“My husband is not gay…We have two children, how can he be gay?…I really don’t know why it should come up again…the person says I’m not gay, what else can you do, there’s nothing else you can do.…I’m the wife, we have two children, I would know if he is gay,” that was the response fired by the Second Lady Matilda Amissah-Arthur at reports that Vice-President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur is gay.
Rebuffing the rumours in an interview aired Saturday on Joy FM’s home Affairs programme ahead of International Women’s Day tomorrow, Mrs Amissah-Arthur, who has been married to the Economist for over three decades stated empahtically “No no no, my husband is not gay, has never been gay, period!”
Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, during his vetting by Parliament’s Appointments Committee in August 2012, after his nomination for the post of Vice-President by President John Mahama, denied categorically that he was ever gay. At the time, the nominee believed media reports suggesting he was gay, were nothing but a fabrication by some disgruntled persons who tried to extort money from him.
Member of Parliament for Bekwai Joe Osei-Owusu who posed the question asked Mr. Amissah-Arthur to clarify speculations concerning his sexuality.
Answering the question, the Vice Presidential nominee denied emphatically that he is gay. According to him, the story was fabrication by an old school mate who was on a mission to destroy his personality.
“It’s one of the difficulties of being a governor. A number of people think since I am the boss I can just dip my hands into the vault and take money.
“They think I have access to unlimited resources and when they come to me for help I should give them money. I have a former school mate who came to me for money and I refused. I refused because I had a problem with his lifestyle.
“So he went out to fabricate these stories. It is not true and absolutely not true. I have not seen this gentleman for 40 something years.
“My Children drew my attention to some of the stories that I had an affair in a garage, it is not true because we have never had a garage in the houses we have lived. They drew my attention too that there was another one with a house boy; we have never had house boys, but girls.
“It is not true and absolutely not true. I have not seen this gentleman for 40 something years now and since then I have just seen him for about five minutes when he showed up at my house for money.”
“But I take it as part of the problems of the office,” Mr. Amissah-Arthur told members of the appointment committee back in 2012, August 6th.
Wondering why the subject keeps coming up especially when her husband had cleared the air on that during his vetting, the Second Lady however believes the gay tag has been slapped on husband to smear his image.
She strongly pointed out that if indeed the rumours had any substance, she would have known and perhaps their marriage would have been dissolved.
“I’m his wife. We have two children. We’ve been married for 36 years. You think if he was gay I would be living with him? Or you think if he was gay I wouldn’t know?” Mrs Amissah-Arthur said.