By
Kalu Ogbuagu
Despite fast progress in most aspects of life and development, the Nigerian society and government have resisted every trend in response to the rights and freedoms of people of unusual sexual orientation. There appears to be no future for this minority group in the country because the odds are comprehensively stacked against them traditionally, culturally, religiously and legally. Leaving them no elbow room to survive in this totally biased environment.
Each election cycle has thrown up even more belligerent leaders who rather than advocate for the rights of these minorities have gone ahead to criminalize them further in a way that has left Nigeria far behind the rest of the world. Sometimes it appears that the legitimacy and acceptability of the administration lies heavily on how tough the government grandstands against the LGBTQ community, making declarations that reduce people of irregular sexual orientation as human beings and legitimate members of the society.
The few who have braved it publicly, like the cross dresser, transgender and social media personality, Okuneye Idris Olarenwaju, popularly known as Bobrisky have faced
condemnation and shaming by the general public. In 2024 he/she was arrested and jailed in a male prison ostensibly for abusing the nation’s currency, the Naira, when he/she threw some notes around at a social event. He/She spent six months in prison for doing what most Nigerians do at celebrations and parties. The culture of spraying money on people who are celebrating is a well known cultural trait of the Yorubas, Ibos and people in the southern parts of Nigeria. Although the federal government has been condemning it in recent years as a crime against the country’s currency, the first person that has been taken to court and sentenced to jail, curiosly was Bobrisky. Was it because he/she is different?
There are thousands of others like Bobrisky, hiding in the shadows of Nigeria’s cultural intolerance, too afraid to own up to who they really are and thereafter live a ‘normal’ life. What is profound is that Nigeria is a country of religious extremity and hypocrisy. The North of the country is mostly populated by loud intolerant Muslims while the South is home to millions of Christian fanatics and hypocrites. Although adherents of the two major religions hardly agree on issues, they are surprisingly agreed on the point about eternal damnation for people of alternative sexual orientation and the fact that the Almighty has quietly appointed them to execute His disdain for these people here on earth.
The result is that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in Nigeria face severe challenges. Both male and female homosexuals are liable to jail terms of up to 14 years. There are no legal protections for LGBTQ people, who can be molested, violently attacked or even lynched by mobs if found to be engaging in the practices. Strangely, though, both homosexual and lesbian behavior has always existed in parts of Nigeria for as long as 100 years. The British colonialists who invaded the North found that powerful kings maintained male consorts who attended to their queer sexual needs at night.
One bold gay activist, David Mac Iyalla told the BBC how he was forced to flee Nigeria in 2008 because of death threats when he publicly declared his sexual orientation and has since taken residence in Europe. The case of Roseline Ikhile is fairly well known. Roseline discovered that she was a lesbian while in secondary school but of course could not find the courage to tell her parents or anyone else outside her young sweetheart of the same sexual orientation. Throughout her education and banking career, she kept her secret passions from the outside world until she ran out of luck one fateful day at her work place when she was caught making out with another woman in the toilet area. Then all hell broke loose! Fact-finding panels were set up to investigate her “strange” behavior. She was to suffer grave personal threats of public shaming before she was finally eased out of her job.
Typically, her social circle will diminish as even close friends and associates begin to distance themselves from her. Cultural impediments to LGBT rights cuts across most of Africa with Ugandan president Museveni signing the most draconian and discriminatory anti LGBTQ law that imposes the death penalty for certain categories of homosexuality in May, 2023. Despite international uproar and stiff condemnation from Western leaders, Museveni pushed back at the US and UK governments saying that “the Western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people.” He accused the West of “trying to normalize deviations.”
Nigeria with an over 200 million population certainty has its fair share of these minorities, how it creates inclusive legislation that provides for their interest will signify where we have moved up to in the total human development index. For now, though, while the church bell tolls for the Christian faithfuls and the Muezin calls his Muslim Ummah to prayer at dawn and dusk, the homosexuals in Nigeria must either continue to live in the shadows, disdained by all who know who they are or find their way outside the country to more inclusive environments where they can still live meaningful lives.
Kalu Ogbuagu writes from Enugu.
