Rev. Father Augustine Medaiyedu is the Parish Priest of St. Augustine Catholic Church, Ikorodu, Lagos. He spoke with Edozie Udeze on same-sex marriage, among other national issues. Excerpts:
What is your view on the child-marriage bill before the National Assembly?
Yeah. It is an unfortunate thing because the child bill is abnormal. Even in our other African countries, an abnormal thing becomes nothing in Nigeria. One of the senators, Yerima, to be precise, picked a little girl to Nigeria and I think he is building on that foundation. I think the law has to do with those in the North. Most often, their kids are given out in marriage at a tender age.
I happen to know one who was given out when she was barely three years old in Benue State. And when the lady grew to 18, her father promptly said to her ‘go and meet your husband.’ And the lady ran out of the family house.
Somehow, she was nursing another dream, not even in marriage. She was nursing to go into a religious life. And she eventually found herself in Owerri in a monastery. I think it took about two to three years before the family ever got to know she was in a monastery.
So, this started long ago and the climax is what we have now. Even though the Senate is trying to say they were misunderstood. Even Yerima said he was misunderstood; that is not what he was saying. I think it is something that is giving us another side of the Senate. It means there is no hope even for the girl-child in Nigeria and this is not as it should be. And the Church is totally against that.
Has the Catholic Church actually taken a stand on gay marriage?
The Church respects individuals; the Church respects the rights of individuals and that if someone comes out as a gay person, who proclaims to be gay, the Church respects his rights as a human being. He should not be marginalised.
Going by the biblical accounts we have, the Church says no to it. That is the stand of the Catholic Church because it is immoral and God descended hard on Sodom because of it.
That means the Church cannot wed them?
No, the Church cannot wed them because marriage, when we go by the book of Genesis, is clear. God started it. And so when we go biblical, marriage is between a man and a woman.
So, why is the Church not coming out to make a categorical statement on it?
Well, the stand of the Church… I think the Pope is taking his time. We are still waiting for him to simply make a comment. One thing is that the Pope does not just come out to make a statement. The Pope has what is called his own theologians, who are supposed to work with him on issues like this.
They will brainstorm on it before the Pope can come out to make a categorical statement on it. Before the advent of Pope Francis, I think people were actually waiting to see what the position of the Church will be. Before then Benedict the 16th had already said something. The stand of the Church remains what we have in the Bible.
Can the proposed amnesty solve the Boko Haram menace?
I want to speak as a person and not for the Church. I do not think amnesty is the best way to solve the problem. Judging even from the Niger Delta example, amnesty has not really solved the situation. Resorting to Amnesty is just begging the question. As I said sometime ago, and I stand to be corrected, we need a revolution in Nigeria. We are not getting it right at all in Nigeria. No, we are not.
Why are you asking for a pedestrian bridge at the bus stop close to your church?
Recently, we have just discovered that as a parish here, we have lost a lot of our members in the course of having to cross the road from the other side of Okeriya to the church. Most often, this is early in the morning from 5 o’clock or thereabout.
Some of the danfo drivers, because of the bad spots in Agric Bus stop, will not take their own route. They take the route going out of Ikorodu – driving one way. In the process, they obstruct a lot of things on the road. Some of them don’t even have headlamps and so they easily knock people down.
And we have just discovered that one of the primary functions of government is the preservation of lives. All our elected leaders swore by the constitution to save the life of the citizen. We discover that these are areas government can come in too. And we know that the government of Babatunde Fashola has a listening ear.
For us, it is right to have a pedestrian bridge on that spot to save more lives and property of the people who make use of that bus stop regularly.
