In the post he referred to Nigeria as a “f—ked” up country living in hell and used as an experiment.
After his comment was posted, Nigerians took to different social media platforms to respond to him.
[news_box style=”2″ display=”tag” link_target=”_blank” tag=”Gay, Homosexual, Bisi Alimi” count=”6″ show_more=”on” show_more_type=”link” header_background=”#000000″ header_text_color=”#f7f7f7″]
AMERICA is a country of contradictions. It is a country that you cannot really place when it comes to certain issues. The United States (U.S) means well for the world, speaking in terms of peace and defence of human rights. These are issue that are dear to this global cop. It watches over the world to ensure that countries follow the straight path, while it does not always take that path. When it pleases America, it throws the rule book away and bares its fangs to show its might.
America is the global cop because it answers to no other country; it plays by its own rules, whether the world likes it or not. When America wants to show that it is America, it does the unthinkable, leaving the world wondering what the Yankees are up to. It does not do that because it wants to dare the world; it does it because it believes that it is all for the expansion of the people’s right to exercise their God given freedom to be what they want to be.
But truth be told, it crosses the limit of human freedom in its quest to expand the people’s freedom to belong; to do whatever catches their fancy, no matter how weird or immoral. America does not condone immorality. It holds the marriage institution sacrosanct. This is why it does not look kindly at its philandering leaders. They are made to stew in their own juice – a philanderer can never last in American politics. He is sooner shown the way out of office before he knows it.
If America is so concerned about family life, does it not follow that it will uphold the God ordained way of building a family, which is through marriage between man and woman? There are no two ways to building a family and there will never be. God, according to scripture knew us before He created us. He knew our needs; he knew that man cannot exist without a woman and vice versa. So, He created woman to complement man. And the amazing thing is that He created woman from the rib of man. ”He who finds a wife finds a good thing”, says the Bible. A wife as we all know is a woman. A man, no matter how much he disguises himself as a woman as former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha did in order to escape from London about 10 years ago, cannot assume that role.
If this is the case, can a man morally, socially and legally speaking marry a man? God frowns at the act and so it is a taboo for a man to take a man as wife. We cannot rewrite the law of nature by legislating on an abominable act like this. There is no law that can confer legality on an act for which the Creator destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It was for this indecent act that He wiped out a generation. If today humanity cannot learn from that then it will never learn from anything.
Man cannot under the guise of civilisation go against God’s will. Any one that does that will end up destroying himself – and with his own hands too. Why will a man marry man? Is it for the want of women? Women abound everywhere. All a man needs do is to search well and he will get the flesh of his flesh. This is the path laid down by the almighty for man. If man decides to deviate from that path then he should be ready to pay the price. The U.S. has chosen the way it wishes to go on this matter. Its Supreme Court has approved what the world now refers to as same sex marriage.
What the U.S. judges, in their wisdom, have done is to overrule God’s decision that a man cannot marry a man. Now in the U.S a man can marry a man and a woman can marry a woman if the parties so wish. Homosexuality is everywhere in the world, but those who practice it do so in hiding. In many parts of the world, gays and lesbians do not come out in public to profess their homosexuality because it is a thing of shame. Families with homosexuals keep the secret to themselves. They hide it from outsiders because it is not something to be proud of that either our son or daughter is an homosexual.
The U.S can do whatever it likes with itself on this and other issues. If it feels that homosexuality is something to be proud of, that is its choice. But is there no contradiction in what it is doing considering that it refers to itself as God’s own country? Its motto is : ”In God we trust”. Can the U.S trust in God and be doing what is contrary to the will of God? That is food for thought for America. We are concerned here that it tried to sell the same sex marriage deal to President Muhammadu Buhari during his visit there a few days ago.
As powerful as the U.S is there is a limit to how it can impose its will on other countries on certain matters. On the same sex marriage issue, the U.S knows too well that there is nothing it can do if other countries do not wish to go that way. In Nigeria, it is a sin for a man to marry a man or a woman to marry a woman. Our civilisation has not reached that stage. We are a civilised people but there are certain things which our civilisation cannot undo and same sex marriage is one of such things. This is why homosexuals ply their trade under cover here. That homosexual has not been born that will come out in public and parade himself as such.
