A win for who?

My loves, it’a been… a week. By that, I mean it’s been a LOT. The NDC won the presidential elections and I can’t be sure how I feel about it. I think it shows how surprised I am. I genuinely thought the NPP would win. It’s almost amusing how bad they ended up being at rigging the election, or attempting to. Apparently not much thought is put into cheating. 

I remember how unbothered I was by all the noise about elections because not only was I sick and tired of the two Ns, I was also very convinced the NPP would win. I readily appeared at the polling station to “waste my vote” i.e. vote for a candidate that’s neither NPP nor NDC because to me the only real waste is those two parties

You know how we used to say “Ghanaians aren’t angry enough” every other day on Twitter? Clearly, the NPP and I thought this was still the case. I’m happy to admit I was wrong but I can’t say the same for the elephant people. Can you imagine their shock right now? They probably woke up and shouted “HERH”. I’d be more amused by all this if I weren’t queer. 

If you’re not chronically online on Twitter, it’s a good thing I’m here. I’ll keep you updated. Did you know NDC is considered the liberal party? Maybe I should have known when the NPP congratulated their “sister party” when Donald Trump won the election. Not that Donald Trump would ever congratulate a “shithole country” for anything good. I digress; enough loser (NPP) talk. 

So the supposed liberal party, at the last minute, launched a homophobic campaign on Twitter. They must have realised their chances were slim; I mean we all thought the same thing but damn. Ah well, maybe they put Sam George in charge of Communications that day. Truly desperate times. It’s either that or Mahama came across the video of Sam George essentially cursing him. Mans looked tired as hell. What did Tems say?

 🎶 IT’S THE DESPERATIONNN FOR ME 🎶 

Nowhere cool. The country gets a break from the NPP and queer people get… Scam George. The NDC’s win is not a victory. It absolutely is not “freedom”; it’s not even a relief – not for me. Queer people, those who have faith or hope or something, are still holding their breath. (I let it go when they went ahead to pass that absurd bill) The new president has a list of things he says he’ll be acheiving in the next 120 days. I’ll speak for myself: Let’s assume this isn’t just talk, that they had already started putting things in place before the election results were announced, that they will indeed  scrap certain levies and taxes. Of what use is all this to me if the anti-LGBTQ+ bill is passed? No E-levy but a misogynist could report me to the police for being a lesbian. Once again, queer people are being left behind.

The new president made it clear that queerness is against “our” culture and all that jazz. No surprise there; almost every presidential candidate said that. This was the 11th of November this year. On the 25th, the NDC posted a video to their Twitter account with the caption SAY NO TO GAYISM (Trumu-Trumu) - Twi Version. There was a Hausa version as well :) Accessibility for all the wrong reasons. Did I mention that they made sure to include that same smelling homophobia in their rally? It was none other than the self-proclaimed human rights lawyer Francis Xavier Sosu. 

In an interview with BBC Africa, John Mahama defensively said “It’s not an anti-LGBTQ bill. It’s a Family Values Bill”. So let me get this straight: You never miss an opportunity to tell people that queerness is against African culture (lies) and the bill aims to arrest people who don't report queer people to the police but it's not an anti-LGBTQ bill? Rubbish. He continued by saying he'll scrutinise the bill before passing it. Gasp Wait, what’s this? The bare minimum? Omg Mahama you shouldn’t have! Seriously. Someone called it promising; needless to say, they’re not queer. All this is similar to the back and forth the Supreme Court is doing with the anti-LGBTQ+ bill. Lack of chest. 

Only a fool would sign that bill -- but then a bunch of fools passed it. Imagine struggling for so long to be president after being so terribly scrutinised and widely disliked, finally managing to win again and then signing a bill that will plunge the country even farther into debt. Are you a masochist? 

Ah well. He seems to be aware of the consequences of signing the bill, as he should be – he’s been watching from the sidelines since the bill was introduced. He doesn’t seem well prepared to “safely” and confidently answer questions on the bill, though, and that baffles me because, again, after all this time? Here’s a video from December 10th where the clergy paid him a courtesy call to congratulate him on his win.  

Political power is indeed a trip. Even Sam George could have been mistaken for some sort of ally when the NPP was in power. Remember that tv interview? Politicians tend to be honest when they’re not in power; they love to play games with their opponents just to look different. The current president wasn't like that. I recall an interview where he talked about HIV/AIDS and how it affects “men who have sex with men”. Even in his 120 day plan for the country this year, he seemed very intentional about language and inclusivity i. e. “persons with disabilities” as opposed to “disabled people” which is much much better than the words Ghanaians tend to use for people with disabilities including autism. You know the words so I won’t bother repeating them. 

So what happened, eh? Power, desperation, and again, lack of chest. Now we have him, the MP who organises bigot protests in the name of family values and protecting children’s innocence while children are starving and being trafficked in his constituency, and a human rights lawyer who never misses an opportunity to show that he hates gay people. Where is the freedom, please? In this regard, even the NPP was better, and I know the NDC will do anything just to show how “different” they are. So the “freedom” people are talking about, the “hope”, the “I’m proud of us”... Meh. Cishet people talk. I can’t relate.

Rightify Ghana drew a timeline of JD Mahama's evolving position on LGBTQ+ related issues. You can find it here.

Welp. I wish we got to end the year on a better note but alas. It is what it is. One thing that inspires me, though? Us. Marginalised people around the world continue to exist, we continue to resist oppression in the ways we can, we continue to organise and write and talk back. Look at Palestine and Congo and Haiti. Look at the LGBTQ+ community in Uganda. We go dey alright.