Gay Not in Our Culture – Northern Reps React To Biden’s Threat.
The federal lawmakers, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa, who is the majority leader of the House and Hon. Benjamin Kalu, the House Spokesman, has reacted to the threats of sanctions issued by the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, on the refusal of countries to enact laws that will accommodate the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) people across the world.
It will be recalled that Biden recently issued a memo, directing state agencies operating in foreign jurisdictions to expand and protect the rights of LGBTQI people internationally. Read here.
Nigeria has legislation prohibiting same-sex marriages. In January 2014, under former President Goodluck Jonathan, the country enacted and signed the Same-Sex-Marriage (Prohibition) Act, criminalizing any form of gay marriage.
With the law, a jail term of between 10 to 14 years awaits anyone practicing gay marriage within the Nigerian jurisdiction. The law prohibits cohabitation between same-sex sexual partners, public show of same-sex relationships, registration, operation or participation in gay clubs, societies, and organizations.
While speaking exclusively to Saturday Vanguard on the recent US President’s memo, the House Leader, Doguwa, said that gay marriage was against the Nigerian people’s culture.
He said that such laws to allow the practice of same-sex marriage cannot be contemplated by the national assembly whether now or in the near future.
“It will not work here. It can’t work in Nigeria because we must respect our setting’s peculiarities here as an institution. This is Nigeria. This is not America. This is not England. This is Nigeria, where we must have to respect some of our traditions. We must also respect some of our religious bodies.
“We have Christians, we have Muslims and I thank God that both Christianity and Islam, which are the two major religions, are all against the disposition of such kind of legislation. I don’t think that the Nigerian legislature will entertain anything like gay here in the near future.
“We will not entertain that and it is going to be blasphemous if we can begin to consider such laws. It is against our culture and the provision of the two major religions.
“It is obnoxious as far as I am concerned,” Doguwa said. Asked if he was aware of the sanctions, the lawmaker, who represents Doguwa/TuneIn Wada Federal Constituency of Kano State, said that sanctions have limits.
“Sanctions? There are limits to sanctions. They can continue to sanction as long as we know that what we are doing is right within the context of our culture, our religions, within the context of our institutional expectations.
“I don’t think that we can be threatened by anything. Sanction or no sanction, we will only stand by what we think is right within the context of our institutional existence,” he said.
He added: “Foreign sovereignties should not determine the nature of our legislation. The content of our legislation is determined by the people we represent. That’s why if you go to our constitution when you open the page on preambles, you will see “We the people of Nigeria”. That “We the people” element reflects the principle of democracy which is the government of the people by the people and for the people.”
