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Resist gay marriage pressure, Nigerians tell Buhari

By Marcel Mbamalu (News Editor) and Ijeoma Opara
20 July 2015   |   1:44 am
NIGERIANS have restated their resolve to defend the country’s anti-gay law as President Muhammadu Buhari meets with his United States counterpart, Barack Obama in Washington DC today.
File Photo

File Photo

President meets Obama

NIGERIANS have restated their resolve to defend the country’s anti-gay law as President Muhammadu Buhari meets with his United States counterpart, Barack Obama in Washington DC today.

According to a social media message shared by a presidential aide, Buhari, who left for the U.S. yesterday morning, will be staying at the Blair House — the U.S.’ President’s official guest house — in Washington DC.

Although a White House statement at the weekend said that Obama would not push gay agenda at the bilateral meeting, the Project for Human Development (PHD), yesterday staged an anti-gay street rally calling on the Federal Government to resist pressures from the White House. The rally re-enforced the position expressed by Nigerians in a survey conducted by NOIPolls in May.

The White House statement saying that Obama would not push for gay rights in today’s meeting with Buhari followed a July 13 web chat in which the U.S.’ Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, reportedly stated that the U.S. had adopted gay ‘marriage’ as part of its foreign policy. Thomas-Greenfield had vowed that Washington would continue to put pressure on Buhari to legalise same-sex marriage.

Amid agitations and veiled threats from western countries, including the U.S. and Britain, former President, Goodluck Jonathan, had, in 2014, ‘supervised’ the passage of the anti-gay bill in the Seventh National Assembly, and subsequently signed a new law that prohibits same-sex marriage. Ever since the law came into being, there has been subtle disagreement between Nigeria and the United States, just as the matter has remained touchy in diplomatic circles.

According to the Director General of the PHD, Jerry Okwuosa, ‘’Obama and Buhari are meeting tomorrow (today) to discuss security, economy, Ebola and gay marriage legalisation in Nigeria. The fear is being entertained that Obama might trade off U.S.’ assistance to Buhari’s government with shooting down Jonathan’s anti-gay law. Buhari should reject such trade off.”

President Muhammadu Buhari on the way to the United States at Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja…yesterday.

President Muhammadu Buhari on the way to the United States at Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja…yesterday.

Meanwhile, there are renewed efforts by influential rights activists in the United States to instigate the home government and coerce Nigeria into reversing its anti-gay law as Buhari visits the country.

In a veiled manner, lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have intensified pressure at forcing Nigeria’s Buhari-led Federal Government to revisit the law. Proponents of LGBT rights are syndicating targeted articles with a view to raising the tempo of the discourse. Some of the social media campaigns specifically accuse the U.S.’ black and African activists, who are opposed to same-sex marriage, of double-speak and hypocrisy in their human rights stance.

One of the articles written by Brandson Ellington Patterson, an editorial fellow at Mother Jones’ San Francisco bureau, argued that “every chain must be broken “if freedom is to be achieved for all black people.” Mother Jones is a non-profit news outlet that delivers reports on urgent issues in the U.S.

“On social media,” says Patterson: “I have seen black people imply that marriage equality is a frivolous concern, and that gay people shouldn’t have received the right to marry before black people got the right to walk down the street without being shot by the police. I’ve seen black people argue against gay marriage by pointing out that it’s still not legal to smoke weed in most of the United States. Then there are those who reject gay marriage and homosexuality as a sin. Despite steady growth across the entire U.S. population, support for same-sex marriage among black Americans remains in the minority, and is lower among black Protestants than all other religious groups except white evangelicals.”

Worried by the attention being given to same-sex marriage in the U.S. ahead of Buhari’s visit, Okwuosa, who runs the Lagos-based Project for Human Development, described the U.S. as a major exporter of gay rights across the world. He noted that it recently pressurised Uganda to reverse its anti-gay law, just as Mozambique has decriminalised it.

He said: ‘’At the moment, the U.S. is putting pressure on Kenya to legalise gay marriage while Kenyans have held rallies asking Obama to stay out of Kenya with his gay-marriage proposition. The U.S. should not confuse people by calling homosexuality or transgender a marriage; that kind of union cannot increase our population, it can only make us go extinct. We were meant to understand that the U.S. didn’t come to our rescue on the issue of the kidnapped Chibok girls because of our anti-gay law. America cannot say a thing like this to Saudi Arabia or Iran; it is because they have looked at us as a poor country; in fact, they should keep their help to themselves.”

21 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    In fact, if Nigeria wants to economically progress into the 21st century, they should start by socially leaving the 19th.

    • Author’s gravatar

      Nigeria does not need US to progress. What she needs is the right leadership. If the head of the fish is right, definitely the body will be healthy. Abraham Lincoln showed such leadership.

