Pressure is mounting on the government of President John Dramani Mahama to pass the controversial anti-gay bill.
In Parliament on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 the Minority registered their resolve to compel the government to pass the bill, saying literally that they would mount the same pressure on their Majority colleagues, as they did to them.
“You forced LGBT on the throat of the Akufo-Addo government. Today, you don’t want LGBT. You would want it. Mo bɛpɛ paa,” the minority leader said on the floor yesterday.
The Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Habib Iddrisu, MP for Tolon, drew the House’s attention to the anti-gay bill, which had been scheduled on the Order Paper for Tuesday, but was missing on Wednesday.
With the support from his colleagues, he urged the First Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor, MP for Akatsi South, who was in the Speaker’s chair, to direct an Order Paper Addendum to be printed to capture the anti-gay item.
The First Deputy Speaker, who attempted an explanation, could not convince the Minority, who expressed suspicion that there were underhand dealings to frustrate the laying of the anti-gay bill.
According to the Deputy Speaker, there were some administrative errors leading to the item on the Order Paper, a development he said the Clerk had admitted.
He said the processes for a Private Member’s Bill to be admitted by the Speaker had not been followed and that the decision was not to include it in the order paper anymore.
KARMA
Supporting the issue raised by his colleague, the Minority Leader, Osahen Alexander Afenyo-Markin, MP for Effutu, disagreed with the Deputy Speaker that there was an administrative error.
He claimed that the government was rather under pressure from stakeholders not to pass the bill, but was hiding under administrative error. He said that reality had visited the Majority side, who sang differently in opposition.
He recalled a hot afternoon where, as the Majority Leader, he was forced to allow for the third reading of the bill, even though the Minority then knew the position of partners of the government on the matter.
“We were in government and our friends (NDC MPs) knew the views of stakeholders in the governance of this country on this matter and they were clear in their ambush. Now, the chickens have come home to roost. They have come home,” Afenyo-Markin stated.
He continued that, “Only yesterday, when we were [in the majority and] raising this issue, Mr Speaker, you were saying that the bill must pass. Now you are in government. You are in the hot seat.
“When the IMF, the World Bank, and the IPU are threatening, you are now running away. You are now saying, procedure. Which mistake? There was nothing administratively in error. I dare say, for the record.”
Recalling that the NDC used the LGBTQ+ as a campaign tool against the NPP in the 2024 elections, Afenyo-Mark in informed his opponents that there would be no mercy for the cripple.
He told them that they would have to dance to the music. “Mo bɛpɛ paa,” to wit, you will like it. “You used it to win elections. Now, when your stakeholders, the international community, are warning you, you want to run away. Run to where? You now see governance. You are in the kitchen.”
BILL PASSED
The Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, MP for Bawku Central, in his rebuttal insisted the anti-gay bill has already been passed. He was referring to the one passed by the 8th Parliament, which suffered a legal tussle and eventually failed to secure a presidential assent.
He said the record of his party on the LGBTQ+ issue was clear, and under their watch that “practice will not be allowed.
“Mr Speaker, so far as I am concerned, even when we were a minority, we succeeded in passing this bill. And so far as the records will bear it, the bill has been passed. All that we are saying is that, so far as we are concerned, this house passed the bill. This house passed the bill.
He, however, urged the House to wait for the Right Hon. Speaker, who has travelled, to return to give further directions on the matter.
Whereas there is a clear understanding that bills not passed by Parliament before its dissolution automatically expire with that Parliament, consensus is yet to be reached as to whether the next parliament should adopt it or not.
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