NPP MP suspects Minority’s push for anti-LGBTQ+ bill is to put Ghana in bad light

Member of Parliament for the Old Tafo Constituency Vincent Ekow Assafuah has stated that the bill seeking to criminalize Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) activities will bring dire consequences to the people of Ghana if passed into law.

He said the Minority in Parliament is seeking to make the issue of LGBTQ+ topical in the country despite the more pressing issues just to put Ghana in a bad light and that will bring dire consequences to the country.

Mr Assafuah said the Minority Caucus’s attempt to proscribe LGBTQ+ is rather much ado about nothing because, in his opinion, the Criminal Offences Act already criminalizes the subject under Section 104 of the 1992 constitution.

He suggested that the legislators and the general public should channel their energies into finding solutions to pressing problems such as job creation and the coronavirus pandemic that the country is currently battling with rather than giving attention to the subject.

Mr Assafuah said the trajectory that the Minority legislators are seeking to take Ghana along on the LGBTQ+ crusade will portray Ghana in a certain image that will make it hard for the country to bounce back from the Covid-19 slump the country has been hit into, in terms of foreign aid to provide the needed jobs the youth require in the country.

He cited the example of how just last week the government had to approve a $200 million to assuage the impact of Covid-19 in the country and these monies come from the foreign donors who are championing the cause of LGBTQ+ rights over the years in Ghana and Africa, in general.

Mr Assafuah made this observation in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on the 'New Day' show on TV3 Monday, July 26.

His observation comes on the back of a Private Member’s bill tabled before parliament by some National Democratic Congress (NDC) legislators to proscribe the subject of Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and plus individuals(LGBTQ+) in the country.

The bill has since received a lot of mixed reactions on social media.

But the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP smells a rat behind all this.

“Just last week, Parliament had to approve a loan of about $200 million just for the impact of Covid or if you like, buy vaccines and what have you. These are monies that are coming from a certain source, the source as we are all aware, have been championing the cause of LGBTQ for a number of years, as we are all aware. Now, if the source at a point gets jittery because the people they are trying to help are not buying into their philosophy, it is going to have dire consequences on us as a nation,” he pointed out.

Asked why the country should worry about not receiving aid instead of doing the right thing for the nation, when President Akufo-Addo has already declared the a ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda in the country, the Old Tafo legislator said “before 2019, the economic growth of Ghana was 6.8-9 thereabout, in 2016 when we took over, economic growth was about 2.3-4. What it means is that as a nation, from 2017 to 2019 we have been able to build or grow the economy” through aid.

He said with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on world economies, especially Ghana, the country is not out of the woods yet to be able to stand on its own feet to hold true the president’s declaration of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’.

Until then, he is convinced, the country will need aid from the foreign donor partners who abhor the discrimination against LGBTQ+ in the country.