Gboyega Alaka takes a look at the arrest of 40 homosexuals in Lagos; the report that they all tested positive for HIV and the danger it portends for society.
FOR many Nigerians, homosexuality still seems like some foreign pastime, biblical rhetoric or a myth. Well, you may not really blame them. They just have never met anyone who openly declared himself gay nor caught anyone in the act. The socio-cultural idiosyncrasies and religions that frown at the act and see it as an imported aberration and a perversion have also ensured that those who are inclined to the habit never come out ‘to show their faces.’
The situation got more precarious for them a few years back, when the Senate, then led by David Mark, outlawed the act, and stipulated 14 years imprisonment for offenders.
Forty-eight-year-old Samson Adejumo, who lives around an hotel off Owode-Onirin Bus Stop along Ikorodu Highway, where 40 gay men were arrested late July, while responding to questions from The Nation, said he had never encountered a gay person all his life. “Yes, I’ve always heard that they exist, but I have never met anyone who is gay or who confesses to being one. Yes, I’ve met a few people who behave in a sheepish, queer way, but they end up getting married and having children, and often deny or even fight those who label them gay. So it was a surprise to me when I saw those boys and men rounded up by the police as gay that Sunday afternoon.”
Indeed, the image of the male homosexuals, who were paraded during the hearing of their case early August, was a reality check to many, who like Adejumo, still live in denial.
Newspapers and online medium had widely reported that scores of homosexuals – both adults and minors, were ‘caught in the act’ and arrested by men of the Nigeria police at a popular hotel along Ikorodu Highway in Lagos.
A gentleman, who works as an auto mechanic around the hotel, who witnessed the arrest, said he couldn’t believe there are such huge population of gay people in the society.
According to the man, who’d not reveal his name nor allow his picture taken, he has always heard that there are men sleeping with men, and women sleeping with women, but has never really seen such. However, he said their arrest on the day and their mannerism indeed shows that they are a peculiar set of people.
“Some of them, though men, were behaving like women. I learn they were arrested for sleeping with each other in the hotel. How can men be sleeping with men? The bible condemns it. And I think even our law is against it. How on earth did they become so large in number? Some say they were holding a meeting…. Meeting of what?”
Hotel or haven of homosexuality
When this reporter went on an investigative spree mid-week to the said hotel to see if indeed it is a haven for homosexual activities, he was literally disappointed. Vintage Hotel, with no visible sign post, is located by the weigh bridge off Owode Onirin bus-stop. It is tucked in between a scrap iron market, auto mechanic yards and Toyin Close, a rather quiet residential area. The motive for the visit was to conduct a clandestine investigation into the gay activities in the hotel and see if holding their ‘meeting’ at the hotel meant more of these people live in the area or around. If so, just how do their activities affect the area? Are there fears of any negative impact of such activities on the residents, especially the young ones?
But a petit gentleman, who welcomed this reporter to the hotel and admitted to being a staff in the hotel, said he was not on duty the day the arrest was made. He admitted that indeed there was an arrest but denied knowing any other thing about the incident. On the pretext that he was out to see the rooms and get their prices for an upcoming event, this reporter was able to get the gentleman to take him round the facility. While reeling out the prices of the rooms, he quickly chipped in rather casually, “No be this hotel them arrest some gay people the other day?”
“Yes o”, he replied, “But me I no dey duty that day.”
But were they having a party or how come they were in such a large number? Were they caught having sex or how could the police have known what they were doing from their station?
To this, the gentleman said, “Oga na information now. You no know say police dey work with information?”
He however insisted that the people were not having sex and were not regulars at the hotel. From what he heard when he resumed work the following day, the men were only there for a meeting and were not doing anything obscene, when the police busted them.
He also showed him a rather large hall at the back of the one-storey lodging section, where he said weddings and other events take place.
“Would that be the hall where the homosexuals were holding their meeting (or party)?” This reporter again chipped in.
But obviously getting impatient with the line of questioning, he simply chose not to respond to this one.
From his body language, it was clear that he and the other couple of staff on ground had been warned about divulging information, as he seemed guarded in his response, despite his enthusiasm to seal business.
“If you want to know the price of the hall, you can wait a while; our madam will soon come” were his parting words, as he left this reporter to his can of Origin Zero drink and returned to chatting with his colleagues.
