Further to the November 30 post which is one of my old essays that form the basis of existence for this blog
http://emotanafricana.com/2011/11/30/the-siege-on-homosexuals-in-africa-a-nigerian-case-from-the-not-too-distant-past/,
I’m presenting some discussions which I [sort of] overheard through a fringe relationship with a Social Group. [Medical] Dr. Lai Opawoye & [University lecturer] Dr. Abdsalam Ajetunmobi have enabled me do quite some “eavesdropping” into various groups whose central interest is the improvement of what I will call The Nigerian Condition. There was the very lively “Islamic Banking” debate which, as in all things Nigerian, unfortunately got terminated because it was taking an ugly turn. I had planned to collate the material by the different discussants and post them under a single file.
After Transparency International released a statement about Nigerian civil servants looting $3b (N150 billion-Plus last year, Laolu Akande’s despatch from New York was culled from Sahara Reporters and posted ashttp://emotanafricana.com/2011/11/09/corruption-a-war-that-cannot-be-won-in-nigeria/ on November 9.
The Group – which I’ve since decided to tag as Ajetunmobi & Others as Abdsalam Ajetunmobi seems the most prolific and is one of my two links to the groups – got busy again recently, looking at corruption and religion, etcetera but all the time keeping central to the discussion how Nigeria can avert disaster unless it finds ways of combating the ill. That was a very lively debate among several old boys of a particular Southwestern Nigeria secondary school and I’ve started to put some of the materials together and will post in the next two weeks.
Today, I’m presenting a current subject, the Senate’s Anti Gay Bill and a short discussion it has generated among one of Ajetunmobi’s Group. Sometimes, the groups seem to overlap as some names seem to appear on more than one. Two names that recur are Ajetunmobi and Opawoye, but since I do not have the permission of any of the groups to use the materials, I’m keeping other names out. I believe the materials, though, belong to us all as patriotic fervor seems to drive these discussions.
TOLA ADENLE, December 15, 2011.]
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The passing of the “Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill 2011” by the Senate last month is of little importance compared with the larger issue: Leadership under systemic corruption. Corruption is so pervasive in the country that my jaw dropped in awe when a visiting friend who has recently been elevated to the rank of SAN revealed to me in more detail the level of corrupt practices amongst the most senior judges in the nation’s judiciary. Unlike the passage of this Bill, I feel heartened and even exhilarated by the coalition of Civil Society’s (“Occupy Nigeria”) mass action in January 2012. So, I agree with the sentiment expressed in the forwarded piece that the Bill is irrelevant to the diagnosis of the problems facing the country
In fact, I went through this anti-gay 2001 Bill, its 8 clauses are best captured by the recurring baseless mantra that “There Is No Homosexuality in Africa!” or, that homosexuality is a “western perversion” imposed upon or adopted by African populations. While homosexuality could be seen as a marginal aberration, but based on ethnographic record, the practice cuts across all cultures.
On the submission that “This battle is not ours; the battle is the Lord’s,” this question remains: Do humans have an internal locus of control over events? For example, let’s try this: Stand up and look down at your feet. Now lift one foot in the air and stand on the other for two seconds. Now sit back down. What caused you to do this? Did God? Or did you do this by your own free will? I’ll be happy to consider any substantiated response to either question.
Best regards, A.O. Ajetunmobi.
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Dear All,
The senate has been getting accolades mainly from within, for passing an anti-gay bill which, inter alia, prohibits marriage between people of same sex. A church has even taken full page advertorial to commend the senate for that “righteous stand”; I’m not impressed in the least.
The Anti-Gay Bill is very irrelevant, a waste of precious time and resources, and plays on the emotions of a religious nation. The existing Marriage Act in the laws of Federal Republic of Nigeria ehaviori only marriage between adult male and female, and thereby rests the issue of same-sex marriage. The Bill is therefore superfluous and seems to be an attempt to distract Nigerians from the glaring ineptitude of the legislature in confronting the myriads of problems in this country, including corruption with impunity, Boko-Haram, general insecurity, crippling poverty, potential oil-subsidy removal crisis, ASUU strike, etc.
