Buhari Must Be Cautious …Of Same Sex Marriage, Gay Rights

Buhari and Obama

One of the high points of the Seventh Senate was its demonstration of unbelievable courage to outlaw same-sex marriage in Nigeria, even when the United States and other Western powers mounted immense pressure to do otherwise. That decision was popular among Nigerians because same-sex marriage is not only a taboo, it has no relevance to any tribe’s culture, religion and or belief system in the country.
Normally, every nation identifies its unique socio-cultural worries and make laws to check such anti-social behaviours. This is because what is a norm in one clime may be a taboo in another. That also accounts for why countries of the world are still divided over the issue of capital punishment, for crimes like armed robbery, kidnapping, treason arson and the likes.
Unfortunately, what started as a human  rights crusade, in the mould of discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians in the West, is gradually being imposed on the world as a norm by world powers, especially the United States (US). In the past three or so years. the Obama administration has been pushing for the legalisation of same-sex marriages under the cover of advocating human rights, in the African Continent and elsewhere.
Of course, the most vulnerable of countries are those in Sub-Saharan Africa, which so poor, scramble for every little gratis the world’s biggest economy can give. In that state of helplessness, some countries can do any and everything to please their potential pay-masters to remain economically above water.
This is why Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, must be cautious in the new-found friendship, he now finds himself with US President Barrack Obama, who is in his lame duck months. With the hype and euphoria that attended Buhari’s visit to the US and expectations therefrom, it is not unlikely that Buhari could toe some liberal paths, if only to accommodate US hopes and fears.
Such quasi-Liberalism should not and must not include considering Obama’s campaign for gay rights, as a condition for a blissful friendship. America has a tendency of imposing its own culture on others, either directly or indirectly and could go to any length to frustrate non-comformists.
But those who have defied such instructions and likely rape on their cultures and religions are still alive as nations without any form of gratis from Big Brother America. They have instead defended their enviable heritage and guided their cultures and traditions jealously.
They did so because; even foremost American philosophers are agreed that a people without a culture are not fit to live. Indeed, a people’s identity stems from their language, dressing, and other cultural dynamics uniquely theirs. They are indeed treasures handed down to them by their forebears.
Same-Sex marriage is not part of any culture in Nigeria and should not be forced down the throat by any country no matter how highly placed.
Not only is it not supported by any known traditional ethos in the land, it lacks any religious and socio-cultural support of any kind.
All the holy books agree that the Maker created man and woman, different sexes, to cohabit and multiply. With that divine union, adult males of different sexes re-produce their kind and nurture them into full-grown adults to continue the reproductive process.
In that union, men and women have their roles to play, as divinely ordained. The woman conceives, bears children and suckles her upsprings while, the man toils for their needs in addition to giving fatherly direction and discipline for better moral upbringing.
These are sacred duties same-sex couples cannot properly perform. It is even an abomination for two males, as husband and wife, to be allowed to adopt other people’s children in the name of gay rights.
This is one of the immoralities that the US and other Western countries seek to impose on our culture, in the name of civilisation. And it should be resisted.
President Buhari must be watchful because it is very likely that the US political leadership may rob-it-in as a pre-condition for progressive investment in Nigeria. The trick often, is to state that some Americans and indeed other foreigners who may be in Nigeria for such investment purposes must not be discriminated against. That would mean, relaxing the country’s anti-gay laws, so that no American suffers any penalty arising from his choice of sex partner and sexuality.
This must be resisted no matter the amount of investment, for sanity of the nation and the future of our children.
No amount of foreign investment is worth the embrace of same-sex marriage with all its disadvantages and very corrupting influence on the morality of its peoples.
It is indeed troubling that the same moral decadence has infiltrated the Church in other lands, with supposed shepherds of the people confessing to be gay. There are tody, gay Bishops in such lands that daily confuse Christiandom.
So troubling even the Pope, the Spiritual head of the Catholic Church seems helpless and rather than fight the menace, sought an escape route, with the excuse, “if a gay wants to worship God, who am I to judge him or her” such is the force of the US campaign for gay rights and its influence on all known moral institutions.
But President Buhari must stand firm and defend what is most priceless to his nation. He must stand-by the decision of the 7th Senate which looked into the eyes of the West and said, ‘No, but no thanks’ to same-sex marriage.
If the National Assembly had not done that, Nigeria would today be experiencing open marriages by people of the same sex, even in places of worship and be blessed by supposed men of God. In a country where, the abominable easily gains currency within months, nearly half of the adult population could be indoctrinated.
Where does that leave us as a nation?
A people without values, history, culture and indeed morals?
A people consumed by fantasies of foreign lands in total neglect of their cultural heritage? A people without a direction and future for its growing young population? A people without an identity? These are what Buhari must avoid, should the pressures mount, as it is certain, they would anytime soon.
Sadly, President Barrack Obama, who is at the fore-front of the campaign for gay rights, is the son of a Kenyan scholarship student, a country on the African Continent where, Same-Sex marriage has always been a taboo. Yet, for only God knows why, he is bent on arm-twisting heads of African governments to guarantee gay rights as a pre-condition for American support or rejection.
Down under-water, some African counties are even beginning to listen, for purely economic benefits. Already, some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are springing up, to grab American funding and help push the gay-rights campaign to all limits, and if need be, ensure constitutional reviews.
Nigeria is endowed with abundant human and material resources, which if properly harnessed and managed would sustain her without financial support from any Western nation. If corruption is minimized and the right persons appointed into positions of trust, this country would not need to mortgage her moral, cultural and indeed religious values for peanuts in the name of foreign support.
With the right structures in place and the required policy-drive to make them work, Nigeria can surely be great again with or without Western aid.
Others survived without same, for decades and are today respected as equal friends. Cuba is a ready example.
This is why President Buhari must be cautious of his romance with Obama and be very quick to reject any suggestion that could erode our morals, by way of institutionalising same-sex marriage.
Nigerians need foreign investments but not those owned by gays.
My Agony is that some Nigerian NGOs are already seeking funding from the West to push the campaigns in the country under the cover of human rights. Like armed robbery, same-sex marriage is a crime in Nigeria and should remain so.

Soye Wilson Jamabo