‘Anti-LGBTQ Bill Is Effectively DEAD’ – Mahama Says
It appears the controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill in Ghana may either take a long while before receiving presidential assent to become law or it may not even see the light of day.
The bill which was passed under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo regime continues to lie in wait to becoming effectual as the then President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cited legal challenges.
It is however expected that the current President, John Dramani Mahama, will sign the bill particularly when a member of his party, the National Democratic Congress, Sam George, MP for Ningo-Prampram, is the chief proponent of the bill.
The bill is aimed at legislating homosexuality in Ghana ensuring that all homosexual acts are criminalized and actors may face a jail term.
But the President, in response to his signing of the bill, says there’s no need for the legislation if the family values of Ghana are well-transferred into the schools.
“If we are teaching our values in school, we won’t need to pass a bill to enforce our family values. That’s why I think more than even the Family Values Bill is us agreed on a curriculum that inculcates these values into our children as they are growing up so that we don’t need to legislate it”, President Mahama said when a delegation from the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference called on him in Accra.
He also said the bill has expired because the 8th Parliament was dissolved for the 9th Parliament currently in operation.
“…as far as I know, the bill did not get to the President for assent and so, the convention is that all bills that are not ascended to before the expiration of the life of Parliament expire. And so that bill effectively is dead, it has expired.”
“I don’t know what the promoters of the bill intend to do but I do think that we should have on it again so that all of us, if we decide to move that bill forward, we move it forward with a consensus and probably it shouldn’t be a Private Member’s Bill; it probably should be a government bill with government behind it after consultation with all the stakeholders…”, however told the Bishops.
Source: Ghmessenger.com
