Vice President Bawumia Says He Would Sign Anti-LGBTQ Bill Into Law
Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia would enact a bill that calls for three years imprisonment for people who identify as LGBTQ if he won presidential polls in December.
The proposed legislation, which forces anyone who knows someone is LGTQ to report them to authorities, has drawn criticism from some of Ghana’s international partners even as the country needs their support to overcome a debt crisis. It has also faced legal challenges from ordinary citizens over its constitutionality.
Signing the bill “would be automatic,” if the Supreme Court decides that the bill is “consistent with the Constitution,” Bawumia said in a response to reporter questions at a conference Sunday evening in the capital, Accra.
If endorsed, the punitive legislation could jeopardize $3.8 billion of World Bank funding over the next six years, Ghana’s Finance Ministry warned in a memo earlier this year. It could also derail a $3 billion bailout program from the International Monetary Fund and hurt the country’s efforts to restructure $20 billion of external debt, it said at the time.
A presidential endorsement is the last step required for the bill to become law. The president could also reject the bill or transfer it to the Council of State for further advice after receiving it.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has refused to receive the bill until the Supreme Court rules on its constitutionality. The incumbent hasn’t said what he’d do if the bill were deemed lawful by the court while he was still in office.
Bawumia, a northern Ghanaian, exclaimed a Hausa phrase meaning, “We won’t agree,” after speaking about the bill, and some cheers could be heard in the conference hall.
The proposed legislation has been politicized as the ruling New Patriotic Party candidate prepares to face former president John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress in elections scheduled for Dec. 7. Akufo-Addo is stepping down in January after his second and final four-year term.
Bawumia said Sunday his administration would cut government spending by 3% of GDP to ensure Ghana meets the requirements of its IMF program, which calls for the country to post a primary surplus after years running a deficit.
The 60-year-old economist had previously pledged to lift economic growth to an average 6%, from 2.9% last year, by boosting mining and agriculture in Africa’s top gold producer and the world’s second-biggest cocoa grower.
Bawumia has also vowed to invest in Ghana’s transition to cleaner energy, with the expected purchase of 100 electric-powered transit buses this year and a plan to install 2,000 megawatts of solar energy over the next four years.