If he does that his family tree
will be traced in order to as
certain if madness runs there. People will simply look at such person as mad and dismiss him with a wave of the hand. The question that has been agitating my mind is are homosexuals born or do they become homosexuals by choice? Whatever it may be, it is a ‘detestable” practice as the Bible says. So, every sane man must refrain from it the same way as our president declared to his American counterpart, President Barrack Obama, that there is no room for the legalisation of same sex marriage here. Why will Nigeria legalise the practice when the Bible warns :
”Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Do not defile yourselves in this way, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. For all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited the nations that were before you”. With this biblical injunction, need we say more on this matter? America should live with the choice it has made and let us live with our own choice too.
DO I sound gay? Umm that’s the question.
In many African countries, where being gay has been criminalized, this is a question one would ask in a bid to save themselves. If they are men, they will try to deepen their voices just to prove that they are not gay.
However, regarding to the viewer’s point of view, David Thorpe’s premiere documentary, which uses the question as the title is different. It’s a journey of self-discovery and improvement that many of you guys in relationships seek after a nasty break up.
In this case, it was our main man and director Thorpe; after a breakup with his boyfriend, he embarks on a hilarious yet touching journey that sees him confront his anxiety about sounding gay.
“I’ve been mystified about why I sound the way I do,” Thorpe says in one of the scenes.
With the help of voice and acting coaches, linguists, celebrities and gay people among others, Thorpe explores the wording and pronunciation dynamics surrounding, the voice that has come to be stereotyped as ‘sounding gay’. He tries to trace the history of the gay sound and how it got its place in pop culture. These are questions like why weren’t flamboyant performers or Tv characters like Prince or Michael Jackson labelled gay? Why does it matter now anyway? Or what is the gay sound like?
Do I Sound gay’s strongest strength could be Thorpe’s personal story. It takes centre stage at some point. He asks his family and friends if he has always sounded gay and if not, when did he start sounding gay? One family member can trace that it was around college while a friend says it was at the time he came out of the closet, still, during college.
From the beginning, Thorpe’s film is meant to be about him and that mysterious journey to find the route of his unhappiness. Though as he goes on, he discovers that many humans are unhappy with the way they sound, especially because they will be subjected to suspicion.
This film comes at the time when at least a man has been murdered, bullied and beaten in a different continent because of their sexual orientation. And we see this fear almost run across the men the director chooses to talk to, they are not afraid that they will be stoned as if they are in Uganda, but they do exhibit some sense of insecurity.
Some feel good when they go to places where people can’t easily tell that they are gay while others wish they would sound more masculine.
Thorpe’s film though good, touches just a very little topic when it comes to the whole LGBT issue speech! Yes, it is an important factor that has constantly been used to tell who and who’s not gay but was still too weak to be the prime subject for a feature documentary.
The bigger picture should have been the different stereotypes like fashion sense, locomotives and certain behaviours that have been labelled gay even before those people say a word.
Speech in all senses was supposed to be part of characters that would have contributed to the stereotyping narrative but not driving it.
Singling out speech almost complicated the work for the director because at the end of it all, it still seemed like the question of ‘if he sounds gay’ was answered – yes, he does sound gay and he is indeed gay. But the question of why the stereotypical gay sound fits almost all gay men was never answered. The film is not telling us whether sounding gay is a fad, trend, inherited or learnt.
But in anyway, Thorpe is convincing. He succeeds at showing the world that many men out there are suffering because of the way they talk, which is a plus, considering his unconventional way of communicating; his film making technique that is out rightly weird especially while interviewing subjects. He could cut to a scene of himself reacting! (Who even does that?) Then the opening credits he recited in his ‘gay voice’, very creative.
– Andrew Kaggwa, a participant at the Talent Press, Durban 2015 is a Ugandan freelance journalist
President Muhammadu Buhari has foreclosed a possible shift in Nigeria’s anti-gay stance. He told a joint session of the United States (U.S.) Senate and House Committees on Foreign Affairs that Nigeria’s law abhors same-sex marriage.
The President said sodomy is illegal and abhorrent to Nigeria’s culture.
The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said his principal was “point blank” in declaring Nigeria’s position on gay marriage and rights.
In statement, Mr. Adesina explained that the matter was not pushed at the session President Buhari had with President Barack Obama on Monday.
“The issue of gay marriage came up here yesterday,” Mr. Adesina tweetedWednesday.