Now that the senate is waving a moral compass and acting as defenders of righteousness, I’ll be expecting Anti-fornication Bill, Anti-adultery Bill, Anti-lying Bill, etc.(all with 14 year jail terms for offenders as there are no lesser sins before God)!
Nigerians have just been sold a dummy and everyone appears to be cheering. The Senate Bill smells hypocrisy, and it also portrays a Senate that is uninformed about the existing laws in the country. By this action, it has “inadvertently” handed fat donor cheques to Gay Movement Organisations (some of which actually have some [hidden] Senators as their patrons). More money will flow from the West to these ehaviorions, and their members can now claim easy asylum abroad. What a back door ticket and “dividend of democracy”? Indeed it appears “the more you look, the less you see”.
Finally, no nation can legislate Righteousness, and no nation or persons can fight for God. The evil of religiosity can be easily seen in the senseless killings certain people or groups carry out, all in the name of God. This battle is not ours; the battle is the Lord’s, and God is more than able to defend Himself!
Warm regards. X
(planning anti-subsidy removal protest)
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I was especially pleased when I read Professor Y’s reaction to my last e-mail. Even though there is a bigger problem with that response, insofar as the interpretation of “Dr. U”’s forwarded message contemplates the possibility of causal relationship between self-effort and worldly success, I’ll rather leave it like that.
Nonetheless, it is fitting that The Times, London (UK), in its editorial entitled, “A One Man Show,” December 7, 2011, stated that “Corruption in Russia has grown so rife, and so rapacious, that EVEN NIGERIANS MIGHT BE SHOCKED” (emphasis mine). IfThe Times is right that the rapacity in Russia is much more serious than the corrupt ehavior in Nigeria, it might be better we exhaust all the earthly solutions to our problems first before ever contemplating heavenly ones. After all, the corruption in Russia, despite being shockingly serious, has not, to my knowledge, procured for the Russians the need for divine intervention in their affairs.
Best regards, AO Ajetunmobi.
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Dr. Q is a young lecturer at the University of Ibadan and honorary consultant to the University College Hospital, Ibadan, in Nigeria. He majors in forensic pathology. He once told me that ‘he did a course in Law in Australia.’ What I think he meant is that even though man is a spirit being with intrinsic free will, an attribute which separates him sharply from lower animals that do not have free will and hence no responsibility for their actions, a time comes when our Creator forcibly intervenes to set things aright because man has misused this God-given free will to cause unimaginable chaos in this subsequent creation.
A.G.F
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To me, the Bill would have been commendable if our Senate had always operated at the same pace and speed to legislate on more problematic issues. It spent over 12 years to deliberate on the Freedom of Information Bill (FoI Bill) without resolution until Jonathan reluctantly agreed to go along.
In Nigeria, pornographic movies are displayed openly on major roads in cities and are sold cheaply, sometimes for as little as N100.00 each (less than US$.70). Funny enough, they are always hot cakes more than the Bible and Holy Quran despite our proclaimed religiosity and self righteous banner everywhere!
In retrospect, I have concluded that homosexuality has been with us for a very long time under different names. In fact, I heard that it is almost like a ritualist up north among the elites to curry favor or, strange as it may sound, for good luck from the spirits! It has always been rampant in our high schools, especially in boarding schools, and universities. So, who is deceiving who?
It is good to make laws to checkmate the act before it becomes a behemoth indeed. After all, drinking and alcohol consumption are effectively under the control of governments in developed nations, whereas in Nigeria, kids are sent out to purchase these items, including narcotic drugs like valium, oxycodone, anti-biotics, etc as needed with impunity.
So, I’m adding my voice to those telling the Senate that they are wasting our precious time and tax payers’ money on this sexist issues when there are problems crying out for emergency actions that are left untouched.
The best would have been to leave such to state assemblies as they may be relevant.
-Ade