The Member of Parliament for Salaga South, Hon. Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah, has criticised sections of the media for what she described as the misrepresentation of the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty held in Accra.
Contributing to a debate in Parliament, Hon. Zuwera said although the conference was held under the theme, “Consolidating Parliamentary Consensus: Advancing the African Charter on Family Values and Sovereignty,” some media outlets 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, describing it as a platform for building African consensus. She cited 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 Ghana’s bid to host the conference received unanimous backing from participating African countries.
“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.”
Her remarks formed part of the parliamentary debate on the conference, during which she urged greater accuracy in media reporting to ensure the event’s objectives were not overshadowed by misleading narratives.
