Lead advocate of the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values, Moses Foh-Amaaning, says the reintroduction of the bill as a public bill will resolve many of the challenges that have delayed its passage.
Speaking on JoyNews PM Express on Wednesday, he explained that several legal and procedural issues surrounding the bill stemmed from its status as a private member’s bill.
He argued that if government takes ownership of it and reintroduces it as a public bill, most of those concerns — including cost implications — would be cleared.
“When the bill is introduced as a public bill, it will solve a lot of issues,” he said.
He stressed that the bill was carefully thought through before being introduced, contrary to claims by critics that it sought to criminalise people.
“This bill was not just brought out. We thought through it. The LGBT movement and its propaganda have always been that, ‘Oh, you want to throw people in prison.’ We say, no. You think it’s a lifestyle, you want to glamorise it, that’s fine. We over here think that people who’ve got those challenges, and if they have those challenges, we help them,” he said.
Mr Foh-Amoaning noted that the bill even makes room for care and rehabilitation.
“So in the bill, we said that if you need care, treatment and support, or even during arrest, sentencing, or trial, even when you’re in prison and you agree that you need help, then you will be given. The law allows for flexible sentencing,” he explained.
However, he pointed out that cost became a major sticking point during the drafting stage.
“The issue of cost became an issue because they said, if you use the health facilities, who’s going to pay? Although the drafting language was clear, the former Attorney General objected to it because there was going to be costs,” he revealed.
According to him, that concern ties directly into President Akufo-Addo’s earlier position that the bill could best be handled if it came as a public bill.
“For me, that’s what made the President’s viewpoint — that it has to come as a public bill — very interesting. And I’m still insisting that now that it is going to be reintroduced, if the government doesn’t have any problem, I wish the President will go back to his own view,” he said.
Mr Foh-Amoaning disclosed that he had already engaged the Attorney General on the matter.
“I have had discussions with the Attorney General. He was keen on discussing it with the private members who want to bring it so that they will withdraw their private members’ bill, and then he will bring it as a public bill. I think it will resolve a lot of these issues that I have raised,” he concluded.