NIGERIA: CRISIS POINT

[VOICES] Williams Rashidi explains Nigeria's horrific Same Sex Marriage Prohibition bill and how it affects the local LGBT population.

 

The Nigerian Senate voted on Tuesday, 29^th November to pass the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill. The bill if passed into law stipulates a maximum 14 years for gays and lesbians people and 10 years for people who aids, abets and witness same sex marriage. It also places a ban on gay and lesbian organizations /clubs in the deeply religious nation. Nigeria already has laws that criminalize homosexuality.

Chapter 21 of the Penal and Criminal Code of Nigeria:

Section 214 states:  Any person who- (1) has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; or (2) has carnal knowledge of an animal; or (3) permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

 

Section 217 specifically states: Any male person who, whether in public or private, commits any act of gross indecency with another male person, or procures another male person to commit any act of gross indecency with him, or attempts to procure the commission of any such act by any male person with himself or with another male person, whether in public or private, is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for three years.

 

The Sharia Penal Code: The provisions of the Sharia Penal Code apply predominantly in Muslim north. The north coincidentally houses more male homosexuals, compared to the south of the country (Sexual Diversity and Human Rights Research Project 2007 -2008 – INCRESE).  12 Northern Nigerian states have adopted Islamic Sharia laws with harsh punishment for people with sexual orientation and gender identity considered deviant and un-Islamic. This include homosexuality whether male on female but with more harsh punishments for male homosexuals. Section 130, 131 and 134 of the Sharia Penal Codes stipulates and states that “whoever commits the offence of Sodomy shall be punished:

With canning of one hundred lashes and if unmarried shall also be liable to imprisonment for a term of one year: or

If married with stoning to death (rajm)

“Any woman who engages in same sex relationships with caning which may extend to fifty lashes and in addition sentenced to a term of imprisonment which may extend to six months”

Sodomy in this clause is mostly restricted to anal sex between men. The Sharia Penal Code is not usually applied to the act of sodomy by heterosexual couples. The above provision is also mainly applied to sexual relationships between men. Also in the Sharia Penal Code is a provision that stipulates to punish:

                 

Within these repressive and discriminatory laws, the National AIDS Control Agency, a parastatal of the Federal Government of Nigeria currently has working policy on HIV/AIDS captures the needs of men who have sex with men who may or not identify as gays and bisexuals.. But the question that organizations working with LGBTI, most especially men who have sex with men ask:  is this laudable policy of the Nigerian Government in responding to the HIV epidemic amongst MSM and the general population realistic, in the midst of repressive and discriminatory laws that criminalize same sex oriented persons, most especially male homosexuals in achieving universal access for all and the current passage of the Same Sex Marriage Bill by the Nigerian Senate.

 

The bill which is not yet a law has escalated tension and caused wide spread fear within the LGBT community on insinuations that the governments has given orders that gays and lesbians be fished out in the country for prosecution. In an interview, Rashid Williams, Director of Queer Alliance said, ‘I do not think the government is serious about  making Nigeria a truly democratic and free nation, in which everyone is respected no matter who they are and how they choose to identify themselves as long as this is not criminal. I don't only see and sense discrimination in the bill, I sense people taking laws into their hands to lynch, extort and blackmail and commit other forms of violence and hate on people just on the grounds of their perceived sexual orientation when it may appear not to be the case. The bill also takes way the fundamental human right of freedom to association and peaceful assembly as embedded in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It grants both state and non state actors the power to infringe and access the privacy of people based on their real or perceived sexual orientation. This is a gross deviation from the Constitution and International Human Rights Principles and Standards to which Nigeria is signatory. It breaches the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights that protects from discrimination whatsoever and of which Nigeria as a country has signed, ratified and domesticated. Moreover, who is talking about Same Sex Marriage in Nigeria when Nigeria's human rights record is nothing to write home about?

 

In 2002, Innua Yakubu a student of the Government College in Jigawa State that also has Sharia laws was killed by his fellow classmates on the grounds of his sexual orientation. Earlier this year, gay rights activist Rashidi Williams and his male friend were ambushed by a group of men on the grounds of them being gay. Violence and hate crimes committed on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity is under-reported and when reported, is sensationalized by the Nigeria media. Cases of rape of lesbians have also been documented in Nigeria.

 

Queer Alliance an organization working to promote the well-being and advocate for the rights of LGBT in Nigeria also reacted by saying that the social problems the bill will create will be enormous than the country can bear. The bill will lead to the migration of talented LGBT people to countries where they are protected. It may also aid the migration of people who are ordinarily not affected by the bill, claiming asylum on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

 

The major challenges, not just for sexual minorities but for everyone are discriminatory and repressive laws in the country. People should be free to be who they are and not fear to conform to societal expectation. The passage of the same sex marriage prohibition bill by the Senate also leaves HIV service organization working in the country, asking if the government is really serious about fighting the HIV epidemic in Nigeria. Gay and Bisexual men also have sexual relationship with members of the opposite sex to keep people away from prying into the private lives and also conform to societal expectations. This creates a transmission route for HIV; criminalizing identities will not solve the bulk if Nigeria’s development problems.

 

Governments of African countries need look inwards, back into their societies, rather than branding homosexuality as a western way of life. They need o ask why their colonial masters who instituted these laws in their countries did so if homosexuality was absent on the continent. Africans need to also know that we cannot talk of developing the continent and addressing the basic needs of the people by criminalizing a specific group within the general population and making people live in total fear of the lives. It is counterproductive to the development the continent yearns for.

Williams is Founder and Project Manager of Queer Alliance Nigeria and is also part of the Queer African Youth Networking Centre in Lagos.