SONA2020: You dishonoured Ghanaian Women - Gender activist tells Akufo-Addo

President Nana Akufo-Addo has been accused of exuding gross dishonour to women in Ghana over his failure to feature the status of the Affirmative Action Bill which is awaiting passage in his last State of the Nation Address.

President Nana Addo in his last State of the Nation Address delivered to parliament on Thursday, February 20, 2020, was silent on the 14-year-old Affirmative Action Bill which has over the period dominated discussions.

The conspicuous absence of the Bill in the SONA has sparked some disappointment amongst Women and Gender Activists in the country who have accused the President of showing little commitment towards the passage of the Bill into law despite background engagements at various government levels.

In a Facebook post by a Gender Activist Safia Musah seen by MyNewsGh.com, she wondered why the President failed to feature such an important matter in his address after making promises on same previously.

“In his 1st SONA in 2017, he made a promise to Ghanaian women. He said he was going to ensure the Affirmative Action Bill (AAB) was passed in that year. It didn’t happen. In 2018, he apologized about it, and renewed his promise. That didn’t happen either. 2019 he chose silence. He did not mention the bill at all. It was same year he called Ghanaian women out, for not being ‘dynamic’ enough (whatever that meant)”, she wrote.

Ms Safia Musah lamented over the show of little commitment and concern of the Nana Addo administration and previous administration to the passage of the bill after several efforts have been made by key actors in the fight for gender equality.

“You see, when we talk about structural barriers that perpetually subjugate the female sect, many feel it is exaggerated. It is been 14 years of the AAB journey, and our leaders think we haven’t proven ourselves enough yet to have ‘earned’ its passage. Notice how women always have to prove and double prove to earn? Am not about to list the 100s of Bill’s that have been given national priority since” she added.



In her view, President Nana Addo showed gross dishonour to women in relation to the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill adding that “But for Prez NADAA to have completely ignored mention of the AAB in his final SONA, after the promises in his 1st, well that is the height of dishonour and scorn for the nearly 52% female population and the good number of male population that believe in the cause. Not trustworthy at all”.