OCCUPYGHANA PRESS STATEMENT NELSON ABUDU BAANI, MP OF DABOYA MAKARIGU, SHOULD RESIGN FOR CALLING FOR ADULTEROUS WOMEN TO BE STONED

OccupyGhana calls on the
Honourable MP for Daboya
Makarigu in the Northern Region,
Nelson Abudu Baani, to apologise
for and retract his misogynistic
statement made in Parliament
calling for Ghana to emulate the
disgraceful example of Afghanistan
by hanging or stoning women
deemed guilty of adultery, and then
to resign from Ghana's august
House of Parliament.
OccupyGhana calls on the
Honourable Minister of Gender,
Children and Social Protection,
Nana Oye Lithur, to immediately
and in the strongest terms possible
condemn, unequivocally, this
heinous statement, and support our
call for his resignation.
OccupyGhana finds it 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
President and the NDC must send a
strong signal that this kind of
thinking and talking cannot and
will not be tolerated under the
President's watch. Therefore, if
Nelson Abudu Baani does not
resign from Parliament on his own
accord, OccupyGhana calls on the
ruling NDC, on whose ticket Nelson
Abudu Baani contested and won
election to Parliament, to show
Ghanaians and the world at large,
that it does not share in his
cancerous views, by delisting him
from the party.
The irony is that Nelson Abudu
Baani's uncivilised words were
uttered during a debate on the
Property Rights of Spouses Bill.
OccupyGhana is shocked that it
appears that the Speaker of
Parliament did not there and then
castigate Nelson Abudu Baani, that
female members of parliament failed
to spontaneously object to the
statement, and that the Minister of
Gender, Children and Social
Protection, more than 24-hours
later has not spoken up against
this 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 recognised and criticised 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.
Ghana is a respected member of the
international community. Ghana 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. It is this kind
of unfortunate and dangerous
thinking that informed the
wholesale kidnapping of school-
going girls in Chibok, Northern
Nigeria, many of whom are reported
to have been forcibly married off by
Boko Haram. Baani’s murderously
bizarre expressions could easily
combine with the poverty and
under-employment of young,
impressionable men in Ghana to
spark unwanted support for
extremist views in our peaceful
country.
The Ministry of Gender, Children
and Social Protection exists to
ensure the equal status of women
and protection of their rights. It
needs to speak up now.
OccupyGhana considers its silence
and lack of action unnerving.