31 July.
He added, “I don’t think we should be having certainties based on our so-called moral perspective and our religious preference.”
Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, popularly known as Tarzan, further indicated that the anti-LGBTQ+ draft bill being championed by some eight MPs may be facing some challenges if the matter were contested at the Supreme Court.
He argued that the draft bill cannot be implemented without having to call on the police and judges.
“I suspect there will be many challenges to it at the Supreme Court, where our Constitution gives the judges the right to decide what is consistent and what is not consistent with our constitution. That is going to come,” Dr Wereko-Brobby explained.
“If you look at Article 108 (2), that immediately disqualifies this [draft] bill because the bill must come from the executive.”
When asked by the host of the show whether he is for or against homosexuality, Tarzan responded that he was “neither for banning and neither for legalising.”
Dubbed “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021”, the private members’ bill being championed by some eight MPs seeks to ensure up to a 10-year jail term for LGBTQ+ people.
The draft bill has faced much opposition from groups and individuals who advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
The draft bill, widely circulated on social media, has yet to be officially laid before the Parliament of Ghana.
A private member’s bill is foreign to the constitution of Ghana and the conventions of the Ghanaian Parliament.
Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby
