OccupyGhana is demanding the resignation of Daboya/Makarigu Member of Parliament (MP), Nelson Abudu Baani, for suggesting that adulterous wives be hanged or stoned to death.
The group has also asked the MP to apologize to Ghanaians and retract his “misogynistic statement.”
In a statement issued on Sunday, OccupyGhana said it is “incongruous that while President John Mahama, as leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the country continues to talk about gender rights and equality, his MP calls for women (and he says this could include his own wife) to be hanged or stoned to death.”
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur has also been asked to “immediately and in the strongest terms possible condemn, unequivocally, this heinous statement, and support our call for his resignation.”
Nelson Abudu Baani has come under fire for the proposal he made during a debate in Parliament on the Interstate Succession Bill last week.
[contextly_sidebar id=”VMaSAdVy0CSmznICAeeykClVDCDItPlI”]Justifying his statement on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News last Friday, the MP insisted that his suggestion must be included in the bill because it is the only way married women will be put in check.
The group has thus charged the President and the NDC to send a strong signal that this “kind of thinking and talking cannot and will not be tolerated under the President’s watch.”
According to them, if Mr Baani does not resign from Parliament on his own accord, then the NDC, on whose ticket Nelson Abudu Baani contested and won election to Parliament must “show Ghanaians and the world at large, that it does not share in his cancerous views, by delisting him from the party.”
OccupyGhana pointed out that it is ironic of the MP to have made the “uncivilized” comments during a debate on the Property Rights of Spouses Bill.
They also expressed shock at the refusal of the Speaker of Parliament and the female MPs to immediately reprimand and object to Baani’s statement.
The statement said it was disappointed that the Gender Minister more than 24-hours after the incident, has not publicly condemned the “repulsive viewpoint that has deeply offended right-thinking Ghanaian men and women.”
“For the sake of justice, peace and development, violence and discrimination against women must be recognized and criticized in all its overt and covert forms. Adultery, for lawmaker Nelson Abudu Baani’s enlightenment, is not committed by women alone, and it is not even a crime in Ghana. Addressing his warped and pre-historic notion of punishment for adultery to women exclusively, betrays an agenda of violence against women, and a view of women that is deeply sexist.”
The statement added that Ghana is a respected member of the international community as it has ratified many UN Human Rights Conventions, including the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which bind us to adhere to standards protecting women rights.
“Indeed earlier this month, Minister Nana Oye Lithur spoke at the CEDAW conference boldly defending Ghana’s gender record. To leave Nelson Abudu Baani’s reprehensible statement without comment and for him to continue to be paid by the Ghanaian taxpayer to make laws for this country create a blot on this record.”
“The danger of Nelson Abudu Baani’s inflammatory views can be seen in the actions of violent groups with likeminded extreme anti-women ideologies such as the Taliban, the Islamic State and in our own West African region, Boko Haram, which are wreaking so much terror against women and whole communities,” the group said.
OccupyGhana remarked that the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection exists to ensure the equal status of women and protection of their rights therefore, “it needs to speak up now. OccupyGhana considers its silence and lack of action unnerving.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @osamidan