President John Dramani Mahama is Ghana’s president
President John Dramani Mahama has weighed in on conversations about the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021, commonly referred to as the ‘Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill,’asserting that multinational institutions should refrain from imposing their values on sovereign nations, emphasising that the world is diverse with different cultural perspectives.
Speaking in a recent interview on Bloomberg TV, he stated that while family values are important, governance decisions must be line with the country’s diplomatic and economic interests.
“Institutions should avoid getting into cultural matters. This is a diverse world. We have different cultures. And so, I don’t think multilateral institutions should include cultural imposition as part of their mandates. I don’t agree with that. If they decide to pull it, well, it’s their prerogative.
“But I don’t believe that multilateral institutions like the World Bank and IMF should include in their mandates how people behave culturally,” he stated.
He reaffirmed the need for broad stakeholder consultations on the bill.
“I think that what we need is more stakeholder consultation to look at whatever new bill will come and make sure that we carry everybody on board. Proper family values are something we all are interested in.
“And we believe that it is not only in the bills that we send to Parliament to regulate them, but also in teaching our children those family values even as they grow. And so, looking at the curriculum in schools and inculcating those values in them, I think, is the more important pressing issue that we must look at,” he added.
The bill, which seeks to prohibit lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activities and criminalise their promotion, advocacy, and funding, was previously passed by the 8th Parliament but failed to receive presidential assent under Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration.
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Meanwhile, watch this Ghana Month special edition of People and Places as we hear the story of how the head of Kwame Nkrumah’s bronze statue was returned after 43 years, below:
