No ex-gratia for MPs if anti-LGBTQ+ bill worsens Ghana's problems - Kwame Pianim

Renowned economist Andrews Kwame Pianim has indicated that members of Ghana's 8th Parliament and the executive arm of government should not receive ex gratia if the anti-LGBTQ+ bill causes financial issues for the country.

He made these remarks after urging countries opposed to the bill to direct their criticism towards Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin and MPs who supported

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Speaking on TV3's Business Focus program, he stated, “My appeal to the US and the other countries who feel very strongly about lgbtq rights as human rights is that they should not use the instrument of sanctioning the whole country, they should put sanctions on the Speaker of Parliament, those who moved the bill and the 275 of the MPs, put sanction on them and leave the Ghana economy alone.

“This is not a referendum that has been passed by the people of Ghana, we are already suffering, so don’t add any sanctions to it, sanction the people who are doing this and if these people make our problems worse, all of us Ghanaians should consider seriously, this 8th parliament of the fourth republic, the administration none of them should receive their gratia.”

Regarding the Ministry of Finance's late warning about the bill's implications, Pianim criticized the government's incompetence, stating that such warnings should have been issued when discussions on the bill began in Parliament.

After analyzing the Finance Ministry statement regarding the bill, he stated “I think that if this document is really true it shows how incompetent our administration is. it is really shambolic. Where was the Ministry of Finance when this bill was being discussed?

“Normally, when a bill is being discussed in Parliament, bills come from the government, the cabinet minister will take the document to parliament, convince his colleagues that he wants to pass this Act, and then it goes to Parliament.

“The Ministry of Finance should have sent this document to the cabinet and to the president and to the relevant committees of Parliament that were discussing it to say these are the financial implications of this bill."