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Homosexuals Chasing
the 'Outcasts' Out of Town
07 Sept 2006- Nigeria- 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".
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