The Lincoln University has withdrawn its offer of an honorary doctorate to President John Dramani Mahama, just hours before the conferment was scheduled to take place.
The decision, announced on March 26, followed objections raised by a group within the university over Mahama’s perceived stance on Ghana’s proposed Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, commonly referred to as the anti-LGBTQ bill currently under consideration by Ghana’s Parliament.
Ghana’s Embassy in the United States has expressed “profound disappointment” after Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
In a statement, the embassy said the concerns emerged without warning, despite extensive vetting and logistical coordination between the university and Ghanaian officials in the lead-up to the event. Embassy officials noted that a full walkthrough had been conducted just last week and that all arrangements had been finalized.
“It is both surprising and regrettable that such concerns have surfaced at this late stage, particularly with the President already in the United States in anticipation of the visit,” the embassy said.
Mahama, who served as Ghana’s president from 2012 to 2017, had accepted the invitation in good faith from an institution with deep historical ties to Ghana.
Lincoln University counts Ghana’s founding president, Kwame Nkrumah, among its distinguished alumni.
While acknowledging the university’s right to consult its stakeholders and uphold its institutional values, the embassy noted that the concerns raised pertain to ongoing legislative deliberations in Ghana, matters that it said remain subject to democratic debate and do not reflect the unilateral position of any individual.
