Anti-LGBTQ+ bill: Presidency attempting to sell Ghana’s humanity, core values for $3.8 billion – Prof. Ransford Gyampo

A senior political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo has hit out at the Presidency for sending a letter to Parliament to stop the house from transmitting the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill to President Akufo-Addo.

In a post on Facebook, Prof. Gyampo said there appears to be an attempt by the Presidency to sell Ghana’s humanity and core values for $3.8 billion.

“It is a gross display of infantile politics, a deliberate show of conscious ignorance, and a blatant disregard of the sovereign will of the good people of Ghana, to shift the goalpost in this matter, just to attempt to sell Ghana’s humanity and core values for 3.8 billion dollars.

“The view and voice of the Ghanaian people about this matter is decidedly clear and any single individual or regime that attempts to stampede and suffocate the expressed General Will of the PEOPLE, must face consequences from those who wield the fiduciary power of the land,” Prof. Ransford Gyampo said in his post.

He shared his views after the Presidency in a letter addressed to the Clerk of Parliament said it would be improper for Parliament to transmit the anti-gay bill to the President for him to approve.

The letter explained that this is because of the pending applications for an order of interlocutory injunction to restrain you and Parliament from transmitting the Bill to the President and, also, to restrain the President from signifying his assent to the Bill, pending the final determination of the matter.

“Therefore, it would be improper for you to transmit the Bill to the President and equally improper for this Office to receive the Bill until the Supreme Court determines the matters raised in the suits,” parts of the letter from the President signed by Nana Bediatuo Asante, Secretary to the President said.

For Prof. Ransford Gyampo, this is unacceptable as the Presidency doesn’t have the power to order a Parliament that truly represents the people like this.

He insists that Parliament must not give in but asset its sovereign power.