Founder and President of the Worldwide Miracle Outreach, Dr. Lawrence Tetteh has called out his fellow clergymen and women over their silence on the anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed in February this year.
Although the bill has since landed in the Supreme Court after two private individuals filed separate suits seeking to declare its passage by Parliament as illegal, and which the president cites as his excuse not to entertain and assent to it, Dr Tetteh believes President Akufo-Addo should not have hesitated to sign the bill into law.
He is vowing to march to the seat of government should the president fail to sign the bill if the Supreme Court endorses its passage.
“I’ll march to the Jubilee House. I think it’s about time we make politicians know we voted them into power. The cowardice that Christian leaders and religious leaders have been reduced to is a shame and I’m embarrassed by some of our clergymen.
As much as we are interested in our titles, in the big titles, and who we are and how long we’ve served, I’m yet to hear certain people speak against these manners. And for me, that is a shame. And so it starts from my home too.
“It starts from the clergymen. It starts from the religious clerics. It starts from the home of the Chief Iman. It starts from the Chairman of Christian Council. It starts from the Apostolic leaders. It starts from Apostolic fathers. It also starts from the Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Anglicans. But also beyond that, it starts from the charismatic leaders.
“We’ve been too quiet. And as much as we are grumbling, everybody wants to impress certain people and that nonsense, for me, must stop,” he stressed.
The clergyman joins a long list of religious leaders and groups who are mounting pressure on the President to sign the bill into law.
But the presidency in a letter to the Clerk to Parliament on March 18, 2024, indicated that President Akufo-Addo would refrain from giving his assent, attributing his decision to pending court cases against the bill.
About the passage of the anti-gay bill:
Parliament of Ghana on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, passed the Promotion of Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill.
The bill proscribes Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) activities and criminalises their promotion, advocacy, and funding.
Persons caught in these acts face up to a three-year jail term, with promoters and sponsors facing a three to five-year jail term.
President Akufo-Addo has stated that he would only take a decision on the bill after the suits against it are resolved by the Supreme Court.
