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President John Dramani Mahama has asserted that fostering family values in society does not require legislation, emphasising instead the role of education in shaping moral foundations.
“If we are teaching our values in schools, we won’t need to pass a bill [on LGBT] to enforce our family values,” he said during a meeting with the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Accra. “More than even the family values bill, we need to agree on a curriculum that inculcates these values into our children as they grow.”
President Mahama highlighted the importance of instilling values in children through the educational system, arguing that a well-designed curriculum could achieve more lasting results than legislative measures.
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He made these remarks in reference to the lapsed anti-LGBTQI bill, formerly titled the “Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill,” which he noted expired with the tenure of the previous Parliament.
“The convention is that all bills not assented to before the expiration of the life of parliaments expire,” he explained. “And so that bill effectively is dead; it has expired.”
The president advocated for a renewed approach to addressing the issue, suggesting that a government-sponsored bill would provide a more inclusive framework for stakeholder consultations than the earlier private member’s bill.
“We need to have a conversation on this,” he said, adding that “legislation should not be the only solution to instilling family values.”
The delegation from the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, led by Most Rev. Emmanuel Kofi Fianu, congratulated President Mahama on his recent electoral victory and urged him to consider reintroducing the family values bill.
“We already know your position, but we are hopeful that you will sign it into law,” said Most Rev. Fianu.
President Mahama, however, reiterated that education should be the priority, thanking the Catholic Church for its contributions to the moral and educational development of Ghana’s youth.
The president emphasised that teaching children core values through a carefully structured curriculum would reduce the need for legislative enforcement, allowing society to naturally adopt and sustain moral and ethical principles.
“As we focus on educating the next generation, we can build a society where values are deeply ingrained and do not require enforcement by law,” he concluded.
