Recently, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a legal right across the whole of the United States. With that ruling, 14 states with bans on same-sex marriage would no longer be able to enforce them bringing an end to more than a decade of bitter legal battle on the matter.
While that US Supreme Court ruling was America’s interpretation of ensuring that human rights is available to every American, African counties invariably do not have the same interpretation of those rights. For sometime, Western countries with America at the fore have continued to pressure African countries to recognise and legalise gay rights.
As part of its foreign policy agenda of the highest priority, America had adopted protection of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. On his recent trip to America, it was reported that the subject of gay rights and the reversal of the anti-gay law in Nigeria was touched on in a veiled manner to President Buhari.
Last year, the signing of the Same-sex Prohibition Act by the last administration on January 7 2014, elicited negative reactions from Western countries such as the US, member countries of the European Union and Canada. They have consistently mounted pressure on the federal government over the signing of the Same-Sex Prohibition Act 2014, claiming that the law is a violation of the fundamental human rights of Nigerians with same-sex orientation.
Notably, that law that was signed last year does not only criminalise same-sex marriage, it also makes public displays of affection and even socialising in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and inter-sex community illegal. At the time that the law was passed, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle threatened that his country would scale down its support for HIV/AIDS and anti-malaria programs in response to government’s position on the gay rights issue. Thereafter, it was reported in the Vanguard newspaper that the US had committed “substantial” resources to fund the emergence of gay clubs and advocacy groups in Nigeria. As part of the fallout then, the Canadian government cancelled a scheduled state visit by the then President Jonathan. The Canadian government’s action was believed to have been that country’s reaction to the president’s assent of the bill, which had enjoyed popular support in Nigeria.
On the US President, Barack Obama’s, recent trip to Africa, the subject of legalising gay marriage came up. President Obama was very categorical in his condemnation of discriminatory practices against gay and lesbian people and urged African leaders to treat the issue of homosexuality as a universal human right, comparable to the fight against racism or sexism. However, in return, all the African leaders he conversed with emphatically told President Obama that the issue of legalising gay rights in Africa is ‘out of the question’ and a ‘non-issue.’ They made it clear to him that, there are certain subjects and values which Africa does not share with America, legalising homosexuality being one of them, and as such, it would be impossible to impose on people principles, which they do not recognise or accept.
This is not the first time America and the West have tried to pressure Africa into accepting homosexual unions. Since 2011, certain Western countries have been considering and implementing laws that limit or prohibit general budget support to countries that restrict the rights of homosexuals. Regardless of this, many African countries have continued to refute pressure to legalise homosexual practices. Many African leaders feel that gay rights are against Africa’s culture and religious value systems and believe that they have the sovereign right to reject what is seen as an imposition by Western nations that attempt to affect national sentiments via aid. While some of us may disagree with the laws that impose the death penalty on those who come out as homosexuals, the reality is that same sex acts are illegal in about 38 African countries and actual enforcement varies widely and punishment ranges from prison sentences to the draconian sentence of the death penalty.
In Mauritania, Sudan and Nigeria, homosexuality is a serious punishable crime. In Uganda, Tanzania and Sierra Leone, offenders can receive life imprisonment for homosexual acts. South Africa’s constitution is the most liberal towards gays and lesbians within the continent, with a constitution that guarantees gay and lesbian rights and legal same-sex marriage. However, even there, gay rights have been described as an “exclusive privilege of the whites and well-heeled, a small but high-profile subset.”
The raucousness from Western nations that has been accompanying the banning of same sex unions in some parts of Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia has risen to a crescendo. And in their bid to ram the freedom of same sex unions down the throat of more traditional and conservative nations, the West has discarded high-minded rhetoric for bullying tactics dressed in the guise of human rights mantras. The result? Hypocrisy has taken centre stage as the preferred response of the West in its bid to redefine the limits of marriage, privacy and religious freedom in some African, Eastern European and Asian countries.
The sheer hypocrisy of the West regarding their stance on the banning of same-sex unions is most apparent when considered next to the position taken on polygamy under western laws. In most western nations, the practice of polygamy is not only frowned upon but has been criminalised. The Western countries pass laws that limit the boundaries of marriage, privacy and religious freedom in line with their value system while they employ strategies and tactics to intimidate, harass, undermine, threaten and abuse other countries for doing the same.
In the case of Reynolds vs. United States, the American courts declined accepting polygamy as a legitimate religious practice, dismissing it as “almost exclusively a feature of the life of Asiatic and African people.” American courts have declared polygamy to be “a blot on our civilisation” and compared it to human sacrifice and “a return to barbarism.”
Not only is the practice of polygamy one of the common threads between Christians, Jews and Muslims, studies have found polygamy present in 78 per cent of the world’s cultures. In the same way that countries that accept polygamy have no right to force western nations to legalise polygamy, western nations have no right to impose same sex unions on the countries that ban it.
As a sovereign nation, Nigeria and other African nations have a right to ban same-sex unions in the same way the West has banned polygamy.
The previous leadership in Nigeria has taken a position on a practice that is alien to its culture and its religious and traditional institutions and the current leadership is likely to uphold the same. The public relations officer of the northern Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had in the past stated that Christians and their counterparts in other religions had unanimously expressed gratitude to the last administration and National Assembly for passing the Anti Same-Sex Marriage law, despite opposition from Europe and the US. Similarly, the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), Lagos State, had also commended the administration for signing the bill into law. The group applauded the Nigerian leadership for standing its ground, despite pressure to reject the anti-gay bill by some international organisations and foreign countries.
In the scriptures, marriage is a sacred contract between a man and a woman that cannot be redefined and it is the cornerstone of family life. In the Bible, passages in the book of Leviticus prohibit homosexuality. Chapter 18:22 states, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Similarly, chapter 20:13 also states, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” Jews and Christians have historically interpreted these two verses as the clear prohibition of homosexual acts. Furthermore, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah has historically been interpreted as condemning homosexual acts.
In Islam, the traditional schools of Islamic law based on Qur’anic verses and hadith consider homosexual acts a punishable crime and a sin. The Qur’an cites the story of the “people of Lot” (also known as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah), destroyed by the wrath of God, because they engaged in “lustful” carnal acts between men. The Qur’an contains seven references to the people of Lot; 7:80-84, 11:77-83, 21:74, 22:43, 26:165-175, 27:56-59 and 29:27-33, and their destruction by Allah is associated explicitly with their sexual practices.
In 2012, the Nigerian parliament approved a bill banning same-sex marriage despite threats from the US and UK that they would consider withholding aid if the country didn’t recognise gay rights. Curiously though in the US, 17 states out of 50 (less than half) have endorsed same-sex practices and others reject its legality. This means that even in the US, not all its citizens are in support of same-sex practices.
It increasingly seems that the Western countries’ mandate is to coerce African states to institutionalise behavior systems that they frown upon or deem illegal. There is the urgent need for these African states and the Nigerian leadership not to be dependent on foreign assistance for governance. If foreign aid coming from the West to Nigeria of other African Countries is contingent upon obliterating the core values of Africa, then Afrian nations have no choice but to liberate themselves and get their act together.
Nigeria and the African Continent should use its net worth to dismantle the entrenched dependence syndrome and to also say ‘No,’ no matter how many times they are accused of not adhering to the value system of the West. Aid given with strings attached is not worth it, especially if those strings are repugnant to one’s values and belief system.
Just like with the case of polygamists in Western countries, a day of social acceptance is unlikely to come for homosexuals in Nigeria and most African and Asian countries.
May each country be free to preserve the value systems they wish to be defined by and adopt the laws of which they wish to be governed.
