Human vs. Cultural Rights

“The truths you know today might be a lie tomorrow- listen, ask questions, think for yourself, unlearn your habits, be free indeed!”

Anti-gay proponents argue that, gay-culture (LGBT) is foreign to our culture hence must be espoused; what if it wasn't? Would you accept a reasonable argument that it is indeed an integral part of our pre-colonial culture?

How has the religious and cultural conditioning that shapes our collective national conscience, contributed to, and supported the development of homosexuals in our society?

Is it intelligent to expect a different outcome, other than the natural options that our training and conditioning guarantees?

If there is a chance that our society has indeed tolerated, supported and nurtured homosexuality from time immemorial, how should we treat those whose way of life is merely one of the products, natural consequences or the flaws of our established way of life? Do we ignore, tolerate, treat, pray, protect, lynch, kill?

I would rather belong to a generation of progressively thinking Nigerians who are actively looking out to protect our minorities, after all, it is a merge of minority groups that make up and, add value and, color to our great Nigeria.

This might sound like another foreign thought, but I implore you to kindly, delay your judgment until the later parts of this article.

Cultural and religious values are one of the justifications for our recently assumed national homophobic identity. Looking at it with the other eye, is there a possibility that we have been conditioned by this same values to explore our homosexual tendencies?

Think about a young girl. She is discouraged from association with boys for various other ‘cultural’ reasons. She sits in a ‘Girls Section’ in church 2 times a week, goes to an ‘all girls boarding School” and various youth holiday camps, has mostly female friends, etc. All her life, she has been admonished to seek companionship and emotional support mostly from her kind - there is so much risk and punishment for moral corruption and identity loss if she doesn’t adhere to the some set out rules.

Growing up, she struggled to suppress the unusual feelings she has been having when around friends and acquaintances. ‘Why does she have such feelings, is she a bad person’? These questions have no answer because she cannot ask; it is not her culture to ask questions. Torn, she must refer to the general FAQs for any answers and, get used to the seeming reality – we are generally intolerant of minorities!

Understandably, our society which is still struggling to figure out equally incriminating heterosexual issues would definitely not be sympathetic or interested in understanding homosexuality.

Someday, in the course of living life, as dictated by the restrictions of her society, she meets many other people who even publicly acknowledged having similar evil thoughts and feelings. It is no longer about braveness to publicly explore her reality, it's about life and death, her freedom and survival is suddenly threatened by the pointing fingers of a hateful majority front.

Here is another popular belief, our public administrators are unrepentant sinners yet, no one seems as eager to 'pick up the first stone'. To justify the enormous wealth they are accused of grossly misappropriating, they have worked hard to pass a new laws but, this one has nothing to do with alleviating our sufferings, our pressing needs. Somebody proposed that, since there was so much cock-sucking-adrenaline on the floor, it might be feasible to make new a law that further restricts certain privileges to its untouchable members – what a brilliant idea! The masses whom they already have in their pockets, they would applaud it and surely give them a pass mark for next term.

Now, if you must, please served your judgement as you consider an unrelated story...

As a citizen, how have you contributed to creating this law, what does it say, how can it be interpreted, how does its implementation enhance your quality of life, is it consistent with global perspectives on human rights? These are some of the questions we should debate on instead of accepting whatever is hurriedly decided, with prejudice, in high places.

I often mull on the near possibility that perhaps, our dependence on 'hopeful prayers' over 'practical solutions' is the root of our major national issues. We were told that, God is responsible for our wealth creation/sharing, we pray that the ‘wealth of the wicked shall be ours soon enough - what else can you do? As helpless as we often are, we are always so eager to fight God's battles.

If the government is not doing well but government officials seem to be well off - God must be answering their prayers! There are rumours that most of them are actually stealing public wealth while we close our eyes and pray for your rightful portion; there is evidence to prosecute them with some of our outdated laws; we even have duplicate legal institutions to recover stolen wealth but, we must also pray about it. You may have believed in the lie that only God can save this country, but sadly, prayers will not move Nigeria's mountains until we all take personal little initiatives and look out for our interests.

With all our unwritten moral laws in Nigeria, we can safely predict and accept that homosexual marriages will never be institutionalized, not in the foreseeable future at least; our sodomy laws equally reinforce this outlook and checks for loose ends. Make your list of 111 current issues threatening Nigeria today – 3 for each state, including Abuja; with the current tension threatening to divide Nigeria into worthless factions, do you really need to prematurely include homophobia to the long list?

Now, what is your verdict? – Imagine you were an intelligent, impartial, independent, empowered, realistic...You, really, must punish this girl for displaying a consequence of her ‘gay-conditioning’ environment and set her back in the right path. Bear in mind, resources are scarce, there are numerous backlogs, and the system has been overdue for a total overhaul for a few decades now.

You acknowledge that you cannot further waste ‘allegedly’ lean resources in arresting these alleged minority cock-suckers; it is a simple matter of misplaced priority.

If you are religious, you have the extra option to pray that God would send the big whale to swallow Jonah instead, and be forced to cough out the excess kobos stashed away in their pot bellies.

Would sending this girl to a 14-year tax-free stay, in a crowded prison with other women, be one of your first 3 options to curb her homosexuality?

Would you still celebrate an anti-gay legislation that is actually fucking you in the ass? Why are you always eager to applaud policies that infringe your basic rights and keeps you in perpetual bondage?

Other cultures that had previous strong anti-gay policies are learning from their mistakes, they are better informed today and can truly now decide for themselves. As much as we might think foreign culture has ruined us for good, we must acknowledge that, it is model for most of our widely accepted modern culture, and has presented us with a paradigm from which we can better manage our 'so-called' culture so that it does not consume us in our attempt to preserve it. We are fortunate that most of our problems are not unprecedented, we can choose to observe and learn!

As we aspire and work towards becoming the economic giant of Africa, we must be reminded that we have no common identity, except being humans. How we regard our minorities will play a major role to consolidating our power; the harmonization of culture, or popular belief will only hold until it don't.