- Jerry Gana
LAGOS, Nigeria – Legislators in Nigeria are aiming to pass legislation that would criminalize marriage for same-sex couples. Couples who marry could face up to three years in jail. Under the measure, couples who marry could face up to three years in jail, and witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to five years behind bars.
“If this bill passes into law, the Nigerian government will be sanctioning even greater discrimination and violence against an already vulnerable group,” said Graeme Reid, LGBT rights director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.
But opposition to same-sex marriage is strong in a country that is evenly divided between Christians and Muslims but is nearly universally opposed to homosexuality.
The Nigerian Tribune reported that Professor Jerry Gana, a former minister of Information and National Orientation, has called on the National Assembly to quickly pass a bill forbidding same-sex marriage describing the act as ungodly and immoral.
Gana said that same-sex marriage was a threat to civil society stating that if such an act was not stopped, it could make God forsake Nigeria.
The anti-gay marriage legislation, which is being considered for the third time since 2006, already has sailed through two readings in the Senate. A public hearing meant to gauge public opinion on the bill saw gay rights activists booed and provided with police escorts to leave the hall after presenting their arguments against the proposed measure.
Joseph Sewedo Akoro, executive director of The Initiative for Equal Rights, says Nigeria’s few gay rights activists often ask themselves how much time they can afford to spend trying to persuade lawmakers when ordinary people are the main perpetrators of discrimination and violence against gays.
