Minority Leader Questions Akufo Addo’s Strange Silence On LGBTQI+ Bill

Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrissu, has challenged the Akufo-Addo government to declare its stance on the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill currently before Parliament.

This follows serious speculations that the Akufo Addo administration is steeped deep in bed with lobby groups associated with the globally powerful Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) community.

President Akufo Addo’s best friend and personal lawyer, Akoto Ampaw, is heading a team of 18 intellectuals to fight against the bill in Parliament, seeking to criminalise LGBTQ activities in Ghana on grounds of socio-cultural abhorrence.

Over 97% of Ghanaians are strongly against the liberalization of Ghana for activities of LGBTQs to thrive, contrary to the position of Akoto Ampaw and a few ultra-liberal Ghanaian intellectuals.

Based on the raging controversies, Hon. Iddrissu asked the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, to make the State’s position clear.

“It will be significant and refreshing to know what the thinking of the Attorney General is on the merits of this bill. Which aspects does he agree with, and which aspects does he find wanting. That should be the basis of any consultation, to begin with,” he said after receiving a petition in support of the bill.

The Akufo-Addo government has remained loudly silent on the bill with its Majority side in Parliament, practically avoiding the bill in public discourse.

This is in spite of the fact that the President has vowed not to legalize gay rights in Ghana, after initially indicating he was prepared to allow the tide of advocacy in the country to thrive, saying, an LGBTQ Ghana was “bound to happen”. He made the statement in 2017 when he was grilled in an Aljazeera interview.

The anti-gay bill which seeks to criminalize gay sex and activism and funding of same in Ghana has eight MPs pushing it in Parliament, only one of whom is a member of the ruling party. And Hon. John Ntim Fordjour is a Reverend Minister.

According to revelations, there were a total of seven NPP MPs who had co-sponsored the legislation from the beginning but six of them have since abandoned the project after they were reportedly warned by the Jubilee House to stay away.

Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh has since indicated that the NPP will vote against the bill saying that the bill was problematic. However, after Ghanaians became angry at the indication, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu said the Majority supports the bill in principle.

Throughout, the Akufo-Addo Jubilee House has remained mum over the bill.