Paul Evans Aidoo (born 4 August 1958) is a

Ghanaian Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He is the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Sefwi-Wiawso and is the Minister for the Western Region of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. Prior to heading the Western Region, he was the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister. He has been condemned for "promoting hatred" by Ghana's Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights after the minister urged people to report suspected homosexuals. "All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in the society," he said.

Early life and education

Paul Aidoo was born on 4 August 1958 at Sefwi-Ewiase in the Sefwi-Wiawso District of the Western Region of Ghana. He studied privately for the

General Certificate of Education The General Certificate of Education (GCE) is a subject-specific family of academic qualifications used in awarding bodies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Crown dependencies and a few Commonwealth countries. For some time, the Scottish ed ...

Ordinary Level The O-Level (Ordinary Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education. It was introduced in place of the School Certificate in 1951 as part of an educational reform alongside the more in-depth ...

in 1980. He attended the Enchi Teacher Training College between 1977 and 1981, qualifying with Teachers’ Certificate’A’.

Career

Aidoo worked as a teacher between 1981 and 1985. He then worked with the National Mobilization Programme as a District Liaison Officer between 1985 and 1997. Between 1997 and 2001, he was a District Chief Executive with the Ministry of Local Government. From 2002 to 2004, he was a headmaster with the

Ghana Education Service The Ghana Education Service (GES) is a government agency under the Ministry of Education responsible for implementing government policies that ensure that Ghanaians of school-going age irrespective of their ethnicity, gender, disability, religiou ...

Politics

Aidoo is a member of the National Democratic Congress and won the Sefwi-Wiawso seat in the Ghanaian parliamentary election in 2004. He retained his seat in the 2008 election. In 2009, he was appointed Western Regional Minister by the

President of Ghana The president of the Republic of Ghana is the elected head of state and head of government of Ghana, as well as commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. The current president of Ghana is Nana Akufo-Addo, who won the 2020 presidential elec ...

John Atta Mills John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills (21 July 1944 – 24 July 2012) was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar who served as President of Ghana from 2009 until his death in 2012. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the governing party ...

and in March 2013, he was appointed Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister then re-appointed as Western Regional Minister in March 2014 by the

John Dramani Mahama John Dramani Mahama (; born 29 November 1958) is a Ghanaian politician who served as President of Ghana from 24 July 2012 to 7 January 2017. He previously served as Vice President of Ghana from January 2009 to July 2012, and took office as presi ...

. In July 2011, he called for Ghana's

Bureau of National Investigations The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) is the internal intelligence agency of Ghana.The Security and Intelligence Agencies Act (Act 526) 1996, Ghana. The BNI is an integral part of the National Security Council which oversees matters of the ...

to arrest all homosexuals in the Western Region and asked landlords and tenants to report suspected homosexuals. He was reported as saying, "Once they have been arrested, they will be brought before the law". (A provision in the

criminal code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that migh ...

section of Ghana's 1992 constitution condemns "unnatural carnal knowledge". The constitution guarantees

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

"regardless of race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender", but not sexuality).

Personal life

Aidoo is married with eight children. He is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

References

External links