President Mahama is advising multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to stop trying to influence and interfere with Ghana’s cultural values, especially regarding the ever-debated LGBTQ+ and rather focus on fulfilling their economic mandates. He was speaking in an interview on Bloomberg’s Next Africa,
According to President Mahama, “Multilateral institutions should avoid getting into cultural values. This is a diverse world. We have different cultures.”
His statement addresses the various ongoing speculations that multilateral organisations including like World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), may withdraw their funding to Ghana if the country passes the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill which is currently being reintroduced in Parliament.
The president was questioned in the interview about the possible consequences Ghana may face should the bill be passed into law. In response, President Mahama stated bluntly, “If they decide to pull, well it’s their prerogative. But I don’t believe that multilateral institutions like the World Bank and IMF should include their mandates how people should behave culturally.”
Although the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill was passed by Parliament, it was yet to be signed by the former President Akuffo-Addo, who was then the President at the time. However, due to several legal challenges and the former president’s refusal to sign the bill into law, the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill was not passed into law.
According to President John Dramani Mahama, “What we need is more stakeholder consultation to look at whatever new bill will come and make sure we carry everybody on board.”
He emphasized on the need for family values to be preserved, adding that passing the law should not only be about legislation, but it also includes the education on family values.
“Proper family values are something we are all interested in. But it’s not only in the bills that we send to parliament to regulate them; it’s also about teaching our children those family values as they grow.”
Source: Dehotpress
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