The Minority Caucus in Parliament has launched a blistering attack on the Mahama administration over the amended Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, accusing the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of political insincerity, breach of faith with Ghanaians and quietly signalling to foreign governments that the legislation is dead on arrival.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, June 4, 2026 Minority Leader Osahen Alexander Afenyo-Markin and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority Caucus sought to draw a hard line between their party’s position on the LGBTQ+ Bill and what they describe as the NDC’s dramatic reversal on an issue it once championed loudly from opposition benches.
The statement, coming days after Parliament passed an amended version of the Bill, that now faces recall for reconsideration, accuses the ruling party of rewriting legislation it previously refused to allow anyone to touch.
“The NPP unequivocally rejects the normalisation, promotion or protection of LGBTQ+ values and practices within Ghanaian society,” the statement said, framing the party’s position as consistent and unchanged since the 8th Parliament unanimously passed the original Bill in 2024.
The NDC’s Reversal
The core of the NPP’s grievance is a stark one. When the Bill was before the 8th Parliament in 2024, it was the NDC, then in opposition, that resisted attempts to amend its provision. It was also the NDC that loudly condemned the Akufo-Addo presidency’s refusal to assent to the Bill, a refusal explained at the time on the grounds that pending constitutional challenges needed to be resolved first.
The NDC went further, the statement alleges, weaponising the assent delay to attack the NPP and mobilising religious leaders to urge Ghanaians to vote against the party, presenting themselves as the Bill’s most reliable guardians.
Now in office, the NPP says the NDC has returned to Parliament and rewritten that same Bill with 31 amendments, fundamentally altering provisions its own MPs had previously fought to protect.
“It is both strange and hypocritical for the NDC to have demanded immediate presidential assent to the 2024 Bill, only to return to Parliament and substantially rewrite that same Bill upon assuming office. These extensive amendments betray principle, expose the political insincerity of the NDC’s earlier posture, and affirm that the NDC cannot be trusted.”
Bagbin in the Crosshairs
The statement also takes pointed aim at Speaker Alban S.K. Bagbin, who as Speaker of the 8th Parliament led the charge for the Bill’s passage without compromise.
It is that same Bagbin, the NPP noted, who now heads the 9th Parliament that has passed a version of the Bill carrying 31 amendments to the very legislation he once championed.
“The NDC’s unanimous vote in support of the 2024 Bill was, therefore, not an act of goodwill but a calculated political statement of convenience and deceit,” the statement said.
The statement escalates sharply in its closing sections, taking aim at President John Dramani Mahama’s recent public engagements in London. During an appearance at Chatham House, Mahama reportedly suggested his administration was in no hurry to see the Bill become law.
More explosively, the NPP claims to have been “reliably informed” that the President gave assurances to British Prime Minister at No. 10 Downing Street that the Bill remains far from becoming law.
The Minority Caucus stops short of stating this as established fact, but says that if accurate, “such assurances would represent a remarkable departure from the urgency with which the NDC pursued this matter while in opposition.”
The Ruling Party’s Internal Contradictions
The NPP also highlights what it describes as open confusion within the NDC’s own ranks over the Bill’s future. Following the amended Bill’s passage, President Mahama publicly questioned whether Parliament had the requisite quorum. The Speaker has since called for the Bill to be returned to the floor for a fresh Consideration Stage, while the Majority Leader has publicly disagreed.
“The NPP believes these contradictions reflect an attempt to frustrate the Bill’s enactment while managing the political consequences of abandoning a position the NDC once vigorously championed,” the statement says.
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