No more ambiguity: President Mahama must match words with deeds on LGBTQ and education
No more ambiguity: President Mahama must match words with deeds on LGBTQ and education
Ghanaians are a patient people, but patience must never be mistaken for forgetfulness.
During the heat of the 2024 general election campaign, leading figures of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) spoke with unmistakable clarity on LGBTQ matters. They criticised the Akufo-Addo administration, accused it of cowardice, foreign appeasement, and deliberate delay, and assured the Ghanaian people that an NDC government would act decisively.
Today, with power firmly in the hands of President John Dramani Mahama, the nation is entitled to ask a simple but unavoidable question: what has changed?
WHAT THEY SAID BEFORE POWER
On 31 January 2024, while addressing Zongo chiefs in Koforidua, then-candidate John Dramani Mahama stated publicly that he was against LGBTQ activities and criticised President Akufo-Addo for failing to assent to the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill. He suggested the delay was linked to external pressure and donor dependence.
Again, on 12 March 2024, during his campaign tour, Mahama went further. He accused the Akufo-Addo government of deliberately delaying assent to the Anti-LGBTQI Bill because of fear of foreign backlash. He argued that Ghana must be self-reliant and bold in defending its cultural and moral values.
These were not whispered comments. They were campaign declarations, carried by major Ghanaian media houses.
At the parliamentary front, Sam Nartey George, one of the principal sponsors of the bill, became the loudest moral voice on the issue. When Parliament passed the bill on 28 February 2024, Sam George did not mince words. He repeatedly insisted that Ghana’s values were non-negotiable and that any president who believed in those values would assent without hesitation.
In a widely reported reaction to John Mahama’s BBC interview, Sam George clarified the matter even further. He stated unequivocally:
“Mahama has been clear that he is going to sign that bill, and he has no option but to sign that bill. President Mahama will know no peace until he signs that bill… What he said to the BBC was explaining why President Akufo-Addo had not signed it.”
That statement was not ambiguous. It was definitive. It framed Mahama as a future president who would act where Akufo-Addo allegedly failed.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, for his part, joined the debate in October 2024, fiercely rejecting claims that the NDC supported any LGBTQ-friendly curriculum. He described suggestions that the party was promoting such ideas as “desperate concoctions and outright falsehoods.” His message to the public was clear: the NDC was not, and would not be, a vehicle for LGBTQ ideology, especially in education.
THE EDUCATION CONTROVERSY AND PUBLIC TRUST
Fast-forward to January 2026, and the withdrawal of a Senior High School Teacher Manual by NaCCA and the Ministry of Education after it defined “gender identity” as an internal experience that may not correspond with biological sex.
This incident has reignited public anxiety.
Ghanaians are not naïve. When controversial definitions quietly appear in teacher manuals, whether described as “supplementary” or not, people are right to ask: how did this get there, and who is watching the gate?
President Mahama must understand this clearly: education is not a testing ground for ideological ambiguity. Any perception, real or imagined, that LGBTQ concepts are being smuggled into teaching materials erodes trust and deepens suspicion.
THE UNAVOIDABLE QUESTIONS
If the NDC was so vocal in opposition while in opposition, why the silence now?
If the bill was good and urgent in February 2024, why is assent still pending?
If the delay under Akufo-Addo was framed as weakness or foreign dependency, what explains the delay today?
And most importantly: if any section of the current government or its allies is benefiting directly or indirectly from LGBTQ advocacy networks, the Ghanaian people deserve honesty, not evasions.
A CALL TO ACTION
President Mahama must do three things clearly, publicly, and without delay:
State his unambiguous personal and presidential position on LGBTQ matters, beyond campaign-era soundbites.
Assent to the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, if he truly believes, as he once said, that Ghana must defend its values without fear.
Issue firm directives that no education material, curriculum, manual, or guide shall introduce or imply LGBTQ ideology, whether overtly or subtly.
At the same time, churches, clergy, mosques, and traditional religious leaders must rise. Silence now would be interpreted as consent. Moral leadership does not end at the ballot box.
CONSISTENCY IS THE MEASURE OF LEADERSHIP
Democracy is sustained not only by elections, but by consistency between words spoken in opposition and actions taken in power.
Ghanaians listened in 2024. They voted in hope. They are watching now.
History will not judge President Mahama by what he criticised Akufo-Addo for doing or failing to do, but by whether he dared to act when the responsibility finally rested on his desk.
Anything less will be remembered for what it is: hypocrisy at its peak.
