DISCUSSIONS ON LGBTQ+ BILL: TOLERATE OPPOSING VIEWS
President Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo has called for civility and tolerance in the discussions on the
draft anti- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+) Bill.
He said opposing views should be given recognition.
The bill, titled,
"The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values
Bill 2021", was submitted to Parliament in June, this year.
Speaking for the first
time on the bill since it was introduced to Parliament, the President said it
would be a credit to the country’s democracy if the issue was handled rightly.
President Akufo-Addo
made the call when he granted an interview to Peace FM in Accra yesterday at
the start of his three-day working tour of the Greater Accra Region.
He told the host, Kwami Sefa-Kayi that he was impressed with the ongoing
discussions on the anti-homosexuality bill.
The bill
The bill, among others,
seeks to make it a crime to be LGBTQ+, or to advocate LGBTQ+ rights. Offenders
could face jail terms.
However, the submission
of the bill to Parliament had elicited a major public debate over its
appropriateness.
Many religious
organisations and like-minded institutions and individuals have expressed their
full support for the bill to be passed into law while some civil society
organisations (CSOs) and other campaigners had opposed it with the explanation
that it would infringe on the human rights of LGBTQ+ people in the country, and
subject them to persecution and violence.
Public opinion
Answering specific
questions on the vexed issue of homosexuality in the country vis-a-vis the bill
before Parliament, President Akufo-Addo said he recognised the fact that the
matter bordered on public opinion that was going through a legitimate process.
“What I will hope for is
that the debate would be civil and that we will recognise the need for us to be
tolerant with each other and with opposing views,” he stated.
‘I’m not pressured’
The President indicated
that it was the first time the Private Members Bill introduced in Parliament
was being used to sponsor the bill.
Asked if he felt
pressured by the ongoing debate, President Akufo-Addo said he could not feel
pressured.
He indicated that he was
impressed by the proliferation of ideas including people in civil society
sectors who had expressed their views on the matter.
While welcoming the fact
that over 130 memoranda had been submitted to the Parliamentary Committee on
Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, he anticipated that the
committee would look at it closely before they could come to some consensus.
President Akufo-Addo
said the chairman of the committee had spoken about his preoccupations, and
added that the chairman’s position was very legitimate.
He explained that all
that was happening were “part of the mix”, and therefore, expressed the hope
that the process would be conducted in a respectable manner.
He said at the end of
the day, Ghanaians would know the direction Parliament would take the matter
to.
Fighting corruption
President Akufo-Addo
said his commitment to fighting corruption remained intact.
Dismissing assertions of
his political opponents that he had turned into “ a clearing agent” by
exonerating officials of his administration of corruption allegations, the
President said investigations into allegations of corruption were conducted by
appropriate state institutions and not him.
“I cannot conduct
investigations from Jubilee House. The ones who can conduct investigations are
the institutions on the ground, whether it is the Police, the CID, in some
cases the Parliament and the EOCO.
”These are the
institutions that carry out these investigations and then produce a report and
it is on the basis of the report that I act,” he stated.
Resourcing special
prosecutor
Answering questions on
the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), the President said the government
was committed to resourcing the office to fight corruption.
He said the new Special Prosecutor, Mr Kissi Agyebeng, was receiving the
necessary resources that would enable him to undertake his work.
Ghana School of Law
admission
Responding to questions
on the Ghana School of Law admission saga, President Akufo-Addo said it was an
unfortunate situation especially as the problem had persisted for some time.
“It’s unfortunate, I
can’t pretend that this is a happy coincidence for me at all, on the contrary,
I’m very disturbed by it, and I’m hoping that soon the cooperation of the
various stakeholders, the Ghana Legal Council, the Chief Justice himself,
Attorney-General and myself, we’ll all find a solution to this situation,” he
said.
He added that for the
time being, there was no space in the School of Law for the students who
passed, which was a problem.
“There are several
others before them who unfortunately fell into the same pit. It may be that
this group has decided to be more vocal than their predecessors,” he stated.
President Akufo-Addo
said the current development provided a good moment for those matters to be
resolved as keeping the gates of the school closed for students who passed was
not in the best interest of the nation.
“All I can say is that
God willing, by the time I come back here the next year, substantial progress
will be made in trying to deal with this,” he said.
Stressing that more lawyers were needed to drive the rule of law for
sustainable development, the President said: “I think that idea of more and
more lawyers in the system is good for the health of the nation.”
“If we want a country
that is governed by the rule of law, it means that we need to have lawyers in
virtually all aspects of our national life guiding the development of our
country so that the rule of law really makes sense,” he added.