Misrepresentation Took Away From Beauty of Family Values Conference" - Salaga South MP

The Member of Parliament for Salaga South, Hon. Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah, has criticized sections of the media for misrepresenting the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty held in Accra.  

Contributing to debate in Parliament, Hon. Zuwera said while the conference was themed _“Consolidating Parliamentary Consensus: Advancing the African Charter on Family Values and Sovereignty”_, some media houses reported that _“Speaker of Parliament suspends Parliamentary sitting for three days to hold an LGBTQ conference in the Chamber.”_  

"Mr. Speaker, this alone takes away from the beauty of this otherwise very important conference," she stated.  

 The MP defended the conference as a platform for African consensus, quoting political theorist Chantal Mouffe’s concept of _“antagonistic democracy”_ which holds that democracy is built on consensus without eliminating the public sphere.  

"When we gather here as African Parliamentarians representing the people of Africa, we speak for the people of Africa. We speak in line with the antagonistic democratic theory of Chantal Mouffe. So we should celebrate ourselves for that uniqueness," she added.

Hon. Zuwera also linked the conference to the Pan-African vision of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.  

"As my senior colleague, Hajia Lardi, MP for Pusiga indicated, this was a continuation of the vision of the founder of this country. That is the vision, that is what we were doing."  

She further disclosed that when Ghana put itself forward to host the conference, all other African countries were in agreement. "Some of us were not in Uganda but we were told that when Ghana came out for nomination to host this conference, all the countries were in agreement."

Report  by PKB