“PMB was point blank. Sodomy is against the law in Nigeria, and abhorrent to our culture. Talks shifted to another matter once PMB emphatically stated Nigeria’s stand on same sex marriage. The issue was not pushed,” Adesina said.
Besides Nigeria’s criminal laws which outlaw gay acts and union, the country in 2014, approved an anti-gay law with stringent penalties for homosexual relationships.
Under the law, gay persons risk up to 14 years imprisonment if convicted.
Also criminalised in Nigeria is the meeting of homosexuals; operating or attending a gay club, society or organisation.
Anybody engaging in public shows of outlawed same-sex and intimate affection may be jailed for up to 10 years.
Nigeria has been under intense pressure from the U.S. government which opposes the laws.
Disturbing images have shown a man being thrown from a tower for his sexuality in the town of Tal Abyad in Syria.
The man, who sat on a plastic chair was also blindfolded before he was hurled out of the building which was at least 7 storey as punishment for ‘being gay’.
According to local media reports, the man who appears to be in his 50s after being thrown from the roof of the tower block, miraculously survived the fall, but that did not stop him from being stoned to death.
The man was flanked by two masked men in dark clothing and army fatigues, whom people believe to be ISIS militants.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights believes that the man’s crime was having a ‘homosexual affair’.
The man who appeared to have survived the fall was seen sitting at the foot of the building, when onlookers began to gather around him, throwing stones at him until he became unconscious.
UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay, have kicked against the anti-homosexuality bill, signed into law in Uganda on Monday.
A UN statement issued on Tuesday in New York stated that the law criminalises and imposes life imprisonment on same-sex marriage, homosexuality and aggravated homosexuality.
Ban said the law violates basic human rights and endangers Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people in the country.
He said he was seriously concerned about the negative impact of the new law and shares the UN High Commissioner’s view which states that the law violates human rights.
The UN scribe added that the law would institutionalise discrimination, restrict the vital work of human rights activists and could trigger violence.
He insisted that it would also hamper potentially life-saving efforts to stop the spread of HIV.
The UN chief appealed for complete and universal decriminalisation of homosexuality, which is now a criminal offence in some 76 countries.
Ban stressed that human rights must always trump cultural attitudes and societal strictures.
On her part, Pillay said disapproval of homosexuality by some could never justify violating the fundamental human rights of others.
She said the law institutionalised discrimination and was likely to encourage harassment and violence against individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation.
She added that it was formulated so broadly that it might lead to abuse of power and accusations against anyone, not just LGBT people.
She said Uganda was obliged, both by its own constitution and by international law, to respect the rights of all individuals and to protect them from discrimination and violence.
Pillay said the law violates a host of fundamental human rights, including the right to freedom from discrimination, to privacy, freedom of association, peaceful assembly, opinion and expression and equality before the law.
The high commissioner expressed concern that the law might also threaten the critically important work of human rights defenders in the country and urged the Ugandan government to take immediate steps to ensure that LGBT people were not prosecuted for their advocacy. (PANA/NAN)
An Ibadan Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Iyaganku on Tuesday discharged two corps members charged with committing sodomy on one of their students.
The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Kehinde Durosaro-Tijani, said the two accused, Daniel O’ Tega and Sulaiman Abari, were discharged but not on merit.
Durosaro-Tijani said: “this is based on the withdrawal letter and affidavit deposed to by the father of the victim.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this followed the withdrawal of the case by the victim’s parents, Alhaji Hammed Sulaimon and Kafilat, of 65, Avenue Street, behind Grammar School, Molete, Ibadan.
Sulaimon, in the affidavit, said he had forgiven the accused as Sulaiman’s father, Mr Dauda Abari and O’Tega’s guardian, Mr Michael Edewhosa, intervened in the matter.
Sulaiman, a graduate of Lagos State University, Ojo, and O’tega were serving at St. Louis Secondary School 2, Molete, Ibadan.
The two were arraigned on a three-count charge of conspiracy, procuring as well as getting hold of their victim.
The prosecutor, Insp Oluyemi Eyiaromi, had told the court that the two accused persons conspired to commit the offence.
Eyiaromi said O’tega took the male student to a room, laid him on a bed, caressed and sucked his manhood until he ejaculated.
He also said that Abari committed the same offence on the victim in Nov. 2013 at Osungbade, Odo-Oba area of Ibadan.