    • Author’s gravatar

      THAT IS A BIG THREAT TO BLACK….YOU GAYS AND RACISTS AND SUPERIORITY COMPLEXITY AND POWER MISUSE ARE ONLY CREATING A STRESSFUL MENTALITY. IF YOU TELL ME YOU ARE HERE TO CREATE AN INCONVENIENT ENVIRONMENT OR SOCIETY FOR BLACKS OR OTHER RACE, I WILL SENTENCE YOU UNDERGROUND AND YOU WILL NEVER COME ACROSS SUNLIGHT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

  • Author’s gravatar

    Look here we go again, the rabid press in Nigeria making up stories which are devoid of only one thing truth. America has not had gay marriage as part of its agenda with Mr Buhari nor was it on the agenda with Kenya.Remember what we are dealing with here. Nigerians still burn witches. We are dealing with education; we are dealing with a population that is being manipulated by anti-equality forces namely evangelical protestants in America to spew their hatred on minorities. We are dealing a press that stirs of hatred of gays by trying to equate gay rights with attack on their sovereignty Slowly but surely in Nigeria opinions are changing. In two years support for gays rights has risen 5%. It will take generational change for Nigeria to change, but it will. Just for some added humour here is another fallacious article that emerged from Nigeria. https://dailypost.ng/2015/07/15/black-pastor-jailed-for-refusing-to-wed-gay-couple-in-us/

    • Author’s gravatar

      What we see in America today is a total erosion of the values upon which the country was founded. Any human being that supports gay practice needs psychological/psychiatric check up. Even animals cannot bring themselves to such a level that we are seeing today in America. The issue here is gay practice is against nature and God, it does not matter who is supporting it. If a man marries a man, they cannot have a baby. I guess you may be an American. If that is the case, your leader Mr Hussein should marry a man, give out his daughters to other women to marry, allow his current wife to marry another woman. That is how to lead by example. Adopting gay practice would mean going back to about 4,000 years ago to follow after Sodom and Gomorrah that was destroyed as a result of what Mr Hussein is pursuing today. Very soon US may legislate against preaching what the Bible said about gay practice and the like, and term it “Hate Speech Law”. With such law the prison yard will be expanded. Mr Hussein with his team are preparing US for destruction. It is not surprising because this is necessary for the emergence of the son of perdition, the apocalyptic horseman. US should leave Nigeria alone with her values just as she would not allow any other country to interfere with her internal workings.

      • Author’s gravatar

        Dear Naijawatcgman, Thank you for your response. I will endeavour to answer all your points. Firstly, I would like to say that the principles on which America was founded were extremely racist, and favoured white land owners. Sure there were flowery phrases in the declaration of Independence, but they only applied to white people. Even George Washington owned slaves. The British Empire was the first group of nations to outlaw slavery; the United States followed in 1865 at the end of the civil war. ********************************
        The civil war was fought by the North to maintain the union and whilst we would like to believe otherwise there was no moral impetus for the US against slavery. The were lynch mobs in Chicago going around killing black people to prove that point that they did not care about slavery. In fact Abraham Lincoln had no intention of abolishing slavery. Slavery was abolished to punish the South as it was an agrarian economy which relied on labour intensive industry whilst the North had a chiefly Industrial economy and was no so labour intensive as the South. Even after the end of the civil war it was no all smooth sailing for coloured people. *************************

        • Author’s gravatar

          It is my firm belief that Evangelical Protestants need a group to attack so they are not forced into introspection and really living the message of Christ, but I digress. ************************************************
          Now you state that ” animals can not bring themselves to do that”, I assume you are talking about homosexuality. Again I would seek to correct you. Homosexual behaviour has been observed in 1500 different species of animal, yet homophobia is present only in one, humans
          Further you say that homosexuality is a mental illness, well plainly it is not. All around the world, in most nations homosexuality is not regarded as an illness at all. Homosexuality is an innate sexual trait in humans. I would like to cite the case of Exodus Ministry which shut its doors in 2013. This ministry tried to change people’s sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual, causing deep emotional scarring and pain for which they apologised. You can not change a person’s sexual orientation like you can not change the colour of your skin.**********************************************************

        • Author’s gravatar

          Up until 1964 almost 100 years since the emancipation of black people, is when the law started changing for African Americans. Whites could refuse to serve blacks if they so desired based on religious belief. Segregation was rampant in the South blacks had to use different toilets, give up their seats on buses to whites and were seated in different parts of restaurants if the owner even chose to serve blacks. Are these principles you are talking about America being founded on? Are you requesting a return to those days? Well I am not

          • Author’s gravatar

            Let me continue the Evangelical Protestant Churches favoured slavery and justified it with bible. They also decried the ruination of America through biblical verse if segregation was ended. Sad really! It took until 1967 for the Supreme Court to declare miscegenation laws illegal. In many states whites and blacks were not allowed to marry. ( The case is called Loving verses Virginia). Again the fanatical Evangelical Christians had their bibles out decrying the iniquity of mixed marriage. Guess what the sky did not fall in. Once the black cause was lost they needed another group to demonise and that was homosexuals

  • Author’s gravatar

    Buhari at his very old age has go to be initiated into gay practice and consequently into one of the most powerful cults in the world. These are conditions he agreed to for him to be installed as president. His initiation will take place at the Blair house where he is staying. Prior to this, enough blood has been shed in the North east to the build up of this day, this was also part of the reason he went to the G7 summit.

