Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has said the rapid rise in activities of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) can be attributed to financial hardships.

He said the increase in the country’s population, as well as the harsh realities of the economy, had led to hardships, making people think more of how to survive than doing what is morally right. 

The two-time head of state said this when the leadership of the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values called on him to officially invite him to a national dialogue on LGBT in the country, reports Graphic.com. “Now parents have to wake up early to go to work. By 4 a.m. some have to leave home and sometimes their children, some of whom may be as young as six months old, are sent to crèche without any regard for the value systems of caretakers. “We have reached an era when parents rarely live with their children to teach them morals and exhibit parental authority on them. Due to this, most children have become vulnerable and they copy some cultures, including LGBT, which are alien to the African society,” he added. The former President wants the citizenry given a financial boost so they can take good care of themselves and their families, and also to raise their children with moral and religious values.  Supporting the activities of the coalition, he explained that the acts of LGBT are unnatural which could destroy the traditional African family value system if it is not checked. “If we want society to continue, then we must understand that a man cannot give birth, likewise a woman cannot impregnate her fellow woman. They can adopt a baby and act as parents, but that will all be pretence and never genuine,” he said. On his part, legal practitioner and convener of the Coalition, Moses Foh-Amoaning called for a comprehensive national and Pan-Africanist response to the phenomenon of LGBT. “Fortunately, all our past and current Presidents have rejected the legalisation of this act. We need to look at it from a comprehensive viewpoint and have a legal backing to support the resistance. “The Eurocentric view is that LGBT activities are a lifestyle and they like it. That is fine with them, but we in Africa believe that LGBT is a psycho-social problem and very unnatural. There are antidotes to these conditions and people can be treated,” he said. Mr Foh-Amoaning said society “Must make sure they don’t win the minds of our children because when that happens, it will enter society and end up affecting us.” He said organising the national dialogue on October 29,  on the theme: ‘The African family and sustainable development — Strong family, strong nations’, will be putting a sending a comprehensive Afrocentric response to LGBT persons.