Early this year, Eric Beauchemin of Radio Netherland interviewed the president of Alliance Rights, a new gay group in Nigeria. The story is republished here.

"Homosexuality is often regarded in Africa as a Western import. Several southern African leaders have made statements in recent years designed to reinforce this image. Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, for instance, has described homosexuals as worse than dogs or pigs. But according to the president of Alliance Rights Nigeria, a gay organisation, homosexuality has always existed in Africa. "In some cultures in the northern part of Nigeria", says Erilou - who like most other Alliance Rights' members uses a pseudonym - "there are people called dan daudu which is a typical Hausa term.

It means 'men who are wives of men'. In olden days, to show your immense wealth, it was easy to have a harem of wives. But to show that you were truly rich, you had to keep a stable of men. You had to take care of your dan daudu and their families - if they had them - and be like a mentor to them. These wealthy men would have sexual relationships with these dan daudu. What else is homosexuality?" Nigeria, like many former British colonies, has laws dating back to the Victorian era that make sodomy punishable by up to 14 years in prison. While these laws are rarely applied, they contribute to the climate of intolerance towards homosexuals. The situation in the north of the country has deteriorated in recent years because of the introduction of Islamic or sharia law. In the state of Zamfara, a man was flogged 36 times for having had sex with another man. There are no laws regarding same sex relations between women, but lesbians have also suffered persecution.

In 1994, four lesbians who had sought refuge at a feminist centre were attacked and raped at gunpoint by an unknown number of men. A few days earlier, one of the victims had published an article on lesbians in Nigeria. Erilou, who comes from a village about 40 kilometres from Lagos, recalls speaking to his grandmother about the subject. She told him that when she was young, there were men who used to behave effeminately like he does. "She told me those men were called gbowo. Those people, she said, were very good orators. They were musicians and poets and did the finer things in society. They were not the hunters or warriors, the macho-type of people. But they did the finer things, the things that made people enjoy themselves."

Alliance Rights is trying to fight the general public's hostility towards homosexuality. Gay bashing and verbal abuse are not common. Recently, a mob burned down a bar frequented by gays on the Lagos beachfront. Other bars have since emerged, but generally gays and lesbians in Nigeria meet at parties and friends' houses. Young people who discover that they are attracted to the same sex tendto hide the fact from their friends and family because they are often ostracised or even thrown out of the family home. Alliance Rights Since its inception, Alliance Rights has focused its efforts on making gays and lesbians aware of the organisation's existence. It has organised various seminars and its members have taken part in international conferences to network with gays and lesbians elsewhere in the continent and the rest of the world.

Alliance Rights has also carried out seminars in a few secondary schools in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, on AIDS/HIV. It hopes to set up a sports club and attend the next Gay Games. The organisation is discretely lobbying members of Nigeria's National Assembly to decriminalise sodomy. According to Erilou, the President of Alliance Rights, "people in government know that there is homosexuality in Nigerian society and even in high levels of the government. But because of political considerations, they have to tread softly. We respect that and are willing to be patient. It will take us a long time to reach the same level as South Africa (where homosexuality has been legalised), but we will get there. Nigerians are bold. In the end, we are certain we will win."

The News (Lagos, Nigeria)
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204220489.html

April 22, 2002

2
A Gay Murder in Jigawa--A student dies over homosexuality.

Students are not left out of homosexualism. Innua Yakubu, a homosexual final year student of Government College, Birnin-kudu in Jigawa State was, on 3 April, clubbed to death by his colleagues.

At 21, he had joined the infamous club of gays whose rendezvous are scattered across Jigawa and Kano States. When he walked from his Mang hostel to the classroom, he picked his steps gingerly and wriggled his waist as a teenage girl. At night, after prep Yakubu would make up like a lady ready to meet his 'lover' at a secret rendezvous in Tsoho Gari not far from their hostel. After his daily routine, Yakubu left the hostel in the night to keep a date with his 'lover', identified as Malam Abbas, said to be a former employee of the fire service. Unknown to Yakubu, many of his friends, enraged by his effeminate attitude in school, planned to turn his fun into a tragedy.

A group of 16 boys followed him as he ran to meet his lover. The students "immediately descended on Yakubu once they saw him in the company of a man." They beat him with sticks and koboko until he could not move again," narrated Iliasu, a student. The students later dispersed at 3 a.m. that day, thinking that Yakubu was dead. No one could explain how Yakubu found his way back into his hostel that night, unconscious. At dawn when his roommates woke up for the early Morning Prayer, only Yakubu was still lying on his bed. They woke him up, but found out that he was already dead with congealed blood in his nose and mouth.

"It was the school authorities that brought the report to our station the following morning, that a boy was found dead on his bed," said divisional officer, ASP Sani Yanyamel who led the police team that took the corpse from the hostel to the hospital." We found him dead on his bed, with blood on his face." The DCO said the police arrested five out of the 16 students that allegedly killed Yakubu. They were immediately transferred to the state police command in Dutse where they are still being interrogated.

The state PPRO, Cyril Owoghiren who confirmed the story to journalists in Dutse, said the student may be charged to court for culpable homicide. For Alhaji Musa Yau, the principal of the 42-year old college, the incident was a tragedy, which no one should talk about. He declined to make any comment. "I cannot say anything, I've been instructed not to say anything on the issue. Please go and see the commissioner at Kazaure," he said.

The news of the killing of a homosexual student in Birnin-Kudu swept across Jigawa and Kano states like a violent wind. The Jigawa state government was embarrassed by the scandal. Although homosexual stories are as old as folktales in the north, it was the first time that teenage homosexuality was hitting the news. The state government last week in a press statement regretted the incident. The government said it received "with deep sense of sorrow and concern, the report of a suspected case of homosexuality involving a student at Government College, Birnin-Kudu where the suspected student was said to have been manhandled by his fellow students, which led to his death." The statement, signed by Lawan Gumel, press secretary to the deputy governor, said the government had directed the state commissioner of education to constitute a committee to thoroughly investigate the matter and recommend ways of preventing a recurrence.

The News (Lagos), Nigeria
http://allafrica.com/stories/200204220488.html

3
Homophobic report about Nigerian homosexuality

April 22, 2002

OPINION: Nation's Homosexuals

by Tajudeen Sulaiman & Bamidele Adebayo
Homosexuals who used to hide their faces, have of late, become more brazen in their acts. Their influence pervades the public and private sectors in Nigeria. Alhaji Femi Ade Rasheed used to carry himself with the dignified gait of a prince. But an allegation of homosexuality has sent the board member of the Ogun State Agro Allied Industries and a member of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, in the state, tumbling down.

