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Nigeria should respect Gay rights as human rights PDF Print E-mail
Sunday, 06 August 2006
The Nigerian government has outlawed gay civil partnership.  It is an offence punishable by five years’ imprisonment for any citizen to take part in a gay civil partnership.  In addition, the law also banned “any form of protest to press for rights or recognition” of homosexuals. Given that homosexuality is already illegal, and in some parts of Nigeria punishable by death, the question is why did the government bother at all in the first place?  How do you smack a child and tell that child not to cry.  The Government roles out a law, which infringes on the human rights of some citizens and then goes ahead to ban any kind of protest in whatever shape or form. 
 
This administration has been marred by serious irregularities and fraud, including political assassinations.  Human-rights abuses and extra judicial killings, child abuse, child and women prostitution are common.  With all the corruption, disease, and millions of Nigerians living below the poverty line, my question is; where is the moral justification for such a draconian law?  It is bad enough that gay people are living in denial, fear and shame.  A public admission of being gay is an invitation to lynching.
 
Verbal attack of homosexuals is an easy way of distracting attention from the failure of Government. “Such a tendency is clearly un-biblical, unnatural and definitely un-African”, President Obasanjo said of homosexuality to a conference of Nigerian bishops in October 2004.  I am not sure if President Obasanjo is the rightful man to deliver moral lessons to bishops.   Yes Mr. President, but there are many unbiblical stuff happening in our day and time on planet earth especially in your Government.  The attitude is to find someone to blame for all the troubles in society, usually the vulnerable ones. 
 
Nigerian gays are being stripped of their basic human rights (right to freedom – UDHR) in the name of “checking the possible erosion of our value system” because Nigeria is a conservative society. To make matters worse, protest is illegal.  My point is that gays are human beings and their rights are human rights.  I know a lot of gays who are very good people.
 
In January this year, the Federal Executive Council approved a bill that prohibits same-sex marriages and relationships. This bill provides for a prison term of five years with no option of fine for anyone who contracts or has relationship with a person of the same sex including anyone who aids or supports in any way same sex marriage or relationship.
 
The point is that I do not see any reason why two consenting adults should be criminalized because of their sexual orientation or sexual choices they make.  Bear in mind, that these people are brothers, uncles, cousins, fathers in some cases, etc to other people.  In the process of criminalizing them, we hurt their families as well.  Some people are born gays.  Others become gay due to the associations they form in their lifetime.  Should we then crucify those who are born gays or those make certain choices for whatever reasons?  Come to think of it, gays do not harm anyone by their sexual activities.  In this day and age where several sections of the Nigeria society feel marginalized to the extent that they are advocating for secession, do we want to create another group of alienated Nigerian citizens?
 
Nigeria is a diverse country with people of different ideas, beliefs and philosophies. There are conservatives as well as liberals. The Nigerian government should make laws that take cognisance of the nation’s plurality as well as dynamism; laws that are fair, balanced and inclusive.   Amina Lawal was accused of committing adultery and was going to be stoned to death under a draconian law that recognises a woman as an adulterer and lets the man with whom she committed the offence go scott free.
 
The truth is that there are still a lot of issues yet to be resolved about human sexuality and morality in general.  Does this law banning same sex marriage resolve these issues in any way?  No.
 
Granted, the bible forbids homosexuality but it also forbids murder, fornication and adultery yet these are widely ‘celebrated’.  The same bible tells us not to condemn or judge anyone.  Indeed Our Lord Jesus Christ did not condemn the prostitute.  Instead, he told the one without sin to cast the first stone.  We are all guilty of one thing or the other according to the bible.  There is need for reason, commonsense, thoughtfulness, knowledge, love, tolerance, human solidarity, and empathy in the management of issues like homosexuality and other human affairs in life.
 
As a matter of fact, Nigeria should make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal, as we have seen in some other African countries and indeed across the world. Nigeria should honour its commitment and obligations as a signatory to UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights instruments.  Every Nigerian citizen deserves equal protection from the State.
 
In the meantime, we have seen the effects of isolation and marginalisation in some parts of Nigeria, notably the Niger-Delta.  Rebellion is now the other name for young militants. The beleaguered people of the Niger Delta have finally taken matters into their own hands with an insurrection amid fears of civil conflict throughout Nigeria and an open armed hostility in the country, one of the world’s largest oil exporters. Although homosexuality is not an ethnic thing, the crisis in the Niger-Delta is a classical example of what marginalisation of a group of people can do.


