No homosexual relationships in the public or the private sphere. No right to create a gay association, to advocate for the rights of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people or organize meetings concerning and including them. These are a few of the provisions of the Nigerian Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill, which was debated on 22nd March.
Now that the National Assembly is out of session ahead of April 21st general elections, the bill could be dead. Or at least delayed. This is good news for human rights and LBGT activists from Nigeria and abroad : the bill is giving them the creeps but also to the communities targetted in the populous African federal country. All the more that the non respect of some of the provisions could be condemned of up to five years imprisonment.
Davis Mac-Iyalla, a gay chritian right activist, is “working for total inclusion of LGBT people in the church and Nigerian society”. He firmly denounces the bill. It is “attacking harmless and innocent LGBT people. Most of us are now living in fear because even the church that will protect us and speak against this inhuman bill is taking the lead to support the government”, says the leader of Changing attitude Nigeria, a branch of Changing attitude, a network of LGBT and heretosexual members of the Church of England.
According to him, if the bill is passed, “it will force most LGBT people in Nigeria to go on exile”. “There will definitely be a sporadic violent attack on LGBTQI persons by both non state and state actors, explains Dorothy Aken’Ova, executive director of the International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights (Increse). It will affect the ordinary life styles of Nigerians who are used to living and interreacting with one another without reading meanings into the manner people look at each other, hold hands, share rooms, etc. This is going to change.”
Things are even already changing. “The bill is not passed yet most people in Nigeria are implementing it. (…) Since the reopening and debating of the bill we are seeing an increase in homophobic behaviour and attacks, because people feel they can get away with it”, indicates Davis Mac-Iyalla, who adds that he is “forced to live in hiding because of the threat to my life just because I am gay and open”.
Dorothy Aken’Ova declines to say if there is a rise in homophobic attacks, for lack of data. But she underlines that “one thing is for sure, there is more openness in the attacks since the bill is seen as a justification of these actions. Since the introduction of the bill in March last year, institutions took interest and punished or expelled those perceived to be in same sex relationships and they often made reference to the bill”.
As a result, some LGBT Nigerians are said to have fled the country for states where homosexual rights are not so much denied, which is not an easy task given that homosexuality is condemned in most Africa. Those people are alleged to leave for Europe, America, or even South Africa, one of the countries having the most gay-friendly constitution and has just legalized gay marriages. So even if the parliament does not revive the bill, some harm seems to have already been done to the LGBT community.