Ghanaians want anti-LGBTQ Bill assented to, not parliamentary technicalities — Catholic Bishops
The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, has urged Parliament to put aside procedural disagreements and ensure the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, is forwarded to the President for assent.
Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News on Tuesday, June 2, he said Ghanaians elected Members of Parliament to make laws on behalf of the nation and expect them to deliver on that responsibility.
“Ghanaians elected wise, intelligent men and women to go to Parliament to legislate and to make rules and laws for our nation, and that is the only thing we expect from Parliament,” he said.
His comments come amid a dispute over the anti-LGBTQ bill after Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin directed the House to reconsider the legislation, citing the need to protect the national interest and ensure due process.
Most Rev. Gyamfi said Parliament’s internal procedures are not the primary concern of the public, stressing that citizens are more interested in seeing lawmakers produce legislation that reflects their expectations.
“We are not interested in their procedures and those things. We are interested in Parliament codifying what we have already sent them and to do just that and to put the bill on the desk of the President of Ghana so that he appends his signature,” he stated.
He noted that if Parliament believes mistakes were made during the process, lawmakers have every right to revisit the bill and make corrections.
“If they have done something that they know that this is not what Ghanaians wanted and they didn’t use their own ways to arrive at these conclusions, and they have come to their senses that they should revisit because they did the wrong thing, nothing prevents them from doing that,” he said.
The Catholic bishop acknowledged the conflicting positions emerging from Parliament over whether the proper procedures were followed in passing the bill.
“As of now, some are saying we used the wrong methods and some are saying we used the right methods. We do not know what the right methods in Parliament are. We do not know what the wrong things are, so they should sort themselves out and for once come together and give to Ghanaians what they have requested,” he said.
Most Rev. Gyamfi further cautioned against allowing procedural disputes and technicalities to derail the process, recalling how a similar bill in the previous Parliament failed to receive presidential assent.
“We expect Parliament to produce and we don’t want any technicalities, anything that will take us to where we got to in the last Parliament where the President, for some reason we do not know yet, did not append his signature,” he said.
He added: “We want Parliament to put on the President’s desk what we Ghanaians have asked them to do. Nothing more, nothing less.”
The remarks come after Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga insisted that Parliament followed all required procedures in passing the bill and argued that the Speaker cannot reverse a decision already taken by the House.
