Let’s sell Ghana if LGBT+ can’t be criminalized over a paltry $3bn loan – Malik Basintale

Deputy Communications Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Malik Basintale has called on the Finance Minister to point to where in Ghana’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it was agreed that passing the anti-gay law would lead to a termination of the agreement.

On Monday, March 4, 2024, Ghana’s Finance Ministry wrote to the President of Ghana, urging him not to assent to the bill passed by Parliament.

In the letter, the Ministry gave several reasons, including Ghana’s inability to access aid, as some of the reasons why the president should not sign the bill into law.

But speaking on Accra-based TV3, Malik Basintale indicated that he has read the agreement several times but has not seen anywhere Ghana stands to lose an agreement with the IMF.

“I’ve read this document over twenty times and I haven’t seen a single legal basis as to why Alhaji Amin Antah, MP for Karaga, will think that it is wrong for the president to sign a bill that stops man and man from marrying. There is no condition, there is no termination clause stated in this agreement that has got anything to do with LGBTQI. The basis that will lead to the termination of this agreement has got absolutely nothing to do with the passage of a law criminalizing LGBTQI.

"So I ask Alhaji Amin Antah, who has suddenly developed a love for LGBTQI and thinks that criminalizing them will lead us to not getting 3 billion loan. Paltry, last year 2022, the Auditor General’s report brought out infractions in the public sector to a tune of 1.2 billion that is greater than 700 million per year Amin Antah thinks we should not set aside. If because of a paltry 3 billion loan this government thinks LGBTQI+ be practised in this country it is time we sold this country to someone who will buy the country for cheap,” he said.