The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo Prampram, Samuel Nartey George, says it will be politically suicidal, if the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo decides not to append his signature to the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill, after Parliament passes it.
According to the MP, if the President fails to assent to the bill otherwise known as the Promotion of Proper Sexual Human Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, two-thirds of members of Parliament can vote in favor of the bill, to be passed into law.
Speaking in an interview, Samuel George indicated that failure to approve the bill will be an indictment on the government.
“The President will be requested by Parliament to sign the bill into law. It will be politically suicidal, and it will mark the sound of a dead mill on his abysmal government if he said he was not going to sign that bill into law. That will be the beginning of the collapse of his government and his legacy. And so I don’t want to have that thought because I think that his advisers and handlers will advise him accordingly.”
Samuel Nartey George
President Akufo-Addo during a joint press conference he had with US Vice President, Kamala Harris at the Jubilee House on Monday, disclosed that his government had intervened to modify the current anti-LGBTQ Bill. Kamala Harris, however, also tried to belittle Ghana’s efforts to pass the anti-LGBTQ bill.
Bagbin Warns Akufo-Addo Against LGBTQ+
Incensed over the comments, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin lambasted Akufo-Addo and Kamala Harris, describing the comments as undemocratic.
“As the Vice President of the USA, Kamala Harris did yesterday, these things should not be tolerated, that is undemocratic. What is democracy? That someone should have to dictate to me what is good and what is bad? Unheard of, because we have decided to devalue ourselves and go begging? Come on, we have more than enough. God has created more than enough for every person; the Bill will be passed.”
Alan Bagbin
Ghanaian lawmakers are currently discussing the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Value Bill – which criminalizes advocacy for gay rights and proposes jail terms for those that identify as LGBTQ+. Speaker Alban Bagbin on Tuesday, urged lawmakers not to be “intimidated by any person”.
Madam Harris had not directly addressed the bill during a joint briefing with President Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday, but said: “This is an issue that we consider to be a human rights issue and that will not change.”
Speaker Bagbin told lawmakers on Tuesday that the bill adheres to the constitution and will pass, and ended up warning President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo against meddling.
“This is a word to the president – there is no way he can intervene. Wait until we pass it, that is where you come in,” he told lawmakers amid cheers and claps.
Gay sex is already punishable with up to three years in jail in Ghana, where homophobic attitudes are widespread, but the draft law would impose longer sentences.
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