Benedicta Attoh
CEO
The African Experience
Website:www.africanexperience.ie




RobotRobot is offline 
Villager

 # 1 | 06.08.2006 23:35


AuspiciousAuspicious is offline 
Villager

 # 2 | 07.08.2006 00:47

Pardon me, but I am at a loss to find which I find more amusing from the
two things I have gleaned from this essay; is it the issue of a President who
is reported to have confidently stated in public that “such a tendency is
clearly un-biblical(!), unnatural and definitely un-African
” OR the new-found
cause of our of our up-and-coming Irish-Nigerian star - Sister Bennie - to
promote gay rights (of all the serious social ills that plague us!) in Nigeria.

To Baba, I will love to ask if he cared if the "tendency" is also un-Quoranic,
un-Moremi, un-Iyemoja, un-Ogunlakaaye
etc. No, don't give me that talk
about him addressing Xtian Bishops; he is first of all the President of ALL
Nigerians - muslims, christians, pagans, atheists, agnostics etc - before
anything else and as such should be seen to be representing not just the
interests of folks with "biblical" views, but views of Nigerians in general.

As for Ms Attoh's new-found cause, I say, before 'gay rights' (in Nigeria!-lol!)
come women's right, children's right, right to freedom of association, right
to travel in peace without police harassment, right to live in peace in your
house without robbers' phonecall to tell you they'll be at yours in 2 hours
precisely, the right to have your vote reflect your choice of leader, the right
to control and enjoy your God-given resources..and other MORE IMPORTANT
right than the right of bone-to-bone or boob-to-boob.(!)
Abeg now Sister
Bennie, fight for such in Ireland first.
Over there, they have all those basic
rights near satisfactory already, hence they are satiated enough to fight for
things like 'Gay Rights'. We barely enjoy the basic rights to life and personal
liberty and economic prosperity in Nigeria, not to talk of 'Gay Rights'.
LOL..abi?..LOL!

Funny way to start the week. I predict a torrent of responses to this article.
Have a nice week, Villagers.


Auspicious.

*un-Moremi, un-Iyemoja, un-Ogunlakaaye - all various attributes of Yoruba
traditional dieties.


vatikavatika is offline 
JJC

 # 3 | 07.08.2006 02:19

Benedict, your essay is sagaciously lamed and therefore an omitigated disaster. The write-up depict a scoundrel, you spoke in unctuous tones and clearly based on expendiency. However, we have seen your like in the Netherlands and in the person of Ms Ayan. There are no links between the title of your essay and the Nigeria economic that is obviously not sturdy. Nigeria and Ireland appears to have same moral environment, therefore you are hooked in both sides of the atlantic and both countries are not prepare for your agnostic gospel.

God bless Nigeria and Catholic Republic of Ireland.


vatikavatika is offline 
JJC

 # 4 | 07.08.2006 02:26

typographic error:

mitigated - not omitigated


nallanahnallanah is offline 
Villager

 # 5 | 07.08.2006 02:58

Sister Bennie,
I think that you may have hit upon a raw nerve here!!

In religious terms and even in our local Nigerian culture, Homosexuality is WRONG!!! Let me say it here and now;.....

Man and Woman were created for a purpose! FACT!!

Our sexual organs were also created for a PURPOSE!! FACT!!

...Now when humans "CHOOSE" to deviate from that which is normal and come up with such lame excuses as..."I was born this way" or "You just dont understand" there is only one word for this;.....DEVIANT! PERIOD!!

There can be no known excuse or reason for asking for GAY rights, and not in Nigeria of all places. We have enough problems as it is.

I know these things exist in Nigeria, dont get me wrong; ...but let "them" remain in the CLOSET where they belong!!!

SHIKENA!!...second bass O jare!!


closet nijacloset nija is online 

 # 6 | 07.08.2006 05:49

I congratulate the writer for a thoughtful and well-balanced article. People's lifestyles should have nothing to do with their citizenship or human rights. If I am gay, I should have the same rights as every heterosexual to maintain my citizenship, human and civil rights, period!

As the writer pointed out, Stealing from the poor, polygamy, etc are considered sinful, but no one is yet to strip the likes of your politicians, most of who are polygamists of their human rights.

Just leave us alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


VisitorVisitor is online 

 # 7 | 07.08.2006 06:22

The good of the greater number madam, that is what governance should be about. There is always an obscure right, including the right of the individual chickens to life, which is intensely violated especially during easter, that a country cannot satisfy everyone including those in diaspora who have advanced and maybe even superior notions of how things should be.

