Ghana Will Turn Into a 'Jungle' If Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill Is Not Passed - Dr. Chris Ampadu

The West African Director of Samaritan Strategy, Dr. Christopher Ampadu, has slammed opposers of the private members' bill to criminalize homosexual activities in the country.

A bill currently before Parliament which seeks to criminalise and impose jail terms on lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and queers (LGBTQ+) and people who promote such acts has been described as a violation of the 1992 Constitution by a group of academics, lawyers, researchers, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and human rights activists.

The group is made up of lawyer Akoto Ampaw; author, scholar and former Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa; the Dean of the University of Ghana (Legon) School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba; the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Information and Communication Studies, Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo and the former Chief Executive Officer of erstwhile Ghana at fifty Secretariat, Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey among others.

They argue that the bill - Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill — when passed into law, would erode fundamental human rights enshrined in the constitution.

Following the group's opposition against the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, the Church of Pentecost has reportedly threatened to campaign against the legislators who vote against the bill.

“Our position is that we do not want this thing. The Church of Pentecost is 10.3 percent of the Ghanaian population. It is not about legal issues but morality. Within 48 hours, we have 15,000 signatories so if we give ourselves a week, all the 3 million members of the Church will sign. So if the MPs vote against this Bill, we also campaign against them in their constituencies. They were voted to go and defend what we want. So our position is that we are not in support of LGBT,” General Secretary of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Alexander Kumi Larbi said in an interview with Citi FM.

Discussing the bill during Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Dr. Christopher Ampadu supported the calls for the bill to be passed into law stressing homosexuality is not an acceptable practice in Ghana.

He argued that homosexual acts are an aberration of the country's moral values, hence if not stopped, Ghana will turn into a ''jungle''.

"Ghana has morals. Morality plays a very big role in the attitudes and behavior of Ghanaians . . . Today, we hear about how people are murdering people by heart and so forth. It's all because many people have abandoned our moral values; adding this up, then Ghana will become like a jungle," he said.

He believed the bill will serve as a check on people who identify themselves as homosexuals and prospective ones.

"For me, I don't think the law that we're proposing means we're criminalizing it to the extent that the offenders should be immediately sent to prison or punished but rather, if any person is having such feeling, they will know it's not a good feeling. So, they will exercise self-control."