“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.
