homosexuals: chasing the ‘outcasts’ out of town

By Godwin Haruna (This Day – Nigeria)

September 8, 2006: In January, the Federal Executive Council took a historic decision by approving a bill seeking to outlaw same sex marriage in the country. Considering the groundswell of opinion against the practice, concerned Nigerians are worried about the delay in debating the bill in the National Assembly.

In the past, around the central market in Kaduna they could be easily seen as they wait for customers. Quite a spectacle: painted lips, ear rings, neck laces complete with all sorts of rings on their fingers. They have imbibed the feminine mannerisms completely in their ways of life. They are homosexuals, now called men having sex with men.

Loathed and scorned by many in the Nigerian society, a combination of factors have driven underground the unrepentant army of homosexuals in the country. Within the central market, Kaduna where they used to practice their unusual past time openly, they are no longer seen, just as elsewhere in Nigeria. Within the secular and religious authorities, no sector has spared this group of individuals, who are treated as outcasts in the society.

In January this year, in a major pre-emptive move that has continued to receive public applause, the Federal Executive Council approved a Bill on the nefarious practice. If passed by the National Assembly, the bill would have the effect of banning the same-sex marriage in Nigeria. The new law, according to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bayo Ojo, will provide for outright prohibition of two men entering into what they wrongly perceive as marriage or two women entering into what they wrongly perceive as marriage. The bill prescribes a five-year jail sentence without an option of fine for offenders. Also, any persons or institutions, which expressly or implicitly, aid or abet such an aberration, would equally receive the same jail sentence of five years.

While explaining the position of the government on the issue, Mr. Frank Nweke, Information Minister, stated: "It is an offence for anybody to contract a marriage or have a relationship with a person of the same sex. If you do, it carries a sentence of five years imprisonment without the option of fine, and if you aid or support in any way, anybody of the same sex to contract a relationship or marriage, it will also attract five years imprisonment."

Home to the world’s largest Anglican province, Nigeria is leading the resistance against accepting gays in the Anglican Communion.
Among the clergy in Nigeria, they have never been equivocal in condemning the practice, which they regard as sinful. But, particularly, among the Anglicans, the controversy raised a notch ever since the ordination of an openly gay New Hampshire bishop in 2004. It exposed a deepening fault line between conservative Christianity flourishing in many developing countries and more liberal doctrines preached elsewhere. It also underscores a long-standing intolerance of homosexuality in Africa, which carries very secular implications.

Homosexuals are certainly not welcome in Nigeria’s 17 million-member Anglican Church, whose primate, Archbishop Peter Akinola, condemned the consecration of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson as an openly gay bishop as a “satanic attack on the Church of God.”

Akinola severed relations both with Robinson’s New Hampshire diocese and with a Canadian one last year for accepting homosexuals. Should the church formally split over homosexuality, Akinola—who has a large membership—is considered the likely leader of a conservative spinoff.

“Homosexuality is a deviation from the Scriptures,” Dr. Adebola Ademowo, Archbishop of Lagos, declared in the wake of the controversy, which has put the Nigerian clergy in the forefront of the campaign against same sex marriage. “And we are not alone in this belief. All the other denominations here are just enthused with our stance. They are praying with us”, Ademowo added.
“The most important thing is to encourage people to live holy lives, lives of chastity. That should supersede any other consideration”, he concluded.
In 2002 in Jigawa State where sharia is practiced, the law caught up with a gay university student, who was killed. The fledgling gay rights group, Alliance Rights Nigeria, which advertises no office address have also gone underground in the face of stiff public disapproval of their attitude. To get them to grant press interviews is almost impossible. Those giving rare interviews to the press use pseudonyms beacuse they know the implications of coming out into the open with their views.

