John Dramani Mahama, the Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had a moment of great applause during an engagement with Christian community leaders on Tuesday, October 1, 2024.
The engagement with the pastors and church leaders was to offer the former president a time to enjoy a special time of prayer, worship and fellowship in God’s presence, with the church’s leaders.
But the former president received quite more than that during his address to the gathering while speaking on the subject of same-sex relationships.
In establishing the point that he is a Christian and that such practices of the LGBTQ+ community have no place in the church, he recalled how the sitting president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, hasn’t helped much with the situation in the country.
This, he said, is because the president has yet to sign the anti-gay bill into law.
But John Dramani Mahama assured the clergymen, indicating that under his presidency, such practices would not be tolerated in any way, anywhere.
“My fathers and mothers in Christ, the current legal impasse created by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration on the Promotion of Proper Human Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Act, which was passed by Parliament, has set a dangerous precedence for our governance. The constitutional directive for action by the president are quite clear and need not have resulted in this stalemate.
“As I’ve publicly stated, I’m a proud member of the Assemblies of God Church and my faith does not support same-sex marriages or relationships (loud applause for over 20 seconds) nor does it support human-animal relationships, or does it allow people to change their gender as they wish. This is a fundamental belief that I hold and is grounded in my faith. I, therefore, assure you that the promotion of LGBTQ+ and all the pluses will have no place in our schools and communities under my administration,” he said, followed by the entire room of pastors standing to their feet in great and loud applause.