Mahama Ayariga
Information Minister Mahama Ayariga has thrown his first bomb since becoming minister, by lying to Ghanaians over the raging controversy about President John Mahama’s relationship with United States gay lobbyist Andrew Solomon.
Attempts by the minister and spokespersons for the President to distance President John Dramani Mahama from the world-acclaimed homosexual and gay advocate, Andrew Solomon, by claiming the President never knew Solomon until the launch of his book- ‘My First Coup d’état’- in New York mid last year, has backfired, with evidence emerging that the President had been dining and wining with the gay activist.
Facts emerging indicate that the officially sanctioned statement issued by Ayariga last Friday claiming President Mahama did not know Andrew Solomon prior to their encounter at the book launch, may in fact be untrue because President Mahama, writing in the book, indicates that he has had a close rapport with the well known gay activist way before the book launch in July 2012.
Instructively, President Mahama indicated he had a “fantastic” dinner with Andrew Solomon in his home prior to the book launch as contained in the acknowledgment section.
In the acknowledgement section of ‘My First Coup d’état’ (Page 316 in the second paragraph) authored by the President himself, he thanked the “US National Book Award winner Andrew Solomon, for also providing a gracious advance quote.
Andrew was also quite generous with his referrals and other such literary resource. I will always remember the fantastic dinner party Andrew hosted for me in his Manhattan home that set the ball rolling.”
Somersault
Ayariga having been exposed on Joy FM’s Newsfile programme on Saturday, by a listener who had read the book, quickly backtracked saying that he had his facts wrong.
“I briefed the media during the week on the matter of the relationship between Andrew Solomon, an acclaimed author in the United States of America, and His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama.
“I denied any prior close relationship between the two of them. Subsequently it has come to my knowledge that this is not entirely accurate.
“In keeping with my commitment to provide accurate and reliable information about Government and the Presidency to the public, let me affirm that our then Vice President had a prior meeting with Andrew Solomon in furtherance of the former’s book writing project before the book launch event at which Andrew Solomon acted as a moderator,” Ayariga said in a statement issued yesterday, admitting that he was economical with the truth.
Analysts are of the opinion that either Ayariga’s Friday press conference was a deliberate attempt to conceal the facts or he did not get clarification from the President before going public.
There are unconfirmed reports that prior to the book launch, Andrew Solomon had visited the then Vice President Mahama in Ghana several times.
Denial Gone Wrong
Incidentally, when the story about President Mahama’s relationship with Andrew Solomon, who is also a powerful gay lobbyist, broke last week, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) frantically tried to dissociate the President from Andrew Solomon.
According to the Information Minister, Mahama Ayariga, Andrew Solomon was imposed on the President by organisers of the book launch.
“The organizers settled on Andrew Solomon purely, purely on the basis of his acumen in writing, journalism and authorship. And for that reason the organizers thought that somebody like that would be the appropriate person to moderate that particular book launch in New York.
He wasn’t chosen by the President, the President didn’t know him before the launch, so the President really did not have a relationship with him,” he stated emphatically during the Friday press conference he organized in Parliament.
The Information Minister even went further to indicate that the President did not have the time to do any background check on Andrew Solomon and that the gay activist was shoved down the throat of John Mahama by the event organisers.
“Very often he only gets to know who is going to be the MC when he gets there- who is going to be the moderator, he gets to know when he gets there. There are so many other actors at the event that he only gets to know when the gets to the event,” stated Mr. Ayariga.
“Presidents are too busy to be concerned about such details. If you are going to launch a book, and they say there is going to be a moderator, and then you ask what is his sexual orientation… it is not what you expect of a President.”
But President Mahama’s own writing indicates that he has a very deep relationship with Andrew Solomon and they have had late night parties, culminating in Andrew Solomon “graciously” providing an advance quote for the President’s memoir.
Andrew Solomon was the moderator during the launch of ‘My First Coup d’état’, at the Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture at Harlem, New York, mid 2012.
Andrew, a prolific writer himself, was very thrilled with President Mahama’s book that he paid the highest amount of $20,000 for the first autographed copy of the book, DAILY GUIDE gathered.
Who is Andrew Solomon?
Andrew Solomon is the pioneer of composite family where he advocates for gays to be allowed to live a complete family life by using surrogate parents to bear kids.
Mr. Solomon, who is the “female” partner in a same-sex relationship with another man, is the founder of the Solomon Research Fellowship for the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and the transgendered (LGBT) located in the Yale University in Connecticut, USA.
He is a strong financier of gay advocacy and a formidable gay lobbyist worldwide. Incidentally, Andrew Solomon’s gay “husband” is a journalist called John Habich, sharing the same first name with John Mahama.
A youth activist, Amos Kevin Anane, who has done extensive research on the relationship between President Mahama and Andrew Solomon, last Thursday told Citi FM that whatever relationship Andrew Solomon has with President Mahama is a lobbying ploy to push the gay agenda in Ghana and it appears they are succeeding with the nomination of a gay rights activist, Nana Oye Lithur, as a the Minister of Children, Gender and Social Protection.
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