Don’t succumb to EU’s threat on gay marriage, CSOs warn

‘EU-ACP pact will cost African countries identity, values, others’
Following recent threat by European Union (EU) to 35 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, who have refused to sign the EU-ACP partnership agreement, coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have urged the ACP countries to resist entreaties in defence of their values, customs and ways of life.

The group also urged ACP countries that have signed the agreement to withdraw their signatures.

According to the CSOs, if the ACP countries refuse to sign the lesbianism, gay marriage, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) agreement by January 1, 2024, it will strengthen their national sovereignty; it will erase the wrong impression that the ACP countries are inferior to other European countries.

The CSOs are African, Caribbean, Pacific Civil Society Organisation (ACPCSO), Parents Watch Initiative and Zarephath Aid.

Recall that on the refusal of Nigeria and other countries to sign the LGBT agreement on November 15, 2023, led the European Union to issue a threat on November 24, 2023, stating that any ACP country failing to sign the LGBT agreement by January 1, 2024, when the agreement is scheduled to come into force, will face dire consequences.

These consequences include the denial of EU funding, development assistance and programme implementation.

The threat specifies that such countries will be treated as pariah nations and may be subject to economic sanctions, they would be barred from participating in EU-Organisation of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) meetings and activities.

At a press briefing yesterday, Coordinator ACPCSO, Sonnie Ekwowusi, argued that the agreement threatens to undermine the national sovereignty of ACP countries that are parties to the agreement.

“ACP countries should dismiss the EU’s cheap threats and stand firm. Instead of succumbing to EU’s intimidation, they should assert their sovereignty and break ties with the EU. They are no longer under the tutelage of their former colonial masters,” Ekwowusi stated.

He added that LGBT, abortion and sexualisation of African school children with Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) are abhorrent to African sensibilities and quite contrary to the norms of African societies.

He added: “These abnormalities are a great disservice to African nations, which are currently bedeviled by so many societal ills. Homosexuality is an acquired habit that ought to be eradicated and not be transformed into an acceptable human conduct by law; same sex marriage is absolutely prohibited.”

Ekwowusi lamented that African countries, including Nigeria, over the years have been victims of organised deception, coercion, bullying, blackmail, manipulation and abuse of power at the United Nations.

He also lamented that the EU has become another imperialist lever for influencing legislation and the manipulation of socio-cultural economic and political events in Nigeria.

Also, a convener of Parents of the Future Foundation, Omoye Olaye, lamented that if the treaty is signed, will affect the upbringing of children in African countries.

She lamented that the treaty would make parents lose their children. She noted that African children need access to quality education rather than the LGBT, urging the Federal Government to refrain from signing the agreement.