    This world is far more than what we see. There’s a science practiced in the world that seeks world dominance through satan worshiping and there’s a desperation for Nigeria to play a major role as a propagation of satanism to Africa. Under GEJ, this could not have been achieved because of his affiliation with the real church and his refusal to sell his sole to the devil so Buhari is the best candidate.

    So many people will think what i have just written is crazy and stupid and i would tell them good-luck. This world is as artificial as it gets and all our fighting and political turmoil is being engineered to bring us to an expected position in preparation for what is to come.

    When Buhari comes back, we will all see the difference. He will appoint ministers, shut Tinubu up, shut amechi up and OBJ and others will be completely silent no matter what he does, he will subtly practice dictatorship but will be supported by many, our freedom will be carefully taken away without us knowing it and we will be under the illusion that Nigeria is getting better but there will still be increasing shedding of blood but we will not notice it, Christians will be persecuted more than before, Osibanjo will eventually resign on health grounds.

    Buhari has gone to America to serve his master and he will return with tremendous power but God is alive.

    • Author’s gravatar

      You virtually captured the essence of this PMB’s visit to Mr Hussein of US, the gay and abortion president that has yet to marry a man. When the real agenda of this visit begins to unfold there is nothing Nigerians can do about it because docility has apparently come to stay. Truth is that satan demands worship and one of the most perverse ways he is served in the occult religions of this world is through horrible sexual practices. Homosexuality is one of them. Many would not believe it but testimonies of people who divinely came out of these executive cults abound for the masses to read. Svali was one of them. That is how this world is been governed from behind the scene. Jonathan lost his election simply because he fell out with them on principle and so they had to withdraw support for fighting insurgency and escalate the media hype about the corruption in his government as if IBB is no longer the one that laid the foundation upon which the massive edifice called corruption stands today. I pray that PMB will not come back singing another song.

      • Author’s gravatar

        you really have an idea of whats going on in the world my friend. The painful truth is that the whole world is blinded right now. The media is being controlled, even Kiddies TV cartoon is being managed to gradualy make children get used to certain things like aliens, which crafts and magic in form of fairy tales. The world is really under serious control right now. Have you not noticed that music videos have gone very dark and illicit? demon characters now appear in rap music videos and all of a sudden its ok. Check out Lilwayne, drake, chris brown and stuff. Its all over, politics, movies, music even religion.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Please can anybody tell me the big deal about private affairs of people in their bedrooms ? Still 100% better than 50 years old man getting MARRIED to under age of 13 years old girls and hide behind religion who speaks for them in Nigeria ? Gay people are mostly adult , why are you concern about that, instead of save the CHILDREN under Age getting married to OLD man , trying to encourage Home maid in Nigeria to employed professional helpers , not disadvantage children as a slave ? , can anybody tell me what you do in your private HOMES? SAVE THE UNDER AGE GIRLS FROM BEEN SLAVE OR HUMAN TRAFFICING !!!!! LET US BEEN HONEST I AM MORE CONCERN WITH UNDER AGE GIRLS THAN GAY ISSUE OK. PLEASE…

    • Author’s gravatar

      infact you got it right, to show you that those in america calling for Nigeria to change want to involve buhari in devil worship, for on child slavery not gays publicity

    • Author’s gravatar

      Since you are MORE concerned about underaged children it means you are concerned with both. On that note I share your thought and would therefore appeal that PMB must not yield to both. Both would indeed amount to devil worship. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah. Thanks!

      • Author’s gravatar

        Yes I share your thought , because Under age children is more dear to me than an adult behaviour , we want somebody to speak for them if the Federal Government cant protect the innocent children

    • Author’s gravatar

      You cannot seriously suggest that marrying a child of 13 is in anyway comparable to sodommy? Remember that girls in the UK and the US are often sexually active at 11, not necessarily by old men as you choose to note, but all manners of ages. You call it grooming here in the UK. You cannot fail to acknowledge the obsenity of buggery and other substitues sexual behaviour of these perverts in the US and Europe between mutants and test tube creatures. Get real!!!

  • Author’s gravatar

    EXPERT LITERACY….A MAN MINDLESS OR CARELESS OR IMPOSING ABOUT IS PEOPLE’S FEELING SHALL LEAVE IN A SHORT. AMERICA CAN NOT ABUSE NIGERIANS