Visa Refusal For MPs Supporting Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill Should Prompt Them To Fix The Country – Adusei Poku

The head of legal services at the National Communications Authority (NCA) says alleged denial of visas to MPs by some embassies should push them to work towards making the country self-sufficient.

According to Dr Poku Adusei, such an action against the legislators pushing for an anti-LGBTQ+ Bill should serve as a wake-up call to develop the country.

“I don’t know the other motivations that went into their decision-making process, but you know that there is a lot of subjectivity in how they couch these refusals.

“But it tells you that you should also think about working in such a way that you develop your state and stay in your country,” he told the host of Newsfile, Samson Lardy Anyenini, on Saturday.

His comments come after some embassies reportedly denied visas to some legislators, particularly those advocating for the passage of the Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, also known as the anti-LGBT Bill.

Last week, Tamale North MP Alhassan Suhuyini announced that he had been prevented from entering the Netherlands on fears that he would not return to Ghana.

A senior member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) based in the United States, Arthur Kobina Kennedy, has alleged that some MPs have been denied visas to travel abroad following the introduction of the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill to Parliament.

 

 

In a piece titled: ‘Tolerance and the Debate about Homosexuality in Ghana’, he stated that the strong support the bill enjoys from the religious groups has been met with stiff opposition from intellectuals, government officials, and the diplomatic corps who fear the bill would endanger the lives of LGBT community members.

“Indeed, I wish, in the words of the sages, we had ‘allowed sleeping dogs to lie’. The homosexual community, in my view, were doing fine, in their private spaces, subject to the protections of the law accorded to all citizens,” he said.

Responding to this, Dr Poku Adusei said the situation “tells us that we should think about working in such a way that we develop our state and stay in our country.”

Also speaking on the show on Saturday, Economist and Associate Professor with the Institute of Statistical and Social Research (ISSER), Prof Charles Godfred Ackah, expressed distaste for the development.

He described the situation as an indication of cultural imperialism.

“After being a sovereign nation and having our independence, we cannot go to the UK from Ghana and ask them to legalise polygamy. Why will somebody want to use all tactics to force it upon us?… Western civilisations want to now impose that as a culture on the whole world, and I will be surprised that Ghanaians will support that kind of imperialism,” he said.