The New Patriotic Party will pay a hefty political price if President Nana Akufo-Addo refuses to assent to the recently passed anti-LGBTQI bill, the Executive Secretary for the National Coalition for Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, Mr Moses Foh-Amoaning has said.

The country’s legislature approved the bill on Human Sexual Rights and Family Values, widely known as the anti-LGBTQ bill, criminalising LGBT activities and prohibiting their promotion, advocacy, and funding.

Under the bill, individuals engaged in such activities face a jail term ranging from six months to three years, while promoters and sponsors could be sentenced to three to five years.

Prior to its passage, sponsors of the bill initiated a motion for further consideration, with lead sponsor Samuel Nartey George proposing amendments to clauses 10 and 11 concerning editorial policies of media firms, aligning them with Article 12 of the 1992 constitution, which guarantees freedom of the media. 

The House approved these amendments.

However, a motion filed by Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin to subject clause 12, addressing the funding of LGBT activities, to the constitution was rejected by the House.

The bill's approval by Parliament follows a call from Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, Board Chair of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), urging President Akufo-Addo to reject it. 

Until the president assents to the bill, it cannot come into effect.

Speaking on that issue, Mr Foh-Amoaning said he knows the president to be "a very smart politician and what I’ve told everybody who asked me this question is: first of all, there’s no president who has ascended the presidency of Ghana who has used the word of God more than this President." 

"So, the point I’m trying to make is, with all that I know about the president, I know he will sign this bill", Mr Foh-Amoaning noted.

He told Accra-based 3FM in an interview that if the president "refuses to sign, it would be very easy for the NDC", explaining that the main opposition party "will just package the NPP as 'Trumu Trumu' party" in the lead-up to the December 2024 elections.