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Opinions of Friday, 7 April 2023

Columnist: Iddrisu Abdul Hakeem

USA's LGBTQ+ to Ghana: A consequence of economic mess

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

You see, it was the former Dean of Harvard University who deputized as former Defense Secretary for International Security Affairs of the USA, professor Joseph Samuel Nye, who coined the concept of soft-power and smart power from the combination of hard-power and soft-power.

By soft power, Professor Nye was referring to the ability of a country to attract and persuade other countries through their culture, political values, and foreign policy. Nye placed the USA at the zenith of soft power due to the appeal of the American culture, political values, and catchy foreign policies. Values have placed the USA above every other nation, especially after the second world war, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in particular in 1991.

At the peak of its political, military, and cultural dominance however, Professor Francis Fukuyama adduced and postulated how the American influence - its hard, soft, and smart power (both carrots and sticks) are going to collapse like a pack of the deck in some few years to come.

He was succinct that the chief cause of this shall not be the foreign policies of Uncle Sam (USA government) but its domestic affairs that would wane and weight down the goodwill and enormous influence the USA enjoyed over the years.

For some, these internal affairs are American values that are antithetical to standards of human morality such as the legalization of abortion and homosexuality - LGBTQ+.

With foul and detestable foreign policies like the imposition of LGBTQ+ on smaller countries becoming the priority of the USA, it can now be seen very clearly as a fulfillment of political prophecy by Professor Fukuyama.

Thus, the USA is gradually losing its international respect in the eyes of allies due to the inculcation and incorporation of certainly less-than-human practices now embedded in the American soft power, and their imposition on unwilling countries.

Our case in Ghana, however, may not be out of coercion, trick, or persuasion, but it's out of the exploitation of our desperation due to irresponsible, very corrupt, and thieving leadership that has triggered peerless economic mismanagement in the whole wide world.

The gigantic debt of Ghana has been a frightening and threatening albatross hanging around the neck of the government of Ghana led by Akufo Addo who is ready to do anything to cancel it. And it doesn't matter if it takes place "square pegs" in "round holes" in the most unnatural carnal knowledge fashion. And that is very deep.

Fellow Ghanaians, thus the most recent comments by our "dear" President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, on the same-sex marriage brouhaha that has undoubtedly rendered him a political Pharisee and Judas of our dear nation, came on the back of desperation and utter hopelessness, to say the least.

When leaders run the economy to jet the latest and most expensive aircraft around the globe, they fall prey to the economic hitmen of other countries. In this scenario, they fall prey to cultural and moral hitman countries like the USA according to John Perkins, a former economic hitman for the USA. And President Akufo Addo is one of such leaders who want to slaughter their fellow countrymen and women in order to marshal an economy their incompetence is mismanaged in the right direction.

That's why President Akufo Addo deserves a gold medal for corruption and a certificate of hypocrisy for his flip-flopping statements as far as his stands on the LGBTQ+ in Ghana are concerned.

In 2017, the President made a seemingly ambiguous comment on the issue of same-sex marriage in Ghana. The main opposition party, National Democratic Congress, NDC, criticized his lack of clarity on the topic. He then through his presidential spokesperson, Eugen Arhin, debunked accusations of the opposition and made his stands clear that same-sex marriage would never be legalized under his government.

Later in 2021 when the matter resurfaced the President's tone changed, what many described as a soft spot the President had for that abomination and evil community. But again, the presidency came out to lampoon and pooh-poohed the criticism of the critics.

In his own words, the President said in his interview on Al-Jazeera that "Homosexuality was(is not) on the agenda of Ghanaians".

The question now is, have Ghanaians become Americans or Europeans today and the President wants to "come in at the end of the process" (in parliament). Why has the tone and language of the President changed all of a sudden when the people still say no through parliament?

In fact, in 2017 the President and the then Speaker of Parliament were unequivocal in their unflinching rejection of same-sex marriages in Ghana. And all former presidents of Ghana at least in this Fourth Republic are on record to have unapologetically condemned LGBTQ+ including former President Agyakum Kufuor. Professor Atta Mills of blessed memory was particularly unique in his condemnation when he refused Western aid should it be tied to LGBTQ+.

Why is the President now seeking a "fuzzy end of the lollipop" with Parliament on the bill against LGBTQ+ in Ghana? Why is President Akufo Addo now wobbling, flailing, and shaking in his stands against LGBTQ+ in a conference with USA Veep?
The problem is that all the past presidents never messed up an economy like the current President has done in less than two terms in the last 7 years of his administration.

So, he now finds it convenient to pander to what he earlier spoke against as a way to get his gigantic debt forgiven and canceled. And like his Veep, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who exchanged gold for oil last February this year in a rather hectic, miscalculated, and fruitless attempt to arrest galloping fuel prices and free-diving cedi against the dollar, President Akufo Addo also seeks to cancel his unprecedented debts with the values, cultural heritage, norms and pride of Ghanaians.

And that comes with Ghanaians exchanging their assholes for "USAID" in cancellation of irresponsible debts created by his most incompetent, fraudulent, nonsensical, and thieving economic management team and government. What impudence? It's ridiculous.

Someone must remind President Akufo Addo that being president of a republic doesn't make it one's personal fiefdom.

I won't be surprised if Akufo Addo and his abled Veep come to the Black Star Square one afternoon with their wives to demonstrate to Ghanaians how same-sex marriages can be done so that the USA can help cancel their debt!

To our dear good friend and ally, the USA, if Uncle Sam can allow a Hindu Monastery or Mosque to be built in the White House or at the Capital Hill, Ghanaians would accept LGBTQ+. The

American government should accept and operate Shariah law in the USA, and Ghana would accept same-sex marriages. If Kamala Harris puts on Hijab to Congress House at any national function, Ghanaians would accept homosexuality. None of the above can ever be contemplated because of the human rights of the few Hindus or Muslims in the USA.

Because wearing Hijab, praying five times daily, and having Islamic jurists and Shariah courts in the USA are not American values. Uncle Sam must understand that to sleep with animals as human beings or sex other than through the female sexual organ is not an African value. And homosexuals to Africans may be worse than "terrorists" to Americans.

If less than a century ago, it was not appropriate to allow a marriage union between a black man and a blonde girl in the USA, why should that same blonde girl copulate with an ape, a donkey, or a dog today?

Time has indeed flown by in the USA, and what used not to be accepted has now become acceptable. Let Africa flow with the natural course of events and change in its evolution of morality. In medieval times, no man could contemplate having another man as his spouse in the West; some two hundred years back, no man or woman could suggest the King of England should have a cow as a sexual partner nor propose a dog as a sexual partner to the Queen.

If by virtue of intellectual advancement in the West, a European or American can now sleep with a fellow man including animals, let them be aware that Africa is still in its medieval era and stage, and no man must force us to embrace what the USA and the West, in general, found repugnant during their medieval period.
In Africa, madness is associated with nakedness; the madder one becomes the more distant they are from clothing.

In Africa, even our animals are familiar with only the female sexual organ, not the backsides of their fellow males. We can't allow our animals to be better than us in Africa.

We do appreciate the rights of our fellow men and freedoms but we try to strike a fine balance between responsibility and freedom.

It is taboo to be a thief in Africa and we can't legalize armed robbery because there are many cases of robbery and thefts. Not because we want to trample on the rights of armed robbers and thieves, but to protect them from the general public majority of whom hate armed robbery. Therefore, if thieves must steal, let them not do it openly lest they get harassed by the majority of people who hate it.

Like armed robbery, homosexuals must remain hidden. When the time comes when the majority of people want armed robbery to be legal, we would legalize it. For now, the majority of us hate it and would endanger the lives of thieves (gays) if we legalize it because some few people develop an extra sexual taste.

Ghanaians must therefore as a matter of law stick to the female jade gate for now. Of course, the human one. And we can't allow selfish leaders to endanger our society because of their incompetence and gross economic mismanagement.

Let me re-echo and paraphrase the words of President Akufo Addo in 2017 when the Ghanaian economy was still good: Right now, homosexuality is not our priority. We in Ghana need food, good medical care, proper education, and not vaselines to facilitate homosexuality; if the USA must help us at all, let them help us fight corruption in Ghana.