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20 February 2014
By Raheem
Oluwafunminiyi
The controversy surrounding the
anti-gay bill recently signed into law as announced by
Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to President
Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity few weeks
back has continued unabated, further generating much
buzz. It even gets more exciting seeing several
foreign friends of the country voicing strongly their
concerns on such an ‘obnoxious law' which they argue
threatens the ‘human right' of some minority to freely
associate. More than half of all social media
platforms with both the electronic and print media
have also joined in the euphoria by publishing and
airing a barrage of articles, letters, opinions and
commentaries sent by concerned individuals on the
issue. In fact, this may be the most discussed topic
this year, except the political class wish to add
something new as usual to the political dictionary.
The anti-gay law has brought to the
fore the very division that characterises the core of
the Nigerian state. When I talk about division, I am
looking at it from the angle of our collective senses
or consciousness which usually fails to table
critically issues with reason and rather attach our
arguments or criticisms on blank sentiments and
supposition. It is even more saddening that as a
people, we have lost our sense of history such that we
cannot but miss the point when ordinarily we should be
using our historical past to solve issues of the day
pronto. A peoples' history is synonymous to its
culture and way of life such that it is heavily tied
to the identity one carries from one generation to the
other. It is why the Yoruba sees bowing and kneeling
as a greeting culture that must be respected and
preserved for posterity sake and why the average
Hausa-Fulani would not jettison the handshake and hug
for another form of cultural greeting to mention a
few.
I am perturbed by the fact that the
anti-gay bill or law has come to divide a nation like
ours with a rich sense of history, tradition, culture
and values, with a part of the divide looking at the
issue from the vexed standpoint of human right and its
effect on a minority created from the imagination of
its rabid supporters. I am even further irked by the
fact that few characters among us are steadily losing
grip of our African roots and consciousness that we
now see the impunity inherent in being gay as the
right thing for certain groups of people. The question
I have failed to find ample answers to is how we as
humans who claim to be higher animals have reduced
ourselves to inane beasts with little or no sense of
how we must relate intimately with ourselves. I have
even found it very abstruse how lower animals in our
contemporary times have become so intelligent and
sensible than the human mind in their relation with
one another and in accordance with the dictates of
nature.
In writing this piece, especially one
as critical as those of the anti-gay law, I had
decided to throw all caution to the winds simply for
the fact that the opponents of the law have failed to
realise the present and future implication of their
actions, else they would have understood how expedient
it was to quickly nip the vexatious cankerworm in the
butt to avoid an unpleasant disaster. I have also
decided to speak my mind to supporters of same sex
union not because I profess a particular religious
faith, as many have argued based on this line of
thought, but because I am an advocate of common sense,
deep reasoning and true African values whose lessons
must never be exchanged for abnormality.
The issue which arises here first is
the notion in some quarters that the law was aimed at
garnering popular support against 2015 from
unforgiving Nigerians who more than ever before see
everything wrong with the current administration. One
may not know some of the strategies being put in place
for next year's general election, but it is the most
laughable idea to believe that passing a law as
important as the anti-gay law weeks back could be
linked to some future political exigencies. This is
so, because more than ever before and unprecedented in
Nigeria's history, the vast majority of our people
have become conscious of the Nigerian political space
that they cannot but wait to effect a change at all
levels. The belief of the past that elections are won
through all kinds of electoral malfeasance is fast
dying out if it has not. The Anambra election,
meandering and logistically deficient as it was, is a
typical example of people power and how Nigerians are
fast using their votes to effect change. Therefore, it
is totally out of place to think the anti-gay law was
aimed at drumming support for an administration whose
ship, to many, is fast sinking by the day.
