Reports that the United States is contemplating sanctions against Nigeria over the anti-gay law recently signed by President Goodluck Jonathan is yet another pointer to unseemly American policies with adverse consequences on other countries. The adoption of such policies, presumably in pursuit of American interest, with no corresponding consideration to the countries affected, portrays the United States as unduly arrogant. The apprehension of Nigerians is understandable against the vacillation of US-Nigeria relations being reduced to petty quarrels over homosexuality. Clearly America needs to make a switch in mindset and policy to avoid scoring own goals in the light of the collateral damage of its attempted imposition of homosexuality on other countries. America ought to be showing good example to emerging powers on the moderate and responsible use of hegemony.
The question of homosexuality long regarded as taboo in Nigeria, raised its ugly head and profile in public debates after the President signed the anti-gay law amid a hailstorm of international condemnation. In signing the anti-gay law, Jonathan through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati noted that: “More than 90% of Nigerians are opposed to same sex marriage. So, the law is in line with our cultural and religious beliefs as a people… And I think that this law is made for a people and what government has done is consistent with the preference of its environment.” We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the President on this issue. The policy and practice of promoting sexual perversity under the lugubrious pretext of promoting human rights has no basis in Nigerian law, morality or common sense. It clearly undermines our culture and religion and flies in the face of our public perception of morality. This policy has no place in a society founded on the values of natural law; it fulfills no rational public policy or purpose, and is plainly egregious in its stupidity. No responsible government will tolerate such nonsense.
Homosexuality has been illegal in Nigeria dating back to the days of British colonization. Even today, in some parts of Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north where strict Sharia law is upheld, gays and lesbians risk being stoned to death if they are caught. The various world religions do not condone it; our largest religions, Christianity and Islam, condemn homosexuality. The mere mention of homosexuality is guaranteed to drive many Nigerians, especially Christians and Muslims up the wall in revulsion. There are some tolerant Nigerians who are inclined to look at the phenomenon as a form of mental illness; a benign affliction from which the victims can be rescued. For this group, gays and lesbians should be managed until they return to the path of moral rectitude. For others however, homosexuality is not a stigma but a biological condition, which is as perfectly normal as heterosexual orientation. No longer content to remain in the closet, these proponents of homosexuality and lesbianism are actively seeking to be heard, protesting what they say is discrimination against their fundamental human rights.
Pitched against the homosexuals are religious bodies led by the Catholic Church. Nigerian Catholic Bishops have taken the lead in expressing grave concern over America’s attempted imposition of gay marriage in the country, warning that homosexuality would destroy the will of God for mankind as He created us male and female. They totally reject homosexuality as ungodly, unhealthy and un-African. The problem with Nigerians is that we are all too eager to copy the latest fads from Europe and America. Not every product from the West is good and homosexuality is one such example. We must look at the issue from the prism of our culture and religion. For the African, the idea that a man can be married to a man or a woman to a woman is anathema. The culture of marriage is predicated on the union between a man and a woman and all our traditional practices and normative values regarding marriage are based on the assumption that the other member is of the opposite sex.
African parents prepare their children from birth through adolescence for marriage to the opposite sex. Too many things will be upset were it possible to upturn age-old customs and practices. Those who argue that opposition to homosexuality amounts to a violation of universal human rights may well need to realize that the dislike of homosexuality is not inconsistent with the observance of human rights. Nigerian homosexuals are not pilloried for being gay. They have a choice: they can marry members of the opposite sex or stay single. They only draw unfavorable attention to themselves when they threaten the safety and sanctity of a sacred institution like marriage. Over 98% of Nigerians believe society should not tolerate homosexuality, according to a Pew Research Center survey from last year. More than 90% of respondents in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Senegal said they felt the same way. Even in South Africa, the only country on the continent where same-sex marriage is legal, only three in ten people are tolerant of homosexuality, according to the Pew survey.
Looking at the issue, both parties cannot be reconciled, since homosexuality has been criminalized in Nigeria. Besides America, Jonathan will be up in arms against groups like Amnesty International, Freedom House, Global Rights, Human Rights Watch and other gay and Lesbian organizations which form the main core of the well-heeled Western homosexual lobby. In condemning the Nigerian anti-gay law, US Secretary of State John Kerry said: “People everywhere deserve to live in freedom and equality. No one should face violence or discrimination for who they are or who they love.” But homosexuality in Nigeria has nothing to do with equality, let alone discrimination. Nigerians have a right to say “no” to a movement whose ultimate outcome will be the destruction of the family. Homosexuals are claiming that men can marry themselves. If everyone followed their example, would they have even been born?
The prospect of the United States imposing an anarchical contest for supremacy between competing sectarian interpretations of theological or naturalist moral order should hardly bear even perfunctory thought. If America believes it has the right to impose homosexuality on African countries, it should begin by accepting polygamy, which is a marked feature of African culture. The desirability of America patrolling Nigerian public space as a self-proclaimed human rights police certainly does not stand up to any tests of legality, public policy, teleology, morality, or theology. Nigerians have cause to be concerned about America’s threat of sanctions, coming in the wake of the US designation of Boko Haram as a terrorist organization with the capacity and potential to act against American interests. This concern is not misplaced because, by that classification, America gives itself the right to strike Boko Haram on Nigerian soil whenever it deems appropriate. This may further compound Nigeria’s enormous security challenges and destabilize an already over-heated polity.
The risks involved in this obnoxious American support of homosexuality creates an unsupportable hierarchy of social disintegration, as it amounts to a formal endorsement of behavior and practices which have been tabooed by Nigerian cultural norms. This policy of supporting homosexuality is a charter for sectarian warfare masquerading as human rights promotion. It is wrong in law, fact, logic and basic common sense. It feeds international prejudice against Nigeria as a nation and, in our humble view, it must not be tolerated. America should come to terms with the fact that the vast majority of Nigerians want the same things like ordinary Americans – good jobs, affordable healthcare, good schools for their children, etc. The tragedy of America’s forceful exercise of its global leadership has too often jeopardized world peace because of unwise unilateralism. Ultimately, it is in America’s best interest to review its controversial policy. This is clearly not the way to treat a friend and trusted ally like Nigeria.
