SAME SEX: RUN, BUHARI RUN

Source: thewillnigeria.com

In the heat of the just  ended electioneering  campaigns, some supporters of the then ruling political party- Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) somewhat invented  a speculation to the effect that the World powers- USA and UK have all thrown their weights behind the then opposition Presidential candidate General Muhammadu Buhari in preference to the then President Goodluck Jonathan.

The main reason for the international support by both President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron was the so called secret agreement signed by Buhari to jettison the Nigerian Law against same sex marriage which was passed by the seventh session of the National Assembly arising from an executive bill sponsored by the Executive Council of the Federation chaired by then President.

When this law was signed introducing a range of stringent judicial sanctions including a 14 year jail term for convicted homosexual caught in the act of same gender marriage it generated overwhelmingly reactions.

Under the law in operation in Nigeria even the media practitioners are liable to be jailed should they give publicity to any same sex marriage ceremony.

The United States and Britain were in the forefront of the Western powers that were furious at the prospect of Nigeria putting in place such a strict anti same gender marriage prohibition law but the immediate past federal administration kicked at the overwhelming pressures mounted by these Western leaders.

The then Senate President David Mark who claims to be a Christian but who in actual fact is alleged to be in polygamous relationship vowed that the law against same sex marriage has come to stay in Nigeria.

So when the rumour mills were abuzz that the Katsina born retired military General Muhammadu Buhari who was so determined to win the Presidency was approached and assured of international support by USA and UK on the ground that his administration would repeal the anti same sex marriage prohibition law, some persons took it with a pinch of  salt but others aware of the extent that politicians can go in their desperate bid  to win election believed that there are elements of truth in that rumour because it is  stated that there is no smoke without fire.

As soon as Buhari won and was awarded the certificate of return, in fact during the ceremony to give him the certificate of return the United States Ambassador to Nigeria and his British counterparts reportedly made surprise appearance at the International Conference Center Abuja Venue of the event.

Apart from that their respective political leaders from their cosy offices issued media statements to congratulate the Nigeria’s then President -elect and these Western leaders assured Buhari of greater partnership.

Days after even before the May 29th inauguration Buhari made a surprise visit to the Prime Minister of Britain for consultation even though his media team sold Nigerians a dummy that the visit was private but Buhari was shown in British media  at the doorstep of Number 10 Downing Street Central London literally knocking on the door to be let in.

This  show of comradeship and sudden outpourings of solidarity by both United States President and his British counterpart have  laid credence to the pre-election rumour that Muhammadu Buhari has an undertaking to repudiate Nigeria ‘s tough stance against same sex marriage.

Already President Obama who failed to sell sophisticated weapons to Nigeria to battle Boko Haram terrorists has agreed to work with the new government and in fact the Nigerian President has just got an invitation to visit the White House to meet President Obama in mid July around the 20th and people have started imagining if the recent American Supreme Court’s declaration of same sex marriage as a human right wouldn’t come up during the parley that would be held between Nigerian leader and the American President who is a champion of gay marriage.

On June 26th 2015  when the US Supreme Court delivered the verdict validating same sex marriage the US   President Obama called the decision that same-sex couples can marry anywhere in US “a big step in our march toward equality”. Obama is so hypocritical that even though he us not a gay and indeed has a happy marriage to a woman with two beautiful daughters from the union, but he is about the happiest American at the prospect that Same sex marriage is now a right in accordance with the Supreme Court ‘s verdict.

The US Supreme Court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the country, in what news reporters called  a culmination of two decades of litigation over marriage, and gay rights generally.

“No union is more profound than marriage,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined by the court’s four more liberal justices.

Reports say gay and lesbian couples already could marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia. The court’s 5-4 ruling means the remaining 14 states, in the South and Midwest, will have to stop enforcing their bans on same-sex marriage.

President Barack Obama welcomed the decision on Twitter, calling it “a big step in our march toward equality”.

But this decision is controversial even amongst the panel that sat on it going by the diametrically divided positions advanced by both those who agreed and those who voted against it.

The four dissenting justices each filed a separate opinion explaining their views.

“This court is not a legislature. Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in dissent.

“If you are among the many Americans – of whatever sexual orientation – who favour expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today’s decision,” Roberts said. “But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.”

Research quoted by news sources  say there are an estimated 390,000 married same-sex couples in the United States, according to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, which tracks the demographics of gay and lesbian Americans. An estimated 1 million same-sex couples, married and unmarried, live together in the United States, according to the institute.

Now that Buhari prepares to visit  the American political leader who has so much provided inspirational support for the elevation of the legal status of same sex marriage, Nigerians who have watched with berthed breath the body language of President Buhari are urging him to resist any pressure overt or covert to be mounted by Obama on his government to change our stance against same sex marriage.

Already South Africa has become a major gate way of this foreign distorted marriage culture of same sex and it is feared that should Nigeria capitulate to President Obama ‘s pressure and liberalise gay sexual relationship then Africa is finished because Nigeria has the largest concentration of black people globally and every 4 Black’s out of every 6 are Nigerians. Accepting same sex marriage will both weaken our African cultural and traditional values and also seriously undermine the faith of the followers of organised religions.

Run,  Buhari Run from OBAMA’S gay rights campaign.

***Emmanuel Onwubiko, is Head of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria.

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