Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of parliament, has urged Ghanaians not to listen to persons who do not know what is happening in parliament regarding the anti-LGBTQ+ bill currently before parliament.
According to Speaker Bagbin, the bill has already gone through the necessary processes in Parliament and expressed confidence that it will be passed when the House reconvenes.
Speaking at an event, Alban Bagbin disclosed, “I’m sure one of the reasons we punished him and his party is one of these, so we started, and we processed it, it has gone through all the stages, and the next meeting of Parliament will get us asking to pass that bill into law”.
“So, don’t listen to people who don’t know what is in Parliament. Please, I repeat, don’t listen to people who don’t know what is in Parliament,” he cautioned.
“They can play that kind of bad politics. That is not what we are here for. We are different from those practising it. Our cultures, values, and principles are different. They know the effect and what it is doing to them. We resist it today; we will not be colonised again. That is gone, it’s history,” he added.
Speaker Babgin further disclosed that the president gave him his assurance that he will sign the anti-LGBTQ+ bill into law once the House passes it.
He disclosed, “… His Excellency the President assured me that when we pass the bill, and it comes to me, he has stated it before, he was going to ascend it. So, please, leave the rumour mongers”.
“… A number of Members of Parliament who believe in it decided to promote it in Parliament, and you know the things I said before, I’m not a man of words; I’m a man of action, and that is how we got it passed in Parliament, but for some reason, the [former] president did not assent to it. That one is his own bandana, not mine,” he said.
In related news, Rev. Fr. Michael Quaicoe, the Director of Governance, Justice and Peace at the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, has said a truly prosperous nation is the combination of economic excellence and moral values.
According to Rev. Fr. Michael Quaicoe, Ghana cannot treat moral values and economic development as competing priorities in the ongoing national debate over the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values bill, commonly known as the Anti-LGBTQ+ bill.
Rev. Fr. Michael Quaicoe argued that both economic development and the anti-LGBTQ+ bill must be pursued together.
Speaking on JOY NEWS Top Story, Rev. Fr. Michael Quaicoe stated, “A nation truly prosperous is the combination of the pursuit of both economic excellence and the upholding of moral values”.
“So it is not one over the other. It is not a question of this or that. It is more a question of this and that,” he stressed.
His comments follow the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC), which has issued a public statement following recent remarks made by President John Dramani Mahama and the Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, regarding the anti-LGBTQ+ bill.
The Bishops referenced public comments reportedly made by President Mahama at the World Affairs Council, in which he described LGBTQ+ matters as “not the most important issue we face as a nation.”
They also cited remarks by the Communications Minister suggesting the issue was “not a major priority for Ghanaians” and a “waste of time.”
According to the Catholic Bishops, although they acknowledge the weight of Ghana’s present challenges, it is analytically unsound to frame a choice between economic progress and moral coherence.
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