He has sung to the Police in Abeokuta, the state capital. And he has been arraigned before an Isabo Magistrate court in the city charged with what the police called "indecent practice between males" (a phrase for sodomy) contrary to section 217 of the criminal code. If the court found him guilty, he may spend 14 years in jail.

Rasheed's story is distinctive in the increasing and brazen homosexual practices in Nigeria. Unlike Rasheed, many homosexuals are hardly arrested, as they are themselves wielders of power and influence, obscenely rich and respected. In the last decade or so, they have formed themselves into a network of clubs and mafia, membership of which offers a sure passport to stupendous riches, even more power and influence. The recent trend is that homosexuality, which used to be a carefully guarded secret by the practitioner, is graduating into an open level.

Gays abound in the armed forces, in the bureaucracy, among politicians and the private sector. Apart from some prominent Nigerians who have been accused publicly of this "sexual preference and board room players who perform the act to seal juicy contracts, school pupils have been bitten by the bug.

The clobbering to death of a homosexual student of Government College, Birnin Kudu, Jigawa State on 3 April, illustrates the pervasiveness of sodomy in the land. What is more, gays now have a non-governmental organisation called Alliance Rights, set up to fight their cause in a multi-religious and heterosexual country. Alhaji Rasheed's present trouble started early February this year, when his green Mercedes-Benz car with number-plate AR 505 ABC Abuja, pulled up at the gate of Government Technical College Idi-Aba, Abeokuta. He was said to have asked after a fictitious Gbenga, a bait to catch a prey. The school's security personnel were said to have demanded for Gbenga's surname, but Alhaji could not provide one.

But the officer, recognising the famous Alhaji as an illustrious son of the state, decided to assist him. Subsequently, a student, Yemi, was sent to go and search for the Gbenga. But his mission was not successful. Eventually, that did not dissuade the Alhaji from carrying out his mission. Like the proverbial patient dog that eats the fattest bone, Alhaji Rasheed maintained his cool in an obscure place around the school. Within a short period, his efforts yielded fruit. Yemi, the student who was earlier sent to assist him to look for Gbenga, was going for lunch break. Alhaji emerged from hiding and accosted Yemi who recognised him as the person that came to his school a few minutes ago.

Alhaji Rasheed showered Yemi with gifts. The man persuaded the student to take him to the house of two others: Oyetunji Gbemi and Micheal Oyeku, all students of the 23 -year old technical college. They were all excited the way the Alhaji who is old enough to be their father, spoiled them with gifts and invited them home. They agreed to follow their newly found 'mentor' to Imeko, which is about sixty-minute drive from Abeokuta. Gbemi borrowed cassettes to be played in Alhaji's video machine, at Imeko. On getting there, according to sources close to the sexually abused students, Alhaji used all forms of gimmicks to delay the boys who insisted on going back to Abeokuta. At the end of the day, they agreed to sleep in Alhaji Rasheed's flat in the town.

After watching all the movies, the trio slept in one of the rooms in the three-bedroom apartment. In the night, Alhaji furtively went into the room where the boys slept. He slept among the boys, who kept wondering what was going on. Initially, they thought, their host just wanted to be in their company. But they were wrong.

The Alhaji soon started fumbling with the boys' private parts till they ejaculated. It was equally alleged that he penetrated the anus of one of the boys. The boys felt dumbfounded and violated. They consequently reported the matter to the school authorities. But the 50-year old Alhaji Rasheed, who started work as a reporter with Radio Kaduna, was not satisfied yet. He wanted more quirky sexual pleasure and sought fresh boys in the same school the following day.

Unknown to him that the cat had been let out of the bag; the students of the school mobbed him. But for the timely intervention of one of their teachers, the Alhaji would have been lynched. He was, however, arrested, detained and taken to court. The trial magistrate granted him bail and adjourned the case. When the case came up again on 5 April, the Alhaji was absent in court.

The matter has again been adjourned. At the technical school, the Vice Principal, Mr. E.A. Ojuyomi, said: "It is true that we paraded four boys in the school assembly and cautioned other students not to follow strangers anywhere. But I will not tell you their names and I will not comment on the matter." Police sources in Abeokuta said Alhaji Rasheed has a notorious reputation when it comes to his sexual preference. Early last year, Alhaji Morufu Alabi a.k.a "Omo Odo Agba", the presenter of a radio programme called "Teleda Lase," bit more than what he could chew, when he aired a complaint against Rasheed on Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation, OGBC, FM stereo. One Bayo, who was probably Alhaji Rasheed's first sexually abused victim in the state, had come to lodge a complaint to Alhaji Morufu Alabi, whose programme is designed to expose the ills of the society.

According to Bayo, also a student of the technical college, Alhaji Rasheed, had carnal knowledge of him when he was doing his industrial training, IT, at Imeko and he feared that because of what he considered to be an abominable sexual assault, he had lost his manhood. Alhaji Rasheed was invited to the programme to defend himself. He admitted "accommodating" Bayo and other boys doing their IT at Imeko. He claimed that it was just a kind gesture to help the people of the state, but he denied having carnal knowledge of the boy.

Despite the denial, the students of the school who had gathered at the radio station's premises and felt that Rasheed was lying, pounced on him as he was stepping out of the station's studio. They beat him, vandalized his car and broke his eyeglasses, before he was rescued. Alhaji Rasheed, who is well connected in the state, reported the matter to the police, but the matter was later settled, with OGBC coughing out the sum of N20, 000. The money was paid through the chambers of his lawyer, Mr. Idale Habib Ajayi, a member of Ogun State House of Assembly.

While living in Ilorin, Kwara State, some years ago, Rasheed was alleged to have been caught several times committing sodomy with students of Ara-Orun Grammar School and Victory College, Edidi. In the early eighties, he was a household name in the old Kwara State. He was the presenter of a Saturday morning Pidgin English programme, Una Good Morin O. He aired the programme on Radio Kwara and the producer was the late Kola Shomoye. Rasheed presented the programme so well, that he immediately became the toast of everybody in the state. He capitalised on the stardom to make connections. It was then he met General Abdulkareem Adisa, a prominent indigene of the state; Olola Kasumu, the leader of Afonja Descendant Union, ADU, and other important dignitaries. Some of his colleagues at the Radio Station, who spoke with TheNEWS last week on the condition of anonymity, said that he was not actually a staff of the station.

They said that despite the fact that he mixed freely and he likes attending parties, he was never seen in the company of the opposite sex. None of them could say whether or not he has a wife. The slim built Alhaji Rasheed however left Radio Kwara suddenly. He later became the farm manager of General Adisa's Discabog Farms Ilorin. He was also a member of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN. Rasheed was also the manager in the farm of Mr. Sunday Adewusi, a former Inspector-General of Police. He facilitated the installation of General Adisa, as the Akinrogun of Imeko, two years ago. Rasheed is a prominent member of AD in Ogun State.

Repeated calls at the office of Agro Services at Asero, Abeokuta yielded no fruits, as the workers there said Rasheed does not work full-time. At home in Imeko, his flat located in a bungalow, known as "Fine Tree House" near Saint Joseph's Catholic Primary School, was firmly locked. Neighbours said Rasheed lives alone in the flat and that he is not used to telling them his itinerary. They further informed that they had not seen him for the past three weeks. There are other people who share Rasheed's sexual preference. At Sango-Otta, on 17 January, the town's vigilance group apprehended one Oladunjoye Akeem, the managing director of Uncle Fast Photo in the town. Oladimeji was allegedly having carnal knowledge of a boy when he was arrested. In Lagos, the sodomites on the Island have meeting points at some exclusive restaurants in Victoria Island, while those on the mainland have a meeting place at Kampala Hotel, Oke Koto, Agege.

The decrepit one storey building looks ordinary in daytime, but at dawn, it is a special place for the homosexuals and transvestites. The building facing the road adjacent to the popular Danjuma Cinema has no signboard to indicate that it is a hotel. But as from 10:00 p.m in the evening, everything changes; exotic cars are always seen in front of the brothel. Some of the gays would put on lipsticks like women while some of them try to walk like ladies. Most of the patrons of the brothel are said to be the rich and powerful in the society: army officers and top government officials. Access to the club is exclusive to the members of the gay club.

Homosexuality also abounds in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano and other cities in the country. Gay business in Kano is notorious as female prostitution in Italy or the Red Light District of Hamburg in Germany. The business is said not to be limited to any class. Low class gay brothels can be found along Abedi, Freetown, and Sani streets, all inside Sabon Gari. Among the gays are transvestites who usually dress and make up like female prostitutes at night. The high-class gays, incorporating Nigerians and some of their Lebanese friends do their own at guesthouses where they keep their lovers. Such guesthouses are along Sultan Road, Nassarawa, G.R.A, Kundila Estate and Maiduguri Road.

They are also found at Hausawa quarters and Sabongari. Among the top gays in Kano is the Galadima Kano, Alhaji Tijanni Ashim. Although, he has several wives, at the same time he has sexual peccadillo for his gender. Ibrahim Dan Kabo, who died last week, was also reputed for being a bi-sexual. Indeed, one of his hotels at the GRA in Kano has for some years been a rendezvous of gays and bi-sexuals. Some top journalists in the town have also been found among them. There is also Ibrahim Ismail, the former husband of women affairs minister, Aisha Ismail. He was said to be close to a former inspector-general of police. Insiders said that the fact of his homosexuality was one of the major reasons for his separation from his wife.

There is in addition, the notorious case of Bello Galadanci, a serving director of information at the Kano state ministry of information. He was involved in a homosexual scandal under the military administration of Brigadier Dominic Oneya. Oneya not only reprimanded him but also vowed to freeze any promotion for him while he remained the administrator of the state. Although Kano has instituted a new Sharia law, which bans homosexuality, the city's notoriety for homosexuality is legendary. During the holy month of Ramadan in 1998, Bashir Yan Tandu, a famous businessman, was beaten up by residents of his quarters in Dala Local Government area of the city. He was caught making love to a nine-year old boy. This is another form of gay practice (pederasty, which involves a male adult and a boy).

Foreigners imported gay culture. Gay culture was never a tradition in Kano or any part of Nigeria. The belief was that it was introduced into Northern Nigeria by two influences, beginning from the Arabs, who brought Islam and then the British who colonised the territory. Then the practice was accentuated in the early public schools, all male, in most cases, where older boys abused young boys. Apart from the colonial masters, Lebanese and Syrian businessmen in the North started the act with their drivers, cleaners and gardeners. But it later became a pastime among top government officials and businessmen who considered it as an avenue to excel.

In Kano, there was (and still is) the belief that the vitality and luck of a man lurks in his anus.

Homosexuality is also another form of domination, especially by traditional rulers over their fellow men.

In Dutse, Jigawa State, Alhaji Maitama Yusuf, the minister of commerce in the Shehu Shagari administration, was accused of homosexuality in 1997 by 24-year old Mohammed Jamiu. Yusuff lured Mohammed to his house, pretending to be his (the latter's) father's friend. The matter blew open when the boy, after experiencing anus bleeding, reported the matter to the Emir of Dutse. Mohammed later wrote to the Inspector General of police, Ibrahim Coomasie.

Homosexuality, however, goes beyond the escapades of mischievous schoolboys or the perversion of politicians and boardroom players. In Nigeria, it rules the realm of politics. Major Gideon Orkar and his fellow coupists revealed this on 22 April 1990. In his broadcast, which was intermittently interrupted by the howling of radio morse, Orkar said: "Fellow Nigerian citizens, on behalf of the patriotic and well meaning people of the Middle Belt and Southern Part of this country, I Major Gideon Orkar wish to happily inform you of the successful ousting of the dictatorial, corrupt, drug baronish, inhuman, sadistic, deceitful, homosexual-centred... administration of General Ibrahim Babangida..." If Orkar scratched the charge of gay tendency against the Babangida regime on the surface, Colonel Tony Nyiam who also took part in the 1990 putsch was more revealing in an interview he granted a magazine in September 1995.

He said that the key allegation was on homosexuality. "You don't need to go far," he argued. "Just ask officers' wives who know their husbands were sent out of the army because they refused to be abused by IBB." One of such victims, according to Nyiam, was Brigadier Mayaki, a Hausa-Fulani combatant officer who studied political science at the University of Ibadan. In the words of Nyiam, Mayaki, a prince of the Sokoto caliphate excelled in all the courses he attended. "The only drawback that Brigadier Mayaki had was that he refused to become a woman to IBB," Nyiam revealed. Colonel Rabiu Isa, a brilliant officer of the artillery unit was, according to Nyiam, also retired from the army by IBB because he refused to be the former head of state's gay mate. Nyiam complained bitterly: "We just could not tolerate this un-African attitude of men sleeping with themselves... This group of homosexuals has hijacked power from Nigeria. There are still some circles you cannot get to if you don't resort to bottom power."

Justin Fashanu, Ex Norwich city striker and brother of John Fashanu, committed suicide after series of reports linking him with sodomy against several teenagers in England. Fashanu lived a life of a recluse but was a regular caller at police stations on matters bordering on homosexuality. Also connected to homosexuality is Babashola Rhodes, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, based in Lagos. Apart from students of the University of Lagos whom he lured with money, he, on many occasions, allegedly made sexual advances to young lawyers in his chambers. His colleagues on the bar generally disdain his sexual preference and were known to have boycotted the ceremony that made him a senior advocate of Nigeria, under the Babangida regime. Meanwhile, just as environmentalists and human rights activists have their own pressure groups, so also are Nigerian homosexuals.

They now have an NGO known as "Alliance Rights" to fight for gays and lesbians in Nigeria. In an interview which one Erelu, the president of the organisation, granted Radio Netherlands in January this year, he said that homosexuality had always existed in Africa, especially in Northern Nigeria, where they are called dan daudu (men who are wives of men). Erelu explained that in the olden days, although a harem of wives was a symbol of riches, to show stupendous wealth, "you had to keep a stable of men"... take care of your dan daudu and their families, have sexual relationship with and be a mentor to them.

Erelu and his NGO are not happy about the climate of intolerance towards homosexuals. This attitude, according to Erelu, dates back to the Victorian era when sodomy was made punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Now Sharia, according to him, has worsened the situation. There is a link between power and gay culture, which dates back to the colonial times in Nigeria. Some of the country's colonial lords were suspected to be homosexuals who sowed the culture of the sexual predilection. Social historians said they passed on the culture to some of the first generation of political leaders in the First Republic.

The culture continues to grow till date. One puzzling question that demands answer about Sodomy is what pleasure does a man derive from having sex with a man like him? An herbalist told this magazine, that some people do it for ritual. It is believed that the gays get money and power from the act. While others make connections through it, individuals do it for one thing or the other.

But the origin of sodomy could be found in the Holy Bible. In the book of Genesis, it is written that in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, men were having carnal knowledge of fellow men. Two Angels visited Lot, Abraham's cousin, but they came in form of human beings. As soon as they entered Lot's house, the Sodomites followed them and told Lot that they wanted to sleep with the Angels. Lot refused. The Sodomites insisted. The Angels, therefore, made the intruders blind and God sent the Angels to destroy the city with brimstone and fire. Is Sodom and Gomorrah here yet?

Rainbow Network (U.K. glbt)
http://www.rainbownetwork.com/content/Feature.asp?featid=13214

May 7, 2003

4
'Pink Refugees' in South Africa seek refuge from persecution at home

by Adam Levin, Planet Syndication
Sunday night at the Summit Club in Hillbrow. Anita, a pint-sized Whitney Houston lookalike in white micro-mini and fuck-off platforms, is belting out a flawless lip-synch of Miss Whitney's classic, 'It's not right, but it's OK'. Anita's upturned almond eyes sparkle as the red stage light brushes her high, honeyed cheekbones. She gyrates, bends, touches her toes, and flashes that impossibly broad white smile. Her energy is total. The audience - mostly black, male and heterosexual - chug down their Black Labels and cheer raucously. Little do they realise the title of the song has a certain hidden poignancy.

First up, Anita is not a woman, but a young Nigerian man called Azubike Udogo, known to his friends as Azu. Azu is currently in the process of applying for refugee status in South Africa on the grounds of his sexual orientation. "I can't go back to Nigeria," he fumes over a glass of Lemon Twist in his Troyeville apartment. "I'll go somewhere else if I have to. Anywhere. If I go back to Nigeria they'll kill me or they'll throw me in jail and that's it." Just how well founded this claim is, however, is a matter for the adjudicators at South Africa's Department of Home Affairs. As a signatory of a 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees, South Africa is obliged to grant refugee status to asylum seekers who have been victims of systematic persecution in their home countries. Not only must they offer proof of this persecution; they must show the inability or unwillingness of their governments to offer them protection. While asylum seekers await judgement, which can take anything up to six years, they live half-lives without ID books or access to bank accounts. Although they are entitled to work, the asylum seeker's permit must be renewed every three months.

Given the transience of this legal status, it is extremely difficult to secure employment or even a lease. But luckily, Azu is a fighter. He has a day job in the call centre of a Randburg attorney's office, while at night Anita fills the breadbasket. Azu studies French, performs, socialises. Yet, having first presented his case in June 2000, he is, understandably, feeling rather frustrated at this stage. Azu was born 29 years ago in Lagos, the economic capital of Africa's most populated country. Though he realised he was gay from an early age, he was always too frightened to admit this to anyone.

Not only would his family reject him, thanks to a strict Victorian penal code, homosexuality is still illegal in Nigeria, and two men found having sex are liable for up to 14 years' imprisonment.

Furthermore, it is alleged that in Lagos there are private groups of vigilantes who prey on gay men, humiliating and harassing them. Worse still, in the country's Northern states - where Islamic or sharia law has recently been implemented - homosexuality is punishable by execution. While at least one gay man has been flogged publicly, last year a young man in Kebbeh province - accused of having sex with a male minor - was sentenced to death by stoning. Even in Lagos, Nigerian society is a long way from liberated when it comes to gay rights.

While historically it was customary for powerful Hausa men to share their wealth with young male lovers as well as their female harems, in Post-Colonial Nigeria it is almost impossible to be an out homosexual. According to the affidavit of Adolph Mabunda, a young, gay Nigerian in Johannesburg, "I am regarded as a public disgrace [in Lagos]. At University, I was often insulted by being called derogatory names like [H]'Omo Detergent'. I was rejected and excluded from the mainstream... I am an enemy to my family because they say I have brought shame on them". Ironically, the situation is so dire that Alliance Rights, an underground gay organisation, which cannot be registered, spends much of its resources helping persecuted gay Nigerians to leave the country. Azu worked as a travel agent in Lagos. He drove a decent car and enjoyed a relatively high standard of living. As his family was from River State, where Ken Saro-Wiwa had recently been killed, Azu participated in some peaceful anti-government demonstrations.

Secretly he had also begun dressing in drag. Armed with fierce dancing skills and that killer smile, he had won two major titles in the city's underground drag contests - Miss Lagos and Miss Nigeria. He had also established a secret relationship with a man but this had ended when - under extreme pressure from his family - the man had been persuaded to marry. It was back in 1996, while walking one evening on the streets of Lagos, that Azu was arrested on suspicion of homosexuality - a charge that carries a seven-year sentence in its own right. The police held Azu in the cells without laying a formal charge. They beat him. Indeed, he still has the mark on his back from where he was whacked with a policeman's baton. Eventually, after a week behind bars, the charge was changed to "Late Wandering." Azu paid a fine and was released.

Around two years later, Azu was visiting what he calls a "Man to Man" bar in Lagos. Though nothing as overt as a gay club, the venue was known to have a partly gay clientele. Late that night, police raided the premises, throwing more thirty patrons into a van and yelling "You are worse than dogs!" Had Azu not had sufficient money on grease the officers' palms, he would have been imprisoned again. It was then that he decided to flee the country. "If I couldn't be who I really was," he recalls. "I didn't want to live anymore".

Azu had read on the Internet about South Africa's progressive stance on homosexuality. As the only African country with anti-discrimination laws in its constitution and strong gay rights movement, it seemed a likely place of refuge. And so he gave up everything he'd established in Lagos and began the long journey, by road, through Cameroon, Congo, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, arriving eventually in Johannesburg in late 1998. As he had no idea that sexual orientation was grounds for asylum, Azu applied on political grounds. With an asylum seeker's permit granted, he began making his life in Johannesburg. He made new friends and got accustomed to the liberty of living openly as a gay man.

"Finally, I didn't have to hide," he says. "I could just be myself and feel safe. It was magic." Azu also began making his name on the drag circuit, belting through Jennifer Holiday and Aretha Franklin at Monte Casino and private parties. At one point, he was flown down to Cape Town to perform at a Camps Bay restaurant.

It was only after two years in the country that Azu heard, via the grapevine, of Abeeda Bhamjee, a young Moslem and Legal Counsellor for Refugees at Wits Law Clinic. "Azu came and told us his story," says Avida. "And we took his case to Home Affairs".

Azu is not the first gay African to apply for asylum here. Wendy Isaack, Legal Advisor at the National Coalition for Gay & Lesbian Equality, has processed around ten similar cases in the past few years. They have included nationals from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. While nine have been successful as asylum seekers, only one has actually been granted refugee status so far.

In October 2001, Azu was summoned for an adjudicators' hearing at Home Affairs. Four months later, he received a letter of response. His application had been declined. Home Affairs had not accepted his claims of persecution. They also stated that he was able to take legal action against antagonists back home - though the fact that Nigeria's legal system runs against the liberal tenets of our constitution was ignored. The implication - and one that I, as a gay man, find offensive - was that he should return to Nigeria and simply live in the closet. Understandably, Home Affairs is in a difficult position.

There are more than six hundred million people on this continent. At least half of them live in countries where human rights abuses occur and the modern liberties we have become accustomed to are but a dream. Toss in the needs of our own indigent population and the hordes of economic migrants creeping desperately over our borders and it is clear that the refugee question is one of the major challenges facing this country.

Furthermore, as Bhamjee points out, during the Apartheid years African countries offered residence to exiled South African activists and helped them mobilise against the regime. Surely, given Thabo Mbeki's grand NEPAD drive, there is room for some reciprocity? In the nine years that have passed since democracy however, South Africa has been less than generous in its stance towards those who are fleeing. We have accepted around 70 000 asylum seekers, of which 18-20 000 have been granted refugee status.

While this may sound like a large number, it compares feebly with much poorer countries like Tanzania, which have camps housing up to a million people at a time. In South Africa, we have no refugee camps. Asylum seekers are housed in urban areas and are offered very little support from the government. Furthermore, while refugees are legally entitled to apply for citizenship after five years in a country, according to Abeeda Bhamjee, "to my knowledge, none has been granted."

While Home Affairs protest that a high workload prevents them from processing cases quickly, Bhamjee says the amount of time most asylum seekers wait for judgement is unreasonable. Indeed, there have also been various allegations of bribery at Home Affairs - specifically that asylum seekers are required to pay bribes to renew their permits. When they are granted refugee status however, they do not require renewals, and this alleged under-the-counter income dries up. If this is true, it is in the interests of corrupt Home Affairs officials to prolong the process. In March 2002, Avida Bhamjee launched an internal appeal at Home Affairs.

If this fails, Azu could take his case to the High Court at a minimal cost of around R15 000. If that fails, Azu may need to return to Nigeria, where he may be in greater danger after having lodged such a public appeal. Indeed, other clients of Bhamjee`s have decided against lodging applications based on sexual orientation for fear of rejection from their communities. Whether or not Azu is entitled to refugee status remains a very tricky ethical question.

When I discuss his experience of harassment with a black, gay, local friend, he exclaims, "Well, who wasn't? The guy should go home and fight for gay civil rights in Nigeria. They need him." For me, however, the ultimate reckoning lies neither in the degree of persecution Azu could suffer back home nor in the unlikeness of his finding protection. For me, the mere fact that Azu cannot be who is in Nigeria is a gross violation of a basic human right to individuality and self-expression and should, alone, be grounds for asylum. It is clear from their correspondence that Home Affairs has little experience in dealing with such cases. The fact that adjudicators asked Azu to "prove" he is gay displays an insensitivity to the complex issues of sexuality. Ultimately, whether or not Azubike Udogo is granted refuge, the onus lies on brave gays and lesbians here and throughout this continent to stand up, roll up their sleeves, toss their fists in the air and state, "It`s not right!"

Daily Telegraph, London, England
http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/22/nbish32 2.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/06/22/ixnewstop.html

22 June 2003

5
Nigerian Church threatens Anglican split in gay row

by Chris Hastings and Elizabeth Day
The head of the Church of Nigeria said yesterday that he had written to the Archbishop of Canterbury threatening to sever ties with any part of the Anglican Church that elected a gay bishop.

Archbishop Peter Jasper Akinola revealed that he had warned Rowan Williams, the head of the world's 70 million Anglicans, that if Jeffrey John was confirmed as Bishop of Reading it would have global implications. "We cannot continue to be in communion with people who have taken a step outside the biblical boundaries," said Archbishop Akinola. "When we sit down globally as a communion, I am going to sit in a meeting with a man who is marrying a fellow man . . . I mean it's just not possible. I cannot see myself doing it." Earlier this month the Nigerian Church, with 17 million members, 81 bishops and 10 archbishops, severed ties with the diocese of New Westminster in British Columbia, on Canada's Pacific coast, for authorising same-sex marriages. Archbishop Akinola said that this should "serve as a note of warning".The Nigerian Church's uncompromising stance will add to the pressure on Dr Williams, who is already facing the possibility of plummeting income as wealthy, evangelical sections of the Church in England threaten a nationwide financial protest. Evangelicals claim to contribute more than 40 per cent of the £400 million raised for the Church by parishes each year. The most likely course of action for parishes opposed to the appointment is to cap the amount they contribute to their diocesan and central church coffers. They would agree to donate just enough funds to cover their own costs.

BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3014188.stm

24 June 2003

6
Nigerian church irked by homosexuality

by Sola Odunfa, BBC, Lagos
One Church, one faith, one Lord, the congregation sang at the Cathedral Church of Christ in Lagos at the weekend. But the Worldwide Anglican Communion may not remain a united body for long if the current controversy over the place ofhomosexuals in the Church is not resolved soon.

The appointment of an openly gay bishop in the Church of England has pitted the church provinces in Africa against those in Canada, the US and in England. The African opposition is led by the Church of Nigeria whose Primate, Archbishop Peter Akinola, sees the appointment as a "satanic attack on the Church of God". The Reverend Canon Akin Johnson of the Cathedral Church of Christ said in the sermon that homosexuality had become an additional serious problem which must be rooted from the church ofGod. This is not a position shared strongly in the liberalised Western churches.

But it is one to which worshippers at the Church of Nigeria Cathedral in Lagos subscribe. At the end of the service I spoke to several people in the congregation and asked their views on homosexuality in general, and the appointment of an openly gay bishop in particular. "It's an abomination. How can two men marry? It is against the Bible and it is against religion. They should not have appointed him at all", said one female member of the congregation"These white people, they are very different. They are very funny. They have their own reasons for doing these things which are not African at all. We should not copy them", said another member. "I believe it is not right and if there is no reconciliation on the matter, the Church of Nigeria has every right to consider what is best for it, even if it means breaking up", said a male member of the congregation From these responses Archbishop Peter Akinola, Primate of the Church of Nigeria, would seem to have a strong domestic support base for his uncompromising reaction to the liberalism in churches in the West.

Daily Times of Nigeria, (E-Mail: editor@dailytimesofnigeria.com ) http://www.dailytimesofnigeria.com/DailyTimes/2003/September/19/Jesusloves.a sp

September 19, 2003

7
Jesus loves me... says, gay priest in England--In the current debate on homosexuality, liberals like Collier stand arrayed against the conservative evangelicals.

Paul Collier is homosexual and a priest, the embodiment of a schism that threatens the Anglican Church worldwide. Next month, its leaders gather to seek a compromise, yet each side believes that the other contravenes Christian teaching. What Solomon can bridge that divide, asks Graham Bowley.

Paul Collier, who knew he was gay from childhood and is glad of it, sought ordination in the Church of England in the late 1980s. This was just as the church was experiencing another of its periodic bouts of seeking a compromise between social liberalism and biblical evangelism. In that particular bit of angels-dancing-on-pinheads theologizing, its elders decided they could tolerate ordinary lay people pursuing gay lives. The clergy, however, were different. They could be homosexual, said the elders, but they could never do anything about it.

They could not have gay sex. Collier, 40, has glassy blue eyes and a slow, considered manner. He came out at Oxford University, where he studied theology and was president of the Gay and Lesbian Society. He trained as a lawyer in London, but one day early in 1989 he went to see the director of ordinands at Southwark Cathedral on the banks of the Thames and said he wanted to join the clergy. He was warned that he must stay celibate: he refused.

The bishop of Southwark asked him to agree to the terms of a letter saying he understood church policy, even if he did not accept it, and in 1994 the bishop ordained him into the priesthood. Now, nine years later, he is among the church's leading gay campaigners. In 2000, he was one of three openly gay priests to be elected on to the general synod, the church's governing body. The following year, he broke into the church establishment's inner circles when he joined the crown appointments commission, which recommends candidates for bishops and archbishops. If actively gay priests - even openly gay bishops - are ever widely accepted in the Anglican Church, the change will come through people like Collier.

According to a fellow gay clerical campaigner, after Collier's first speech to general synod, George Carey, the then archbishop of Canterbury who was not known for his sympathy for the gay cause, said: "This is a person who has got to be watched. He is saying things that synod needs to hear." Being gay is important to Collier, but so is being a Christian. When he talks about God, he convinces. He's a believer. He had a "Buddha" moment, receiving enlightenment just as the Buddha did beneath the Bodhi Tree. Or even George Carey, in 1972, hearing, according to his memoirs, "shamayin, shamayin" (the Hebrew word for "heaven") echoing in a Toronto hotel room. With these people, God's long bony finger came out of the sky, and declared - "You!" Believers, of course, believe different things. Cruel wars have been fought over opposing creeds. Collier's particular creed is a liberal one - that being gay and being Christian are not mutually exclusive.

Collier's God welcomes gay people.

He is part of a growing movement in the vast net of Anglican churches spanning the globe, which expects the church to slough off its remnants of medieval thinking and catch up with the real world by accepting heterosexuals and homosexuals as equals. Yet recent events have shown there is a group of fervent believers, no less well organised internationally, who thinks the exact opposite to Collier. They are certain that the Bible says so, homosexuality is a sin, and may be the root of much of the world's evil. This spring when Canon Jeffrey John, a round-faced, clever and gay theologian from Southwark, was selected to be an assistant bishop in Reading, these believers were strong enough to force him to stand down, thus demonstrating their power in England. In fact, they control much of the world church. Freshly emboldened, these new anti-gay puritans now aim to disqualify an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in the US, who was elected in August just weeks after John was routed.

From the Americas to Africa to Australia, conservative leaders are uniting to enforce their idea of Christian purity. Unlike Europe, their congregations are buoyant and full. Shut out the US heretics, they cry, or we will take our faithful millions our separate way. The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, a kindly Welshman who took over the job only last year, has called a crisis meeting next month at Lambeth Palace, his 800-year-old residence in London. That gathering will be critical in determining whether Williams' global church can stay united, or whether the bitterly divisive issue of homosexuality will cause a new schism. I met Collier in his office at Goldsmiths College, which is part of the University of London, in a gritty district of south-east London, and he tried to explain what it is like to be both gay and a Christian. Collier is Goldsmiths' chaplain; but term was over, so his office - a bare, white-walled room scattered with empty water bottles and juice cartons - was quiet.

It does not look like a priest's room (compared with the darkened, book-lined studies I was ushered into while researching this article) and Collier does not much resemble a priest. Indeed, most things about him, including his shaggy brown hair and silver ring in his left ear, suggest that is the whole point - nothing's as usual, everything's up for grabs. He wore a scruffy black shirt but no dog collar, and told me he is careful about where he wears his black clerical dress in public - people would come up to him in gay bars, for example, to ask if he were a real vicar. He is open about homosexuality. "I went to boarding school at eight, and shortly after that I can remember, about the age of nine, having fantasies about sexual intimacy with men. The evidence is very strong that sexual orientation is pretty much determined by the age of five."