Second, I am in a confused state as to
what opponents of the anti-gay law term as human
right. My confusion stems from this fact: does the
term constitute giving individuals the right and
privileges to constitute nuisance and commit impunity
in the society just because they are gay? If because
one's sexual orientation does not fit into the natural
existence of man, does it constitutes an infringement
of one's fundamental human rights? Having deeply
thought about it, I have come to understand without
further confusion that the noise peddled about
infringing on the rights of gays to freely choose who
to enter into a union with is total and absolute
balderdash and simply the creation of the imagination
of few elements who only want political and legal
protection for their insatiable thirst for same sex
union. Human right no doubt is one of nature's
blessings to mankind and must at all times be upheld
but the conception it carries in modern times was only
couched by the West to suit their own ‘cultural vices'
with no consideration for the values and norms of
others. If it is the human right of gays to have the
freedom to live in any society without harsh laws
against them, is it not the human right of an unborn
child whom ordinarily would have been welcomed to
earth through proper and natural procreation between
the two opposite sex rather than those of the same
sex? Certainly, gays and lesbians cannot procreate and
therefore, they are the first breakers of the natural
law of procreation, especially the law of human right
which they so much hinge on in contemporary times. To
think that gays have a human right they can fight for,
one which they wish to use to confound the
sensibilities of right thinking people with moral
values is the highest form of insanity. We recognise
the human right of everyone but as gays, their human
rights belong to those very societies who strongly
believe in the rightfulness of being gay and
therefore, should be given a soft landing by these
societies to integrate rather than adding more to the
challenges we face as a people.
Thirdly, having read a handful, I
discovered that the whole anti-gay issue brought up
the idea of a ‘minority' whom to them the law was
targeted at. As a result of the law, they decided to
constitute themselves into groups and blocs, calling
themselves the minority because to them, the society
has made them so based on their sexual choices. I wish
to state categorically here that rather than our gay
citizens seeing themselves as a minority, the Nigerian
state do not subscribe to such categorization and
treats all equally in terms of one's citizenship and
not on some flimsy sexual wants or needs. For the fact
that our gay citizens see the anti-gay law as
obnoxious to their existence and group, and since they
can identify themselves even from the farthest
distance, they can't constitute a minority but rather
appear as good riddance. Happily, their number is
quite significant; hence, they can be accommodated by
our foreign friends who seem to be harshly very vocal
about an anti-gay bill.
Being gay is a matter of choice while
the law that regulates it is also a matter of
exigency. As an advocate of common sense and reason,
there is no way such act can be accepted in a highly
cultural and religious enclave as those of Nigeria. It
is unacceptable, against our values and moral
consciousness. Interestingly, unlike what the West and
other proponents of same sex union have argued, the
bill, despite many bills passed with less scrutiny and
concern by the people, is backed by more than 90 per
cent of Nigerians. What could be more democratic than
that? If the likes of the United Nations General
Secretary, Ban Ki Moon, the United States, Britain,
Canada and few others against the bill believe a 14
year sentence is too harsh, obnoxious and against
human rights, does it mean the voice of the people
which guided the signing of the bill into law is
irrelevant? If these characters feel strongly about
the law, is it not time to begin the process of
accommodating and integrating our gay citizens into
their own societies so as to enjoy those basic human
rights so ‘denied' them by the Nigerian state? Is the
voice of the people not the major canon of any
democratic process?
I feel worried by the fact that the
Nigerian government have not realised it could use all
the diplomatic mettle at its disposal to call the
bluff of those who continue to miff our collective
consciousness on this issue. If accepting an immoral
act is the reason our foreign friends have been
dolling out grants and aids to us, and because we have
passed an anti-gay law, they wish to withdraw them, is
it not time we showed them the giant in us, especially
the one we have always claimed to be?
For many, the anti-gay law is too
liberal and should therefore be revised in coming
years. For the fact that same sex union has no place
in our society, a grave punishment should be meted on
those characters who strongly wish to advance a
culture of impunity on our children and the next
generation. Our historical cum cultural values should
not be eroded by some Western or foreign vices, hence
we must fight such calculated attempt to dampen our
collective resolve on this issue. Same sex union may
have been accepted and its art perfected through laws
in the West yet in this part of our own world, we see
it as an insult to our collective sensibilities where
some foreign states and groups of people think they
can force it down our throats. The Nigerian people
have spoken and it is time to act to remove this
unpleasant cankerworm out of our society.
Raheem Oluwafunminiyi writes via
premiermotivationalconcepts@gmail.com |
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