I’m not aware of gay activities at the hotel
An elderly man working in the mechanic yard adjacent the hotel, who preferred anonymity, however said he has never seen any sign that homosexual activities take place in the hotel.
“To tell you the truth, nothing really happens at that hotel, save for couples who trickle in there to have nice time. Outside that, it’s always quiet, except for weekends, when people come to use the hall for weddings or other social functions,” he said.
He was not around when the arrest was made, since it was on a Sunday. He only resumed the next day, Monday, to be regaled with stories of how hordes of men suspected to be homosexuals were arrested at the hotel.
But do the homosexuals live around and do they flaunt their trade around for clients?
To this, he said no. He has never seen any gay prostitute around the area in all his years of working there.
A well-dressed middle-aged man, who gave his name as Matthew and said he lives nearby, said it is a good thing the men were rounded up. “I would not want a case where people of such despicable habit would gain ground in this area, to the extent that they’ll now begin to influence our children.”
But another man, also a worker in the auto yard, cut in, “If you’re talking about those gay people that were arrested here the other day, I also cannot remember seeing them around, but I know that they exist. If you go to Yaba, around Sabo area, where we have the new cinema, there are a lot of them there, who hang around the area to look for partners. Another place where you’d see them in good numbers is in the north. I lived in the north for a while, and I knew people who were gay and never pretended about it. Initially, I was shocked, especially because their religion, Islam, frowns at it, but it is their own way of life and people let them be, even though they find them repulsive.”
He however said what he finds really scary is the fact that these people serve as a major transmission route for the dreaded HIV/AIDS disease. “I learnt that it is through this unholy act that AIDS started and has continued to spread. Surely, if they can stop this homosexual thing, maybe AIDS will go away.”
He also lamented the quick release of the men, fearing that they are like walking time bombs, reasoning that “if indeed these men came from different parts of the state to hold their party or meeting at the hotel, then it means their respective localities are endangered.”
Fear of HIV spread
Indeed gay and bi-sexual men are said to be more severely affected by HIV than any other group in the United States. According to a Fast facts on HIV Among Gay and Bisexual Men, published by that country’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HIV diagnoses decreased in the United States by 19% overall between 2005 and 2014, but increased 6% among all gay and bisexual men, driven by increases among African American and Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men.
It states further that “Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men made up an estimated 2% of the population but 55% of people living with HIV in the United States in 2013.” It also states that 1 in 6 gay and bisexual men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime, including 1 in 2 black African American gay and bisexual men, 1 in 4 Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men and 1 in 11 white gay and bisexual men.
A more scary scenario would however be the 2014 numbers, which states that gay and bisexual men accounted for 83% (29,418) of the estimated new HIV diagnoses among all males aged 13 and older and 67% of the total estimated new diagnoses in the United States.
Explaining how HIV spread in another article, the CDC wrote: “Anal sex is the highest-risk sexual behaviour,” followed by vaginal sex, having multiple sex partners or other STDs that can increase the chances of infection and “sharing needles, syringes, rinse water, or other equipment (works) used to make injectable drugs with someone who has HIV.”
That article lists oral sex as the least means of contracting the virus.
Danger looms
A popular national daily recently reported that all 40 arrested homosexuals, when put through HIV screening, tested positive to the highly dreaded virus. This is 100% growth/spread rate and a far scary scenario. Aside confirming the fact that homosexuality is a major means by which the disease spreads, it suggests that every time homosexuals copulate with new partners, chances of them transmitting the disease to a new index case is one hundred percent. And the situation is worsened if such carrier individual is bisexual and goes home to copulate with his spouse or girlfriends.
The fact that the suspects have all been released on bail even spells greater danger for the society. That report also suggests that the suspects might have been quickly released from the prison due to fears of them copulating with other inmates in the prison and spreading the virus.
One of the warders was said to have confessed that it would have been a disaster had the suspected homosexuals been remanded in the prison. ‘You can imagine the disaster if these suspected homosexuals were transferred to this prison.” He reportedly said.
Already, there has been news that one of the suspects already slept with an inmate during their brief incarceration in the facility, meaning that another dangerous seed may have been sewn.
