Mr. Barisua Samuel Mkpe – Public Affairs Analyst

The French President, legalised gay marriage some weeks ago, making France the 14th country in the world that has legalised gay marriage. In my opinion, I think these things are done by the supposedly developed countries for political reasons. They are not done for cultural nor religious reasons.

At any point in time when they are drawing closer to election years and they want to solicit support from the populace, because they have realised that in these countries, the homo-sexual population is increasing geometrically by the day and they need their votes, they will go ahead to legalise gay marriage for political reasons.

Coming down to Africa, I have said it time and time again that Africa used to be a culturally committed people. Most of the things we copy from the western world are alien to us and what they are doing is cultural globalisation, using their culture to penetrate our space and make us to do what our parents and our fore-fathers never used to do.

Talking about world leaders like David Cameron and Barak Obama supporting gay marriage, and even threatening to withdraw aids to developing economies, it’s still world politics. And I thank God that African nations and their leaders have stamped their feet on the ground to tell them “go to hell with your aid, we can do without your aid. We’ll do what is good as far as our culture permits”.

So for once, I think I have seen the House of Representatives  do what the generality of the people want. Hitherto, we had seen situations where they came out with legislations that are anti-people, unpopular legislations.

But on the issue of legalising gay marriage or otherwise, they  have done well. I even think fourteen years prison term is lenient. I believe that human beings are supposed to be higher animals in terms of our thoughts and all of that. If animals and insects know that there are male and female species in their own kingdom, then human beings too should know that when God took a rib out of Adam, He did not use it to produce another man, in Genesis chapter two. He used it to produce a woman, ( a man with a womb), to comfort Adam.

So even scripturally, there is no way a man can comfort a man. It is a woman that was created to help and comfort the man.

On the argument in some quarters that out-lawing gay marriage will infringe on peoples’ freedom of association, some times I think we misunderstand what freedom of association means. If the people are coming together for a common vision, no body stops them from going ahead to assemble and pursue their vision and their goal. But when two adults come together in a society where the young ones are expectedly looking up to the senior ones for morals and all of that, it would amount to a polluted society if the young ones see their so called parents doing what is dirty, uncivilised and unacceptable in our society.

I have always posed this challenge to those who claim they are champions of gay rights, if you are involved in same – sex marriage, don’t adopt a child, reproduce your kind in that marriage, because the perfect will of God for man as regards marriage is to go into the world and multiply.

So if Barak Obama and David Cameron want to prove to the world that they passionately love homosexuality, they should divorce their wives and get married. When the two of them get married, they would have shown the world that they are examples for gay – marriage.

Barr. Chuks Obimba – Lawyer.

Personally, I think the actions of the National assembly are commendable. The origin of same sex marriage dates back to the time of Sodom and Gormorah.

That word sodomy is derived from the word Sodom, a city God destroyed because they were involved in homesexuality and it is one issue that God hates. It is not sane, it is strange for a man and a man to co-habit sexually.

So it is quite commendable for the law makers to have out – lawed it. And I think the proposed 14 years jail term is adequate. We must dare to be different from other nations.

I also believe that in some of these Islamic nations, such issue cannot be raised at all. I think Nigeria must strive as a nation to become independent. If Britain withdraws aids to Nigeria, because of this issue, it may spur us to become more independent to start walking on our own. Afterall, we cannot continue to depend on some of these foreign aids. Nigeria has a lot of intelligent persons. We are endowed both naturally and physically, we can do something on our own. The issue of same – sex marriage is strange and it must be deprecated.

I think there is an extent to which we should have our liberty. Every liberty that is not curtailed will tend to excess use. So, everybody should have a liberty but there are occasions one’s liberty should be curtailed.

So to me, the issue of legalising gay marriage has nothing to do with freedom of association. If we must associate with one another, there has to be a limitation to such association. So, I believe that illegalising gay marriage does not infringe on any person’s right. There could be certain traits that are in – born, which must be checked. That is the essence of law. If somebody picks up a gun and tells you that he has a penchant towards violence, you will not ask him to go and start killing people because he has a penchant toward violence. So if someone says he is not attracted to the opposite sex, I don’t think it is proper and valid for us to go ahead with what he is doing. There must be a law.

Every nation is different and every nation has a law that guides its conduct. For instance in Europe, there is no death sentence to murder cases, but in Nigeria if someone kills another unlawfully, the person certainly, will go for it.

So, I commend the boldness of the National Assembly in outlawing same-sex marriage.

In 1997, I heard Obama define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. That was when he was campaigning. Now, it is not proper for a man to approbate and at the same time re-approbate. The same Obama that said that same – sex – marriage is strange, is now campaigning for the adoption of same-sex marriage. I believe that the issue of same-sex marriage is strange and it should be highly deprecated, abhord.

Hon. Gbosidam Prince Agbara – Politician

First of all, I thank the person who moved the motion against same – sex marriage in the House. Same sex marriage is not Nigerian custom and there’s no how Nigeria can adopt it. I am an Ogoni man, and in Ogoniland, I have not witnessed when a woman marries another woman. What our custom permits is for a woman who could not bear children for her husand to marry another woman for her husband. But that a woman will sleep with a woman, or a man sleeps with another man, it is not done! If such practice is legalised; it will destroy this country.