With this clarity of purpose and with the groundswell of support of the generality of Nigerians, Mr. Sunday Okobi, executive director, Total Health, wonders why the members of the National Assembly have been delaying in discussing the bill. He said since the pronouncement of the Federal Executive Council, many hailed the bill as one of public interest, which should be passed into law expeditiously. He said the bill has the potentials of instilling good morals into the youths of this country that would have otherwise being misled.

Speaking further, Okobi added: "Even among the adult population, the few misguided elements engaging in this ungodly practice would have been dealt with. An agency of the government said sometime ago that all homosexuals and lesbians would not be allowed to contest elective office in the 2007 general elections. It is my view that before we get to the election, the law should come into effect to deal with any known one among them. It, therefore, rests on this crop of our distinguished senators and honourable members of the National Assembly to write their names on the sands of history by passing this bill before the end of their legislative session".

The executive director also told THISDAY that there is one Julius Kayode Ogundana from Ekiti State, who is a professed gay activist living in the United Kingdom and barred by his family from returning home. He said if other members of the society could take such drastic measures against family members involved in the unholy act, the society would be rid of these outcasts.

In the northern states where close to a dozen states have adopted Islamic Sharia law, Sharia council head, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said accepting homosexuality “will lead to a further erosion of our accepted principles of morality.”

Nigeria's National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) has accused homosexuals of being a major obstacle in the government's efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS. Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, NACA Chairman recently told a press conference in the capital, Abuja, that growing numbers of Nigerian men were engaging in homosexuality, and this "foreign practice" was fueling the transmission of HIV because "the undercover mode of operation of homosexuals makes it difficult to extend HIV testing and counseling sevices to them". AIDS activists list homosexuality as a minor variable in a tangle of high-risk activities on the continent, starting with unprotected heterosexual sex. But the very invisibility of gays poses a danger.

In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe once branded gays “worse than pigs and dogs". Apart from South Africa, no country in Africa tolerates homosexuals because their activities are seriously frowned at since it vitiates the rich family values cherished by the people.
In a published article on the Bill, Mr. Sonnie Ekwowusi, a famous columnist wrote: "In fairness, the Federal Government deserves our congratulation for taking this bold and courageous step in ridding the country of what is fast turning into a festering sore. Gay liberalists in the world are fighting hard to change the natural way normal people look at things. They want marriage to be defined as a union of any two, not a union of a man and a woman. Whenever a gay marriage takes place anywhere gay people ensure that it is given wide publicity in the media.
"Obviously the Nigerian Association of Homosexuals and lesbians are going to put up a stiff opposition to the banning of "same-sex marriage". First they would want to win the sympathy of the Nigerian public on the matter. Thereafter they will try to lobby the members of the National Assembly to reject the new 'same-sex marriage' bill. To buttress their argument they may refer to Spain and South Africa as 'progressive' countries, which have legalized 'same-sex marriage'. They may even take the government to court.

There they will argue that 'same-sex marriage' gives them pleasure and physical fulfillment in life. And if it does, it is morally good and so should be made available for every one who cares in accordance with strict moral neutrality and principle of tolerance. This argument which seeks a revision of natural law thinking is fundamentally faulty. It is predicated on lack of understanding of human nature.

Marriage is not just a means of sharing pleasure or even promoting feelings of closeness. Every culture in history has recognized the begetting and education of children as the overriding purpose of marriage. The claim by gay marriage liberalists that the law ought to be morally neutral about marriage is in itself a moral claim, which is not morally neutral. So when gay marriage liberalists make this type of claim they contradict themselves".

If there is any issue that has been roundly condemned by both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, a country where religion permeates everyday life, it is homosexuals. As Okobi explained to THISDAY: "There is unanimity of opposition from both Christian and Muslim leaders and their followers to granting homosexuals a free reign in the country. Even the animists consider anyone involved in it as an outcast to be avoided by all family members. So, where is the rationale for their existence in Nigeria? They have no place here since no shred of opinion accommodates them in our culture. We are just waiting for the law that will finally tame the remaining remnants of that aberration of African culture and modern religion".