The law that you talk about may be faulted on the premise that it was not subjected to diaogue, and that those that it will affect the most were excluded from contributing during public hearings and similar other mechanisms that enable the people contribute to the law enactment process. If they were not actively prevented, and the law went through in spite of their best efforts, then democracy can be deemed to have taken its course and the law has been made for the good of the greater number.

We should as people come together to decide what we want or want not, no matter what other nations of the world say. International laws attempt to set a minimum standard but even so in recognition of the sovereignty of nation states, there are exemptions and provisos. China after all chose the third option.

My right as a parent to prtect my child from being persuaded to a lifestyle that was not coded by his/her genes should also be protected I think. And being human a level of self control, based on what is socially acceptable is expected of us. Since Kleptomania wil not stand up as defence for theft, natural blood lust will not do for murder just as the comliness of a 13 year old virgin or even a natural desire to sleep with children can never be defence enough for paedophilia, so too should people who have homosexuality coded in their genes come to the understanding that their condition is a call to celibacy. No one ever died yet from not having sex.


OghreOghre is offline 
Villager

 # 8 | 07.08.2006 06:59

I don’t know what gay rights have to do with the fact that OBJ is planning a coup in 2007 (sorry interim government), or the other serious issues we face back home and in Diaspora.

I think there are more important issues even in Ireland that one can channel their energy into than fighting for same sex rights.

I don’t know if the writer is aware but folks in the Republic of Ireland (mostly blacks) are losing their jobs to Polish and other cheap labour Eastern European immigrants in the last year or so. Nigerians who constitute the largest black group in Ireland are told point black their jobs are going to new white members of the EU.

You have enough there to sink your teeth into than moonlighting for sausage jockeys.


ObiObi is offline 
Villager

 # 9 | 07.08.2006 07:09

Look Bennie! I am disappointed with you. Your comment-seeking article has revealed a complacent personality. Ireland, an arch conservative catholic nation, is the wrong place to migrate, and start the gospel of Gay freedom.

You have indicated interest in Irish politics, and to start that with Gay-leftist activism may bring the wrath of white Irish politicians in the upper echelon. And, Such has the potentials to posse a big threat to a first generation immigrant. ( no matter your aduro story)

You were probably aware of the case of Ayan Hirsi, the former Somali aduro, who later became a member of the Dutch parliament. She became so loquacious just as you are becoming, and stepped on some powerful white Dutch toes. Consequently, she was investigated and stripped of her Dutch citizenship.

I am not frightening you my sister, but just be careful. With exception to the UK, the rest of Europe are not like the US where freedom is practiced to its maximum.

The religious or traditional African values which implores us to abhor these types of vices should continue to be upheld. There are certain elements in them that are valuable weapons to checkmate certain human misbehaviour. It smacks of oversight, when educated Africans allow Western radicalism to override core African values. Our conservative values can serve as the third-eye to the madness called freedom in the wild West. Africans can benefit from helpful Western values, while throwing away the undesirables. Asians are wisely doing it.


I do not always agree with the US Evangelist, Rev. Jerry Falwell, but I was in accord with him when he said, " I do not believe the homosexual community deserves minority status. One's misbehaviour does not qualify him or her for minority status....".


MarinMarin is offline 
Villager

 # 10 | 07.08.2006 07:47

Dear Vatika,

I think you missed out on various other grammatical errors in your reply, so I am doing you the (thankless, I bet) favour of correcting it. Before you pick up a dictionary and write all the big words you can find to lambaste the write-up, may I suggest you learn to write correct and simple English first?

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Benedict, your essay is sagaciously lamed(lame) and therefore an omitigated(a mitigated- okay you already saw this one yourself) disaster. The write-up depict(s) a scoundrel, (may I suggest a full stop here?) you spoke in unctuous tones and clearly based on expendiency(it is expediency, if this statement makes any sense at all). However, we have seen your like in the Netherlands and in the person of Ms Ayan. There are no links between the title of your essay and the Nigeria economic(it is economy in this context) that is obviously not sturdy?????. Nigeria and Ireland appears(appear, not appears) to have same moral environment, therefore you are hooked in both sides of the Atlantic and both countries are not prepare(prepared) for your agnostic gospel.


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I am tired of reading bad grammar from people who think they write perfectly. Several people even accuse some writers of writing bad "grammer". Grammar is written with an a not e.

I know I will be slaughtered by people who claim English is not our mother tongue, but, anyone who graduated from a Nigerian University has had at least 16 years instruction in English and, last time I checked, English was still the Lingua Franca of Nigeria, so I do not accept that excuse.

Marin:mad:

 

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