The Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) has challenged all Members of Parliament (MPs) from both sides of the House to stand to be counted on the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021.
According to the minority caucus, the debate and voting on the Bill should reflect the aspiration of the Ghanaian people and where they want the state to stand.
Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu who addressed the media in Parliament on Friday to state his side’s position said decision on the Bill will be a watershed moment for Ghana.
He assured that if anybody will fail the Ghanaian people on the anti-gay Bill it will not be the Minority NDC.
The Caucus, he said, knows as a matter of history and fact that the world has passed through three generations of rights.
“The first generation relates to civil and political rights, the second on economic, social and cultural rights; and the third generation is collective solidarity rights. It did not contemplate LGBTQ+ rights, nothing more.
“Therefore, we cannot find legal space for those arguing on this particular matter rather than stretching it to those absurdities and absurd limits,” he added.
The entire Ghanaian populace, the Minority Leader stated, must endeavour to ensure the sanctity of Ghanaian family values to keep the unity, cohesion and stability and continuity of the country’s societies.
According to him, the collective morality and natural order of things rest on the hands of the 275 MPs, both majority and minority so that when the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill is passed with all the righteousness it represents, the moment will be regarded as Ghana’s finest hour in every sense of the expression a thousand years in the future.
“We want to be recognized historically as belonging to this category of persons,” he added.
On Article 108
Responding to the arguments on Article 108 of the 1992 Constitution and the claims the Bill can only be introduced by the Executive, the Minority leader noted that Parliament has gone pass this stage because the Bill has already been read the first time and referred accordingly to the appropriate Committee in accordance with the 1992 Constitution and Standing Orders of Parliament.
Speaker Alban Bagbin, he said, rightfully made a determination on the matter before the Bill was introduced and accordingly referred to the appropriate committee to examine it and report back to plenary.
The Minority leader noted that Speaker Bagbin and other past Speakers of Parliament are citizens of Ghana and leaders of the country and have a right to espouse their principles and values on any matter of national interest.
“They (Speakers) are expected to provide nothing more than leadership and it does not mean Speaker Bagbin will reduce himself when we get to the nitty-gritty consideration stage of the bill.
“Be assured, we in the minority will insist a clause by clause vote on every word, every accompanying sentence. We will insist on a vote including amendments to any provision”, he stressed.
He assured that when it comes to the important subjects of the Bill, the Minority will do what is legally needful within the 1992 Constitution clause by clause and urged members to get counted.
