PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has been urged in a new report to repeal Nigeria's Draconian Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2014 which provides for stiff punishments against homosexuals.
On January 7 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan signed Nigeria's Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill into law, which makes being gay punishable with 14 years in jail. At the time the new law was very popular and as soon as it was passed, vigilante groups and the police swung into action immediately, arresting anyone suspected of being gay.
In a fresh report on the law submitted to President Buhari, he has been urged the repeal the law as it legalises discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and people who are inter-sex and transgender. According to the report, the law has encouraged evictions, mob attacks, police torture and public whippings against gays.
Co-authored by human rights organisations PEN America and PEN Nigeria, both of whom are dedicated to freedom of expression and supporting literary works in Africa, the report is titled Silenced Voices, Threatened Lives: The Impact of Nigeria’s Anti- lesbian gay bi-sexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Law on Freedom of Expression. The Leitner Center for International Law of Fordham University also contributed to the report.
Nigeria's Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2014 punishes gay relationships with 14 years in prison and belonging to gay associations with 10 years in prison. It also criminalises a failure to report homosexual activity to police, which automatically threatens the friends and families of gays living in Nigeria.
Nigerian human rights groups have documented 105 violations against gays including assaults, mob attacks and blackmail since the passage of the law. In one case in Bauchi, an undercover police officer joined a group being counselled about Aids pretending to be gay and arrested the 38 men there, tortured them and provided their names to the public, leading to a witch-hunt.
Many gay people have subsequently fled Bauchi as a result of this incident. Nigeria's anti-gay law, while purporting to target same sex marriage, has infringed upon rights to free speech, access to health care, housing and employment, interfered with civil and political rights and led to wholesale impunity for violence against LGBTI people.
PEN executive director Suzanne Nossel, said: “LGBTI Nigerians cannot express their identities, write or publish about their experiences, or even advocate for their own human rights. The law is essentially self-enforcing, barring most challenges to its own legality as prohibited LGBTI advocacy and effectively legalising vigilante justice against gay individuals.”
Critics of the law also argue that it distracts local populations from endemic problems like poverty, corruption and failed education systems under the banner of uniting in homophobia. They argue that political leaders often stoke homophobic undercurrents to build support at the expense of the LGBTI population.