Collier often has a light, faraway look in his eyes, as if earthly matters could never shake him. But on the day I met him he looked positively grim when he considered the recent victory in the Jeffrey John affair of the conservative evangelicals and other traditionalists. Evangelicals is the name of the group of strong believers ("evangelical" comes from the Greek for "person with good news") who oppose, among other innovations, the ordination of women as well as homosexual practice. In their reading, the Bible opposes it and for them the Bible is the strict word of God. As Collier stared out of the college campus, he said, with a shrug: "In a sense it is a little disappointing that Rowan Williams did not stand up to them. It feels as if he caved in to bullyboy tactics. I can only think he did what was best according to his conscience."

In the current debate on homosexuality, liberals like Collier stand arrayed against the conservative evangelicals.

But homosexuality is only the most recent battleground.

The war between liberals and conservatives has been rumbling on since the 1800s, but flared up in the 1960s when thinkers such as John Robinson, in his book Honest to God, started to challenge the literal meaning of Christian ideas. Who was God? asked the liberals. Where was he? Could you still believe He was the bearded Father presiding above the clouds? Or that, after Darwin, He created the world in seven days? Human intelligence, rather than human faith, claimed its right to choose how much of the Christian myth to believe. The liberals also turned to ethics, questioning what the Bible says about how we ought to live, including our sex lives. Liberal belief can be summarized in three broad tenets. The first is that no one should necessarily apply the Old and New Testaments of the Bible literally.

They were, after all, written millennia ago, by men who lacked the insights of modern thinkers like Freud or Darwin. Victor Stock, the liberal dean of Guildford, explains it like this: "The Bible is not God speaking. It is not a magic tape recorder. They ([the conservative) have put off a lot of the hard slog of making sense of faith in the postmodern world. They don't permit doubt. It is a horrible kind of fascism." Stock told me a story that illustrates the bitterness between the evangelicals and liberals. He once gave a sermon at St Helen's Bishopsgate, one of the big shrines of conservative evangelicalism in the city of London. "I preached an orthodox sermon that God loved everybody. William Taylor (Vicar of St Helen) was furious. He stood up and corrected me. He quoted a favourite text of theirs, 2 Peter or something, which says God does not love everybody."

The second liberal tenet is that there should be sources of ethical authority other than Scripture. In practice, this means our reason and feelings. Colin Coward, a bright tall man in his 50s and another leading Anglican gay campaigner, explains it like this: "Both believe in the individual, but they believe only in external authority, the Bible, Jesus Christ, God. For me, authority is internal and external. It is up to me to experience and express myself to the full as a gift given by God. It is sinful not to."

Coward, who is gay, is director of Changing Attitude, one of several groups in the pro-gay church, which is itself riven by political factions. He left the board of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement after clashing with other leaders over divisions of bureaucratic responsibility and power. Other gay networks have split over women's ordination, with some pro-gay campaigners unwilling to accept women as priests. Given such fragmentations, it is ironic that the third tenet of liberalism is inclusivity: God loves us all, and, gay or straight, we're all going to heaven. Rather than excluding sinners, Christianity should be about helping people. Hell and sin don't feature much in liberal vocabulary.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200310210006.html

October 24, 2003

8
Nigeria gay movement in the open (anti-gay report on Nigerian LGBT conference)

The Weekly Trust has published an analysis

by Nasir Dambatta on the achievements of Alliance Rights Nigeria, but misinformation and prejudicial reporting does little to stem the flow of homophobia in the country.

It all began like a prurient rumour that was supposed to disappear after a while. But it never did, instead the rumour is been given practical expression, with the recent convention of gay advocates in Ibadan under the auspices of a body called Alliance Rights Nigeria. The well-publicised Ibadan convention, according to Weekly Trust findings, was well attended by a broad spectrum of Nigerians from various geo-political zones in the country in a carnival-like manner with the aim of giving open support to gay relationships.

Nigeria's five-year-old democracy, which has provided fertile soil for spiritual matters such as Sharia has likewise opened the way for a multiplicity of interest groups some less desirable than others, to express themselves. It is this political liberty that has now given impetus to lesbians and homosexuals to join hands in the formation of an audacious, all-Nigerian movement that will promote what they now term "the right to be different."

As a first step, they are now striving for official recognition and a re-definition of sexual orientation beyond the limits of convention and moral values. In the near future, they foresee a new Nigeria that would legally accommodate same sex marriages as in countries like New Zealand, parts of Europe and Asia. However, Weekly Trust gathered that Imams, the clergy and religious pressure groups are warming up for a showdown with the emerging gay movement in the country, as sociologists, psychologists, legal luminaries and medical experts offer multi-dimensional analyses on gay unions and how they will impact negatively on the society in the near future.

Investigations reveal that the Alliance Rights Nigeria (an umbrella body of same sex advocates) held its latest annual convention in Ibadan between 21st and 22nd March this year. Probably the national parent body of all lesbian and homosexual associations, Alliance Rights Nigeria has mapped out the strategy for creating public awareness on what it called the rights of "sexual minorities" and the menace of HIV/AIDS.

During the convention, Weekly Trust reliably gathered there was the consensus that the time has come for the sexual minorities to partake actively in "the planning and implementation processes" of the war on HIV/AIDS infection. Participants at the convention also believed that their active participation in the war against the disease would pave the way for "multi-sectoral HIV/AIDS intervention" in the country.

The convention considered it "extremely expedient" for the lesbian and homosexual movement to assert itself, using its national spread and network. That the "continued stigmatisation, discrimination and criminalisation of same sex sexual relationships in Nigeria" has hampered a more co-ordinated onslaught against HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted ailments. Already, investigations show that Alliance Rights Nigeria has distributed advocacy stickers nationwide, which members paste on their cars as publicity stunt. A series of booklets aimed at 'enlightening' the public on the "sexual minorities" situation is well underway as some 10,000 copies would expectedly be distributed across the nation. These, according to reliable sources, would be supplemented by a special programme called "The Gay and Lesbian Adolescents Social and Sexuality Education Series (GLASSES).

Other programmes in the offing include "Well-being in Difference (WIND) workshops," billed to kick off in states like Lagos, which would expectedly be extended to selected states of the federation. It is the conviction of the members that lesbians and homosexuals in the country have been operating covertly for too long and now have to come into the limelight if their efforts are to be as effective as envisaged. Alliance Rights Nigeria at the convention, had lamented the "large number of our adolescents busy engaging in same sex relationships in universities and secondary schools without the use of condoms." The participants are agreed that the failure of high school, university and secondary school students to use condom in same sex relationships is a matter of personal challenge to the advocates.

