"MPs Should Never Hold A Placard Against A Woman" - Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo

Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo

Dean of the School of Communication of the University of Ghana, legon, says the act of some Minority Members of Parliament holding signages calling a newly elected member of the House ‘Bloody Widow’ is shameful.

Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo condemned unreservedly the behaviour of the MPs who were protesting against the swearing in of Member of Parliament for the Ayawaso West Wuogon, Lydia Alhassan, Tuesday, February 5.

Ghanaians descend on NDC MPs for unsavory tag on Lydia Alhassan

“The minority was out of line,” she stated, asking them to apologize to Mrs. Lydia Alhassan and Ghanaians because their action was wrong.

“If the minority will take time to reflect and want women to be part of politics they will apologize. It is important that members of society teach people how to disagree in a civilized manner,” Prof Gadzekpo said.

She argued that the National Democratic Congress MPs’ action is wrong on two fronts:

First, she stated that there was no evidence that Mrs. Lydia Alhassan, the winner of that election caused the violence that characterised the by-election, or that she won the elections because of the violence.

Secondly, Prof. Gadzekpo faults the minority’s action on the ground that it amounted to an attack on women.

Lydia Alhassan, she said, “won on many fronts. It is her view [also held by the Electoral Commission], that the event of just one polling station could not invalidate those of the several others which were so peaceful and orderly.

“The fact that she won that constituency is not tied to the violence. Whether or not she would have won [without the violence], we don’t know. But the fact is she won,” she told Daniel Dadzie on the Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Wednesday.

“Parliamentarians should never hold a placard against a woman,” she said.

She added “I doubt if it was a male person they would behave in a similar manner. Her identity as a widow is not necessary.”

Stating her belief that the action of the minority was ‘intimidating women and meant to shame them”, she regretted that Ghana’s “political culture is inhospitable to women.”

Prof Gadzekpo said she was not surprised that some women in the NDC joined the vilification of a fellow woman because issues about gender are not a question of men versus women but an issue of understanding of how women are treated.

Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo concedes that “Pressure from the dominant group always forces others to go against their own interest”

Source: Ghana | Myjoyonline.com