Therefore, I support the House of Representatives not to allow that kind of marriage happen in Nigeria because it will tarnish the image of Nigeria. Britain and other world powers should realise that Nigeria is an independent country. We have a President. we have members of the National Assembly, they make laws for us, not Britain, not America. So, if Britain wants to withdraw its aids to Nigeria, over this issue, let them go ahead. Nigeria will still stand. Even the President will not accept that. In Ogoniland a woman cannot marry a woman and sleep with her, we’ll kill you immediately. So we don’t support that. All these borrowed Western ways of life is what is killing us today. Before in Rivers State, women tie wrappers and  wear skirts. All this low waist, trouser and what have you, weren’t  there. They were borrowed from the Western world and that is what is killing us today. If you go to the schools you see women exposing their breasts and other parts of their bodies, and if we should legalise same – sex marriage, it will be the worst. You will start seeing women and men romancing themselves in the public. We should try and make this country a perfect country, a respected place where we live.

Rev. Fr. Bartholomow Uzoma – Priest.

I think the lawmakers are responding to the isssues of the moment because the issue of same-sex marriage has become topical in the past few years. I don’t even know why people are going for this same-sex marriage. I’m yet to know the justification, what is unusual, what is abnormal is what people are beginning to clamour for. Much as I know as a person, same – sex marriage is unnatural, abnormal, unusual. So, that law makers are beginning to rise up to the occasion means that they are listening to people and they are willing to condemn what is wrong.

I’m not moved by what the western world is doing. We all know that the family system has collapsed in the western world and the family is the hope of the society and that tendency is now coming down to us. Yes granted, the world is a global village and we are being influenced by what happens in other areas. It is not everything that happens there that we must borrow. Already the family system is in crisis, bringing same sex marriage into already existing crisis, we cannot manage it.

So I think the lawmakers are rising up to save our society and I wouldn’t like to dance to the popular opinion of the Western world.

They can withdraw their aids from Nigeria, and what about it.?  Nigeria will not die. Let them withdraw it and there will always be a way out. Our lives do not depend on them. Our lives depend on God. If they have been giving us aids and Nigeria is still like this, then what have they achieved so far?

All of us know the state of things in Nigeria, what can we boast of, is  it the economy, is it moral life,  is it education, is it power, what do we have in this country?

So what is the aid they have been giving to us and of what use has aid been to us. Let them withdraw it. Let us know we are on our own and then go back to the drawing board and pray God to help us to know how to manage our country, Nigeria and how to make things better for us. Infact they are part of those confusing us in this country.

They colonised Nigeria. Have we ever been the same since then? Before the contact with the British, there was a stage of development in this country, no matter how slow it was. And with that contact, the whole thing was changed and we are no longer the Africans we used to be, we are not Europeans. We are at a confused stage. And they are bringing that confusion now to the marital system. So far, you can see, our culture has been able to put together the family system. Same –sex marriage is not for a family. A man and a man cannot form family. So it’s all about people satisfying their illicit sexual urge and desire.

Well, I may not subscribe to jail term for offenders because in Nigeria the prisons do not reform people. People go to prisons and they become worse than they were before they went to prison. The mere fact that the law prohibits it means that it is not going to be allowed and you can’t go to the court and say you want to get married to a male if you are one for example!.

The court won’t allow it. If so if two men decided to misbehave and have sex, well, people do all sorts of things under the cover of darkness and it remains at that level.

So that right that permits man and man to go into marriage also affects the right of the family. People have right to become armed robbers,  They want to rob as a means of livelihood, why do we stop them? Why will the law stop them from robbing because that’s what makes them happy? So we should give them right to rob bank, government, to kill people because that’s what makes them happy.

Those involved in same – sex marriage often claim they can adopt. Whose child will they adopt? If we are saying let us approve same – sex marriage, okay, no problem, but whose child will they adopt? It is inhuman for any body involved in same – sex marriage to adopt somebody else’s child. A child is mearnt to be brought up within the context of a family – male and female, father and mother. So adopting a child means denying that child the right to exist within the family of a father and a mother.

So they are also infringing on the right of another person. So they have no right to adopt. Okay, let us say everybody should go into gay marriage, women marry women, men marry men, then the society will fizzle out graudually.

The bible says God made them male and female. So this same – sex marriage is anti-God. It’s a revole against the order of creation. It is a protest against God also.

Mrs Gina Sampson – a teacher.

Of course, no normal human being will support same – sex marriage. So the law makers did the right thing by out – lawing it. Homosexuality is a problem that has been in our society for a long time, though they do it secretly. People are lured into it right from their secondary school days. In my school days, it was called “supe”. Different groups have different names for it. So parents should monitor their children and know the kind of friends they keep. I have also heard that some women, especially the married ones indulge in lesbianism either because their husbands are never there for them or their husbands cannot satisfy them sexually. And instead of keeping male sex partners which the society frowns at, they sleep with their fellow women. Some go into it for monetary and  material gains. So for me, illegalizing same – sex marriage is good, because we need to sanitize our society.