Supreme Court nominee Prof Richard Frimpong Oppong dispels LGBTQ+ biases
“I am married, my wife is here and I know whatever she is giving me is the best path for me,” Supreme Court nominee, Professor Richard Frimpong Oppong, told the Appointments Committee of Parliament in Accra last Tuesday.
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He was responding to assertions by the National Investigations Bureau (NIB), which described him as someone who will promote issues of LGBTQ+ rights in the country if given the nod to serve in the highest court.
The allegation, which was contained in a confidential report submitted to the committee by the bureau, described Prof. Oppong as a libertarian who would promote activities of LGBTQ+ in the country.
It was premised on a paper Prof. Oppong wrote titled: “Foreign Same Sex Marriages Before Commonwealth African Courts,” which is on how courts in Africa would treat same sex marriages differently.
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Prof. Oppong, however, explained that the paper dealt with a specific and narrow issue which was on conflict of laws and not to inflict LGBTQ + practices on Africans.
“This is a wrong assessment and I reject it in the strongest possible terms wherever those views are coming from because as an academic, I have written about that subject from the perspective of my speciality and from the perspective of conflict of laws so this is totally wrong.
“The Ghanaian law has taken a position and that is the position I respect, but as in academia, you are definitely free to think and in my free thinking moment, that is what I wrote.
He further rejected views that when approved, he was going to be a danger to the anti-LGBTQ crusade.
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“If I am approved as justice of the Supreme Court, my responsibility is to apply the laws of Ghana and I have clearly indicated to the committee what the laws of Ghana will be when the bill is assented to.
“The responsibility of a judge is to apply the law and not to espouse any views through their judgement and that to me will be totally wrong of the judicial role,” Prof. Oppong said.
Judicial experience
On what his philosophy or approach to interpretation of issues that come before the court would be since he does not have the judiciary and court experience in the country, the nominee said he had reputation in the legal system of the country and had also practised through his association with two law firms in the country.
Prof. Oppong added that he had done several cases with the Ghana Arbitration Centre “so I am not new to the Ghana legal system.
“I have written extensively on the Ghanaian law so to a large extent, although I lived outside the country, Ghana does not live outside me. I am here a lot of times and I go the classroom to teach anytime I am here so the legal system is not alien to me,” he added.
The nominee further said that he had lived a very good academic life and also practised law and, therefore, the Supreme Court would offer him an opportunity to serve the country in a very unique capacity to contribute to the development of the legal system.