They, however, recognised how much even cultism "has generated a lot of male-to-male sex acts through allegiance that is necessary for their operation," but lamented that those being initiated hardly use condoms.

Similarly, the convention agreed that something tangible ought to be done to the "shebeens and brothels which abound in Lagos, Abuja, South-East Nigeria, Bauchi, Jos, Kaduna, Kano and Maiduguri-where male-to-male sex is highly commercialised and where condom usage is almost a taboo."

The convention also witnessed the presentation of resource papers on the agitation for the recognition of the rights of "Men who have Sex with Men (MSM)" and a concerted effort to check HIV/AIDS infection on "high-risk groups (lesbians and homosexuals)." The event, Weekly Trust learnt, was attended by Alliance Rights national delegates from North-West (Kaduna), North-Central and Middle Belt (Oturkpo); South-East (Enugu) and South-West (Ibadan/Lagos). International observer organisations and an organisation known as "Nigerian Gay Students Association" were all represented at the Ibadan convention.

The movement also intends to provide "access to specific information on Anal Anatomy" for all MSM members in the country. The event was tagged "The Right to be Different" and participants, at the end of it all expressed satisfaction that "history was made in Nigeria regarding the successful convention of a workshop. . .that had the active participation of MSM groups and non-MSM individuals, focussing on sexuality and the sexual rights of sexual minorities."

The nagging question at the moment has been, what attracts a male to another male or a female to another female? Dr Wole Akin Atere, a senior lecturer in the department of sociology at the Lagos State University, sought to provide intellectual response. Speaking exclusively to Weekly Trust in Lagos, he noted that some people indulge in same sex relationships because "from day-one they have never been attracted to members of the opposite sex." Dr Atere also identified males or females in a family who were "incarcerated or insulated" from mingling with opposite sexes outside their family, as being the most-vulnerable. This, he submitted, gives room for what he called "suppressed urges," which in the end makes the insulated family members to consider normal erotic pleasures strange and seek refuge in lesbianism or sodomy.

Another factor, according to Dr Akin Atere, could be "the question of deprivation of heterosexual relations" in such confinements as prisons-where contact with the opposite sex is nil. Criminals in the prisons, therefore, "don't find legitimate means of expressing sexuality" and are, according to him, vulnerable to alternative ways of satisfying carnal pleasures.

He then identified the next category of lesbians and homosexuals as those making an adventure for "economic or material" gains. Dr Atere also said that the reasons why males go after males and females after other females are interlocked. As for the way forward, Dr Atere believes that the problem is psycho-social, genetic and psychological and therefore requires elaborate strategy.

He believes that the homosexual and lesbian that had convinced himself or herself that conventional sexual orientation is normal, would hardly be convinced to think otherwise, but that making them realise that heterosexualism is safer and more gratifying could be a springboard to capturing their minds. He does not see the use of legal instruments as effective in dealing with the same sex relationships in Nigeria. According to him, there is the tendency for Nigerians to be enticed more by activities that are sanctioned. Said he: "if you want any particular problem to escalate, put a sanction on it" and Nigerians, out of curiosity may want to explore it.

In his scientific explanation to sodomy, Dr Sani Garba, an expert in preventive cardiology and consultant physician at the Ahmadu Bello University, said there are other risks apart from HIV/AIDS. In an exclusive chat with Weekly Trust, the preventive cardiology expert said same sex intercourse destroys the epithalial layer of anal lining, making the place liable to invasion by some micro-organisms. He went on to say that unlike the inner lining of a woman's most intimate part, the anal lining is not so lubricated as to "withstand frictional movement". He, however, discarded the widespread belief that accumulated spermatozoa in the anal lining develops into tiny, harmful worms. He would not confirm whether homosexuals avail themselves of a certain technological device that periodically washes the anal lining clean.

Expectedly, the coming to limelight of homosexual and lesbian associations has drawn the ire of the clergy and imams, as well as religious pressure groups in the country. The national missioner of the Ansaruddeen Society of Nigeria, Abdurrahman Ahmad, also believes that the emergent lesbian and homosexual movement would breed moral and social dislocation. He sees in them tools for corroding and eroding societal norms and values. He argued that after the deregulation of the Nigerian economy, the country is being confronted by "a deregulation of morality." He sees the movement as "misrepresenting the limits of liberty." Imam Ahmad wants the Muslim community in the country to either assert itself or risk the super-imposition of alien norms and values. This, according to him, could be avoided if the Muslim community "re-asserts its Islamic identity by upholding Sharia." He also expects government to legislate against lesbian and homosexual associations across the country.

The Secretary-general of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed sees lesbian and homosexual acts as twin evils condemned by "all the three Abrahamic religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism)." He warned that if government allows sodomy and lesbianism to grow "on the pretext of fundamental rights, it will lead to a further erosion of our accepted principles of morality." He views the phenomenon through the prism of "destructive and evil influences of secular values that are being fed all over the world . . ." and have the potentials of impacting on "the moral dictates of a sense of decency." Commenting on whether the lesbian and homosexual movement have the right to be different, the pro-Sharia activist argued that the Nigerian constitution "does not guarantee an individual the right to sexual orientation.

It says you cannot be discriminated against on account of your gender, creed, ethnic origin or religious beliefs." Taking as example President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe's tough stance on sodomy and lesbianism, Dr Hakeem wants the Nigerian government to consider an "even tougher stance" against them.

In contrast to Dr Hakeem's disposition on the emergent lesbian and homosexual movements in Nigeria, the president of Free Girls Association of Nigeria, Miss Osarurume Oviose told Weekly Trust in Benin City that only rape should be considered as a crime but erotic relationships between two consenting same sex partners should be allowed. Miss Oviose believes that by the legal teeth, "government would have control over the trade."

For the vicar in charge of St Michael's Cathedral of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) Abiodun Ogunyomi, sodomy and lesbianism are "terrible sins." He recalled that the b

Gay Nigeria News and Reports 2002-06

1 Gays of Nation Unite! Interview with gay leader in Nigeria 4/02

2 A Gay Murder in Jigawa--A student dies over homosexuality 4/02 3 Homophobic report about Nigerian homosexuality 4/02 4 'Pink Refugees' in South Africa seek refuge from persecution at home 4/03

14 Gays and Lesbians in the South South of Nigeria seeking help 4/05

1 Gays of Nation Unite!

2 A Gay Murder in Jigawa--A student dies over homosexuality 4/02

3 Homophobic report about Nigerian homosexuality 4/02

4 'Pink Refugees' in South Africa seek refuge from persecution at home 4/03

1
Gays of Nation Unite!