Ghana will not budge in its anti-gay rights stance, despite calls to the contrary by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon at the last African Union summit in Addis Ababa, according to President John Evans Atta Mills.
Speaking to journalists on arrival at Kotoka International Airport in Accra on Tuesday after attending the summit President Mills said the country’s position about the rights of gays in Ghana was non-negotiable.
He said as long as he was the head of government, his response to calls to respect the rights of minorities with a different sexual orientation would be an abject rejection of their lifestyle, which he described as immoral.
Addressing heads of state and government at the summit, UN Secretary General, Ban had called on African governments to protect the rights of homosexuals.
“African leaders at the conference merely listened to him out of respect but Ghana’s position on gay rights would not change” Mills reiterated.
He said although Ghanaian society frowned on gay and lesbianism there was no discrimination against people with different sexual orientations in Ghana.
“Nobody is chasing anybody in Ghana for being a homosexual, therefore, there was no need to legalize any such right in the country” he argued.
Mills was present in the unveiling of a statue of the first President of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah situated at the forecourt of the new Chinese-built African Union building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last Saturday.
President Mills said he was grateful to all African leaders who helped keep his legacy alive by honoring him with a statue.
Last Saturday, African leaders joined President Mills and Nkrumah’s children, Professor Francis Nkrumah and Christina Samia Yaba Nkrumah to unveil a new statue built on the forecourt of the new ultra-modern headquarters of the AU in recognition of his contribution to the liberation struggle across Africa.
Source African Press Agency
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