The Member of Parliament for Assin South, John Ntim Fordjour, has questioned President John Dramani Mahama’s recent stance on signing the anti-LGBTQ bill.

In a detailed post on X on Friday, January 17, 2025, Ntim Fordjour claimed that Mahama is avoiding the responsibility of signing the controversial bill, despite having campaigned on the promise to assent to it if he were given the presidential mandate.

The New Patriotic Party lawmaker added that Mahama’s suggestion for a government-sponsored LGBTQ bill, designed to incorporate the country’s cultural values into school curricula and remove the necessity for a Private Member’s bill focused on enforcing family values, represents a betrayal of the Ghanaian people.

He accused Mahama of backtracking and going back on his earlier promises.

“Mr President, don’t renege on your words to the Clergy and Ghanaians in respect of LGBTQ matters. Don’t run away from the bill you so believed in when you were in opposition.

“The same President @JDMahama who stated his desire to assent to the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill in opposition, is now backtracking and reneging on his words. Barely seven (7) days upon swearing in, President Mahama now thinks curriculum should eliminate the need for a bill that’s important to 73% of Ghanaians?” parts of his post read.

Ntim Fordjour urged Ghanaians, especially clergy and traditional leaders, to speak out against any attempts to shift the focus to the curriculum and to maintain consistency in their stance, regardless of which party is in power.

He assured, however, that the bill passed in the previous 8th Parliament will be presented to President Mahama.

“…As for the bill, it will be served to President Mahama in the same shape and form - I can bet on that! Ghanaians earnestly wait to see if indeed President Mahama will remain true to his words or run away from the bill to seek cover in ‘curriculum’. We are watching!!,” he wrote.

His comments follow President John Dramani Mahama’s suggestion for a government-sponsored LGBTQ+ bill, as opposed to one led by private members.

Speaking to a delegation of Catholic bishops from the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference during a courtesy call on January 14, 2025, Mahama said, “I think it should not be a Private Member’s Bill, but a government-sponsored one.

“If we were teaching our values in schools, we wouldn’t need to pass a bill to enforce our family values, and that is why I think more than even the family values bill, is us agreeing on a curriculum that inculcates these values into our children as they are growing up, so that we don’t need to legislate it,” he said.

Read his full post below: