Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr., has condemned some religious leaders who hastily joined the bandwagon criticizing the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE).
According to him, they should have double-checked their facts before coming out with their stand.
"Some of the religious leaders much earlier should have been circumspect and sought information and education. If some of them had taken their time to obtain the information needed perhaps, they would not have joined that mischievous bandwagon . . .” he said while contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show ‘Kokrokoo’.
Religious Groups Say It's 'Satanic'
The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC), an organisation made up of over 200 church denominations in Ghana, earlier described the plan to teach CSE in all public schools to children from five years upwards as "satanic".
"I won't call it Comprehensive Sexuality Education, it is Comprehensive Satanic Engagement," GPCC President, Rev. Dr Paul Yaw Frimpong-Manso told Kwami Nkrumah Tikesie on Okay FM's Morning Show last week.
Their counterpart, the Office of the Natioanl Chief Imam (ONCI) and other Islamic organisations in the country also waded in.
The Personal Assistant to the National Chief Imam and Director of the Youth and Interfaith Programmes of the ONCI, Alhaji Khuzaima Osman, strongly pointed out that the Islamic Muslim community in Ghana was united in the call for the CSE to be reversed.
"We appeal the Ministry (of Education) and the GES to drop that satanic agenda in the interest of national cohesion and moral promotion. The ONCI is joined by the Tijjaniya Muslims of Ghana, the Islamic Peace and Security Council of Ghana (IPASEC), the Islamic Council for Development and Humanitarian Services (ICODEHS), the Islamic Research Association of Ghana and the Association of the 16 Regional Chief Imams.
"We would like to state unequivocally that the Islamic community does not accept any form of educating minors and pupils on sexuality. In our estimation, such a move is an attempt to hide behind educational reforms to brainwash the pupils with LGBT agenda," he stressed.
President’s reaction
Over the weekend, President Akufo-Addo held separate meetings with Muslim and Christian leaders in Kumasi, where he spoke for the first time on the controversial CSE guidelines and assured that his administration will not introduce any policy that will be alien to the Ghanaian culture.
Prior to that meeting, the president addressed a congregation at the St Cyprians Anglican Church at Kumasi Sunday, the President said: "there have been talks in recent times about me and my government introducing some inappropriate materials into schools. I brought the Free SHS to strengthen our education and so I will not allow any immoral materials to enter our schools."
“I’m a Christian and as long as I sit as President of Ghana, I will not allow anything like that in our schools so I urge you all to be calm because I won’t let that happen,” he said.
Reacting to this, Kweku Baako Jnr. said the President’s speech was to cure the mischief that the CSE was an LGBT agenda superintended by him; adding, “he dealt with it in a political manner”.
CSE Origin
The Ghana government and United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), launched the CSE programme this year in a bid to empower adolescents and young people to attain a Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE).
Known as the "Our Right, Our Lives, Our Future (o3), CSE is supported by governments of Sweden and Ireland. It is being implemented in Ghana, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe for what proponents say will be an effective delivery of quality comprehensive programmes.
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