Ghana is currently in the spotlight over its legislation that seeks to criminalize the identification and activities of the LGBTQ community, as well as its promoters and sponsors.
Parliament passed the controversial Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values bill on Wednesday, and since then, several international communities such as the UN Human Rights and the US have called on President Akufo-Addo not to assent to the bill.
Some Ghanaians, especially the Minority in Parliament, are skeptical of President Akufo-Addo appending his signature to the bill to become law.
Not many citizens are pleased by this and want the president to make his stance known, just like his predecessors did. A video of the late John Evans Fifi Atta Mills has resurfaced.
Thirteen years ago, then President John Evans Fifi Atta Mills assured that Ghana would not legalize same-sex activities under his watch.
In an interview on November 2, 2011, he said, “(But) I as president of this nation, I will never initiate or support any attempts to legalise homosexuality in Ghana.”
During that period, Britain had warned it would review aid to countries that persecute homosexuals. It had suspended £19 million in aid to Malawi because of concerns including its treatment of gays.
Now, Ghana faces the same threat as Uganda has been hit with sanctions by the US for passing one of the world’s harshest anti-Gay bill.