OCCUPY NELSON ABUDU BAANI

Was I exasperated; bemused, disturbed, shocked, short of words or I just sighed? Can’t really recall which one of these I did. Or I did both? I can’t really tell. I was boxed into all this stages of confusion by one Nelson Abudu Baani.

For those who don’t know him, he is a Member of Parliament for the people of Daboya/Makarigu in the Northern Region. His comments on an on-going debate on the floor of Parliament, on the Interstate Succession Amendment Bill currently before the House, left a sour taste in my mouth that I needed to spit.

This Honourable MP is proposing the hanging and stoning to death as the best punishment for women who engage in adulterous acts. Shocked? Now read what he really said

‘Day in day out in Afghanistan if you go behind your husband they hang you’. He went on to suggest that stoning adulterous women should be included in the Intestate Succession Bill. ‘If they (Parliament) add that (to the bill) we will get very genuine women in families, he said (source Citifmonline).

Gobsmacked? !! Hmm!!

My worries are as follows:

1. So, this MP didn’t get any better example to cite than Afghanistan, a country which boast one of the worst human rights records per womens’ right? A country where women are treated as second class citizen; where the rights of young girls- to education and other opportunities in life- is virtually non-existent. A case in point is Malala, who was nearly killed for campaigning for girls to be  educated?

2. So, I ask again: what happens to the adulterous husband/men as well, since it is a fact that the ratio of adulterous men to women tilts more towards men?

3. This commentary by him gives one a major insight into how he thinks, perceives women and rules his household.

4. What entered him to propose this idea as an’ excellent’ solution?

For ages, women have been cheated out of their due following the death of their spouse. Instances where some family members of the deceased man takes over his estate, leaving the wife or wives with nothing are too familiar to us.

It is in the face of such blatant cheating that the Interstate Succession Law, Act 1985 (PNDCL 111) was promulgated.

PNDCL 111 caused the distribution of the property/ estate of deceased (without a Will) to be determined by customary law of inheritance of area once hails or type of marriage under which the deceased married.

The Amendment has become necessary to cover women who are cohabiting with men. The bill is to ensure fairness. In essence it is to ensure that women are not taken for a fool by their husbands or boyfriends when he dies or divorces.

The major bone of contention with this bill is the equal split of whatever property acquired during the course of the relationship. That is, whatever property the man acquires during his stay with his wife, he is to split them into two equal halves in the case of a divorce. That is what many men are incensed about.

A wiseman once said that, if you have a nothing meaningful to say, keep mute. This man, Baani Nelson, whose name I’m hearing for the first time, I bet has not heard this sagacious advice before. He decided to popularize himself by spewing bile on a day when a very important bill is being debated.

Mr . Baani, please NOTE. This is Ghana, a land of very civilized people; a land where the freedom of the citizenry is held in high esteem. Many important leaders of the world are quick to highlight our freedom credentials as one to be emulated by other countries within Africa. The freedom and peace this Republic enjoys has been the cornerstone to the many investment opportunities that the government on whose ticket he is in Parliament- and in power too- is raking in and uses to bait potential investors.

Now, This MP goes on to say ‘I want members at this time to reject it (bill). This thing will bring a lot of controversy in my area. Some of these women are ‘alomo jarta’ (too wild)   in their houses so if a woman that I am married to brings me a bastard what is the (punishment) for these type of women? Unless punishment for women are not faithful is added, we should not adopt it’.

Mr. MP, the best punishment you can mete out to a married woman brings you a bastard in your house is to divorce her.  Come to think of it, aren’t men mostly guilty of bringing to their wives ‘bastards’?

And the new bill, once passed into law will bring a lot of controversy in your area? Isn’t it part of the MPs job to educate his constituents on new laws being debated in the house? Or he is there to just say ‘Yay yay’ when they are called on to vote on issues?

This MP needs to come out and apologize for this utter nonsense. Baani Nelson Abudu deserves to be occupied. Civil Society groups focused on governance, on women’s’ right issues and all of us must prevail on this man to apologize for his archaic, barbaric, backwards idea. If he must know, even our forebears did not carry out such injustice on the womenfolk.

Don’t leave this fight to the feminists. We all must join the fight.

I’m also at a loss as to why the Speaker of Parliament didn’t call on this MP to withdraw his comments or he didn’t hear him speak this gibberish?

I’m not calling on him to resign because I know he won’t do it. Some of his cohorts will defend him to the hilt. Resignation is not an idea we toy with but under this circumstances, this man committed a faux pas. A HUGE one for that matter. In some advanced country, he would have resigned on his own accord or forced to by his party. But this is Ghana!

As a progressive nation, Ghana must not encourage these people to hold us back with their archaic ideals. And again, we all should be mindful of the caliber of people we vote into leadership positions. It should go beyond which party’s emblem one represents.

Errm MP Neslon Abudu Baani, what did your wife say to you when you got home?