Eyiaromi said the offences contravened sections 217 and 516 (A) of the Criminal Code Cap.38, Vol. II, Laws of Oyo State, 2000. (NAN)
An Abuja mob, wielding wooden clubs and iron bars and screaming to “cleanse” their neighbourhood of gay people, on Thursday dragged 14 young men from their beds and assaulted them, human rights activists claimed yesterday.
Four of the victims were marched to a police station, where they allegedly were kicked and punched by police officers who yelled pejoratives at them, said Ifeanyi Orazulike of the International Centre on Advocacy for the Right to Health.
The Police operatives threatened that the men would be incarcerated for 14 years, which he said, the maximum prison sentence under the new Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, dubbed the “Jail the Gays” law.
“Since the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act was signed, we have expressed concern as a friend of Nigeria that it might be used by some to justify violence against Nigerians based on their sexual orientation,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement at the weekend. “Recent attacks in Abuja deepen our concern on this front.”
The police spokeswoman for the Federal Capital Territory, Deputy Superintendent Altine Daniel, said she was unaware of the attack but would try to get details.
Orazulike said he got a panicked email from a colleague who said he was hiding from a mob of 40 people who struck around 1 a.m. Thursday, going from house to house saying their mission was “to cleanse” the area of gays. He said they used pieces of wood and iron to beat up 14 young men. Orazulike said he drove from his home at 4 a.m. to save the man in Gishiri, a shantytown with mud roads near central Abuja.
Those attacked are in hiding and too scared to speak to reporters, he said, recounting their story.
“They were told ‘If you come back, we will kill you.’”
The walls of houses where the men lived have been painted with graffiti declaring “Homosexuals, pack and leave,” he said.
Orazulike said he went to the police station later on Thursday and met with a senior officer who ordered the four men released because there was no evidence that they were gay and they had not been caught having sex.
Four of them were severely injured and others suffered bruises, he said. They were treated at his organisation’s clinic because they were afraid to go to the hospital.
“They said the police slapped and kicked them and swore at them,” he said.
Dorothy Aken’Ova, executive director of Nigeria’s International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, said she stayed up all night Wednesday trying to get police and Civil Defence to send officers to the scene after she got a phone call from a man who was being attacked.
“Instead of helping them, apparently some of them were arrested,” she told AP. “None of the (law enforcement) agents responded to our distress calls.”
Dozens of allegedly gay people have been arrested since President Goodluck Jonathan signed the bill into law in January. It not only forbids gay marriage, which carries a 14-year jail sentence, it makes it a crime for anyone, straight or homosexual, to hold a meeting of gays or to advocate human rights for gays. Convicted offenders can be jailed for up to 10 years.
The U.S. President Barack Obama’s initiative to promote the rights of homosexuals has been rebuffed in Africa, where Uganda also is considering a draconian law carrying penalties of up to life imprisonment for certain gay acts. Many Africans believe homosexuality is an evil import from the West.
However, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, James F. Entwistle, on a recent radio programme assured Nigerians that the United States would not be cutting aid because of the new anti-gay law.
Two corps members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have been arraigned in court for engaging in the recently outlawed homosexuality with a male student.
O’tega Daniel, 27, and Sulaimon Abari, 26, were charged before an Ibadan Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting at Iyaganku.
The duo serving at at St. Louis Secondary School 2, Molete in the metropolis of the ancient city were arraigned on a three-count charge of conspiracy, procuring as well as unlawful abduction of their victim.
The incident was said to have taken place sometime in November 2013 at Osungbade, Odo-Oba area of Ibadan.
The prosecutor, Inspector Olufemi Eyiaromi while addressing the court, said they both conspired to commit the offence, alleging that Daniel got hold of the male student, took him into a room, laid him on a bed as well as caressed and orally sucked his manhood until the minor released sperm.
Abari was said to committed same offence on the same victim.
However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Chief Magistrate presiding over the matter, Kehinde Durosaro-Tijani granted each accused bail in the sum of N100,000 with one blood relation as surety and the case was adjourned till Feb. 25.
A non-governmental organisation, Nigeria HIV Info has accused the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and its Director General, Prof. John Idoko of insincerity over the statement made on the controversial Same Sex (Prohibition) Law.
