Former Attorney General, Nii Ayikoi Otoo
Former Attorney General, Nii Ayikoi Otoo has advised the Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam Nartey George, to eschew personal attacks and name-calling in his defense of the anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) bill.
Nii Ayikoi Otoo made the observation on GTV after Sam George called out the members of the coalition against the bill for being condescending and not having a grasp of the details of the bill.
Ayikoi Otoo who is Ghana’s High Commissioner to Canada said such comments do not elevate the conversation of the bill to where it should be.
He urged decorum and mutual respect on both sides of the discourse and appealed for calm whiles expressing the belief that Parliament will eventually approve the bill.
“I would advice Sam George to tone down on his language because once you say somebody is lying, you’ve attacked the person’s integrity. Once that happens, the person would have to react and it leads to all kinds of comments. Please let’s tone down on the personal attacks,” he said.
On the substantive issue of LGBTQ+ rights in the country, Ayikoi Otoo said that the lawyers and academicians were looking at the issue from the myopic view of just homosexual rights.
According to him, the issues transcends just the sexual relationship of two persons and threatens the culture of the country.
He opined that once the door is opened for such practice, it will expose the culture of the country to a new level of interference as society would have to change to integrate the never-ending composition of the LGBTQ+ community.
“I’m satisfied in my mind that all the professors are only looking at sexuality in terms of gayism. They have not really looked at what the other aspect of the LGTBQI+ means. In my view, they are only relegating everything to the fact that this is a sexual act and that they think it’s private. This is where I have a problem with them.
“What human right do we have about this. We are talking about cultural practices. These are things that people have embraced in their own countries and want to force it. I just came back from Canada and based on the things they are doing, children are born now and you don’t know which gender to give to them. We all agree that sex is a private matter between two consenting adults and can take place anywhere but these other things that have been added on are what the bill is dealing with,” he said.
Sam George, on the show, continued his defense of the bill which he says is premised on the protection of Ghanaian values and culture.
Professor Takyiwaa Manuh who is a member of the coalition against the bill stated that the bill is seeking to regulate the morality of some Ghanaians and that there is a distinction between homosexuals and their rights which is guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution.