Nigeria’s anti-gay law affects us all! – Nigerian lawyer
Nnanna Ikpo, a Nigerian lawyer, story teller and human rights activist, in an interview with NoStrings Podcast, spoke about the different problems that the Nigerian anti same-sex marriage prohibition law has generated for the country.
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In the interview session with NoStrings podcast, Nnnana spoke candidly about the implications of this law and how it is a distraction from the many pressing issues that the country is struggling with, and instead scapegoating homosexuals. He said:
“The whole text is unconstitutional and undemocratic… more of our children will fall prey to diseases, depression and death not just because of ignorance, but fear of reaching out for help or even accepting help when it finds them”
“Nigeria should be weary of this law because it is not only a distraction from genuinely pressing state issues, it is a waste of our time and human resources. It is a waste of our lives and destruction of same. We kill our children, or make them flee abroad, carrying all the blessings that God put in them for our own good. We play God on the things that don’t stand in our way, and then become defenseless when we should fight.”
He also condemned the acts of mob justice carried out on suspected homosexuals in Nigeria:
“The law criminalizes the public show of same-sex amorous relationships. If this means anything at all, then what are the police and ‘holy-mob members’ doing in the bedrooms and private lives of tax-paying citizens of Nigeria. How exactly does private and discrete sexual gratification contend with the security situation in our neighborhoods or the lack of employment?”
Nnanna rejected the longstanding claim that homosexuality is unAfrican:
“What is African or not is not a function of what people say or do not say, but a progressive and unbiased study of history’s facts….
“Homosexuality is as African as our diverse hair, skin colour, customs and fates. And no amount of policing can contend or combat this.”
Nnnana commended fellow activists for their efforts, but he also spoke about the issue of visibility for the LGBTIA+ community and the need for more voices to come on board to support the movement for equality. He said:
“We need an increased visible and audible representation of the LGBTIA+ spectrum, especially amongst the women, bisexuals, intersex, transgender and gender non-conformist strips of the spectrum. And we all need to join hands in changing the hearts of the society first, tugging at the negative narrative until it is completely destroyed.”
To listen to the full interview, CLICK HERE.
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People no matter what race or gender, people did not choose to be brought into this world. Yet those of the opposite sex who engage in either amorous intimate sex within marriage or without it, knowingly do it with that intent and some don’t in that they are going to bring a new life in to this world. Hence, then when that life manifest itself in its individual being as it grows within as we all know as in the individuality of ourselves within what we truly know is good and evil. How dare we go against God’s creation thereof, in His image of the state of love where there no acts of hate involved. These things are in all of us, so why make it harder for the least of your own young and old kins, and do as we do here in the USA. Yes, we have it good bur there is still great opposition from that which should not be when it’s within the true understanding of God’s name of love. Such evil things do not existence within that true realm. When it is accomplished, there will be no need to fear anything anymore. God gave the ten commandments and the last two to be accomplished within all the genders. Respecting one another in a brotherly friendship way within God’s understanding of love. You all know how you do it in your friendly neighborhood, where no one is trying to get over another. Honesty is always the best to go, but we must not persecute nor ridicule that which we may find personally offensive. I mean anyone can find anything offensive and create a big stink about it. However, some better things are truly justifiable within the order of love.