The DG of NACA, according to the group, had issued a statement which suggested that the newly signed law would not have adverse effects on the programs meant to bring succour to the people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
Prof Idoko was quoted in a news release signed by the Coordinator of NigeriaHIVInfo.com, Steve Aborisade as saying: “Nothing in the same sex Marriage (Prohibition) Law refers to or prohibits programs targeted at Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support for people living with HIV or affected by AIDS in Nigeria. No provision of this law will deny anybody in Nigeria access to HIV treatment and other medical service“
“A perusal of the Same Sex Marriage Act 2013, makes clear that the provisions thereof do not have any negative effect on the HIV/ AIDS Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support Programs or any other such programs currently in operation in Nigeria’’
The NGO countered NACA’s boss comment saying: “The proposed bill, for emphasis, goes beyond the banning of gay marriages… but what it actually does is to spell new crimes of homosexuality while criminalizing HIV/AIDS services to sexual minority.
“To us, Prof. Idoko’s statement and NACA’s position represents the height of hypocrisy and insensitivity by an agency in charge of the national HIV/AIDS intervention of a country like Nigeria which bears the second largest global burden of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“Even when the issue involved is as sensitive and touchy to majority of Nigerians and its government as it is, we had expected that NACA and Prof. Idoko could at least be guided in their response by prevailing facts on the situation of things which makes a mockery of their assertion and is a direct contrast to their advertised position.”
The statement reads further: “To say that a law which criminalizes an identified most at risk population and prescribes jail terms for those who work with them will not ‘deny anybody in Nigeria access to HIV treatment and other medical services’ is in the least, a disservice to the spirit of the efforts to curtail the impact of HIV/AIDS in our country. We were not expecting Prof. Idoko and NACA to deny the negative impact that criminalization and prejudice poses for individuals who already face all forms of blackmail, family rejection and brutality without a reprieve from our security apparatus. We expect that NACA should also know how difficult an effort it is to establish HIV initiatives for most-at-risk groups in the face public hostility.
“It is ironic that NACA and Prof. Idoko’s view is contrary to the views expressed by majority of service providers that the law seriously threatens the fragile health and community based HIV initiatives for the community which are sprouting up across the cities of Nigeria. The general consensus, if NACA cares to listen is that the future of these projects is now in jeopardy.
The humanitarian organisation elaborated more on the rate at which HIV/AIDS affects the country. “In case Prof. Idoko and NACA are experiencing a momentary amnesia about our HIV situation, here are facts to refresh their memory: Nigeria’s 2010 Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance (IBBS) survey for key at risk populations released in 2011 says over 50% gay partners have sex with female partners, while 40.8% have sex with girl friends. HIV/AIDS prevalence amongst this group is above 12% compared to the 4.1% in the general population. The intersection with the general population where about 50% have ongoing sexual interaction with the general population in the light of the high HIV prevalence in the group, to us is enough reason to reappraise the kind of access they have to HIV services. We must be mindful that the gay population in Nigeria is speculated at about 15.4 million. This important intersection with the general population is something this law has ignored.
“Meanwhile, of Nigeria’s estimated population of 170 million less than 2.5 million have ever tested for HIV. Annual new infections are put at 323,000 adults and 57,000 children surpassing the number that the country can put on treatment. UNAIDS 2013 progress report says that between 2009 to 2012 Nigeria was only able to reduce infection rates in children from 65,000 in 2009 to 60,000 in 2012. Till date, less than 10 percent of Antenatal facilities offer PMTCT services while Nigeria’s PMTCT coverage shuts out over 70% of HIV positive mothers who needs them.
“While the UNAIDS 2013 progress report praised South Africa for halving new AIDS infection by 50%, it sadly noted that Nigeria records a 60% increase. Till date, the anti HIV/AIDS stigma bill which was first presented to the National Assembly sometimes in 2006 remained to be passed.
“With this background, and given our inability to treat our people who require HIV treatment, our failure to halt new infections in both children and adults and with our faltering ART regime, our take is that NACA must be seen as concerned that in the real sense we have a long way to go, while such journey calls for more openness and sensitivity to the real challenges bedeviling our programs. Our expectation is that NACA and its leadership will join the clamour by concerned civil society groups that there is a compelling need for our government to revisit several provisions of this law which are a direct threat to the modest gains of our public health intervention.”
It would be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan on January 7 this year signed into law the Act. Offenders risk 14 years imprisonment.