nigerian media perpetuates homophobia

By Mongezi Mhlongo (BTM Intern)

NIGERIA – 2 October 2008: In attempts to clampdown on homosexuality, some angry Nigerian citizens devoted to torment and victimise the gays and lesbians in that country.

The media is believed to be at the helm of infiltrating the recent spate of attacks in Nigeria on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. This followed a series of articles published by some newspapers such as The Nation, PM News, The Vanguard and The Sunday Sun indicating that House of Rainbow Metropolitan Church – an all-inclusive congregation in Nigeria according to a lead member – is exclusively gay.

The newspapers articles also had photographs, names and physical addresses of members of the church and its leaders claiming that they were homosexuals in an anti-gay Nigeria.

According to Stephanie Adaralegbea – a transgender woman in Nigeria, the media crackdown has placed them in danger and they are “living in morbid fear and trepidation.”

Early this week, Adaralegbe was attacked by a group of young men who were against his sexual orientation. “I practically escaped death just a few days ago when a group of about eleven to fifteen boys attacked me with planks, sticks bottles and iron bars”, he recounted.

 “The lewd boys thought I was a girl and they wanted to get fresh with me. On discovering that I was transgender they raised a volcanic alarm that drew the attention of other people in the neighborhood”, he continued.

Condemning the attacks, , an international human rights advocacy group, Global Rights, warned in a statement that; “We think it is time to start again the process of quite diplomacy to warn the Nigerian government that any attack or incitation of hatred against LGBT community and activists working on LGBT rights will not be tolerated by the international community.”

Pauline Kimani, key member of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK), echoed the same sentiments and adding that Nigeria should be “part of the convention against torture”, which is translated as being part of the UN convention against torture, degrading and inhumane treatment.

Meanwhile speculation is rife that the dubbed ‘draconian legislation’ of the federal criminal code, which dictates up to 14 years imprisonment for homosexual acts, is likely to be approved following engagement by Nigerian authorities after the media alert.

Prior to the recent media tumult, Reverend Jide Macaulay of the House of Rainbow MCC had told Behind The Mask that the LGBTI community continuously faces rampant homophobia in Nigeria.

“The state of homophobia is devastating. We are having extra special sessions to record the atrocities against LGBT people, and meeting with people to share their stories. These stories include homophobic attacks by strangers and domestic homophobic assaults”, he pointed.

While authorities continue to oppose homosexuality, the controversial 2006 Same Sex Prohibition Bill in Nigeria seems to be tolling.

The bill encompasses various factors that undermine human rights and suggests that a penalty of five years imprisonment be imposed to anyone who ‘goes through a ceremony of marriage with a person of same sex’ or someone who ‘performs, witness, aids and abets such ceremonies.’

Furthermore the bill intended to introduce the same penalty to individuals who engage in public or in any form of advocacy or association supporting the rights of LGBTI people.

Following Nigeria’s presidential elections of 2007, the bill was temporarily held up by either one or both houses of Nigeria’s National Assembly. 

Human rights observers believe that the government has failed the LGBTI community in Nigeria and that the recent media crackdown has placed the LGBTI community in enormous danger.