Nigeria was arguably a country, whose citizens held strongly to issues of moral chastity coordinated by religious institutions. Most Nigerians dreaded embarrassment, and any act that can bring indignation to their families  then. Nigerians were scared of soiling their family names.

Today, the case is different, as Nigerians are topping the charts in all forms of ignominy, ranging from advance fee fraud (419), armed robbery, financial crimes by public office holders, kidnapping and bombing of private and public places. A survey recently listed Nigerian women as the most unfaithful in the world. Alas! We have ascended with all talents, from moral endowment to bankruptcy in morality.

Today, same sex issue has grown from its silent days of ‘Dan Daudu,’ where those attributed to same sex preference deny same with all their might, to an era when it has metamorphosed into an issue of right that must be protected. Today, human rights organisations are out to even offer protection to those who are practising same sex relationship or marriage.

Now that the issue is transcending the social lacuna of  people having carnal knowledge within same sex, the matter seems to push into heretic preaching, where so-called men of God claim it is okay to be gay. They quote portions of the Bible to support their claims. While proponents of same sex are protesting issues of right abuse by the Nigeria legal institution, what then will priests attribute their preaching on the acceptability of gay behaviour centre their arguements on? The entire plot is becoming scary now that it is taking a religious dimension, as very soon, intra-religious intolerance will soon brew in Nigeria if something is not done to address the issue for the good of all.

As the saying goes, one’s rights ends where the other person’s begins. Now, gay adherents are begining to establish churches across the country, Nigerian youths are vulnerable to new doctrines. Parents who are sanctimoniously strict to the traditional Christian norms will definitely seek to protect the rights of their children.

Very soon, Christian religious extremist groups will sprout up to save their religious values by denouncing gay-oriented churches as illegal centres akin to Sodom and Gomorrah. The gay advocates will also seek to protect their own interests. The chase in a vicious circle of grand standing will spill out of control and possibly give birth to another theatre of  religiously-motivated violence in Nigeria, only this time within same faith.

Homosexual relationships cut across cultures, as no country can claim originality of this form of relationship. Recorded history from the dark ages, middle ages to our present civilisation show that people have always engaged in same sex relationships. In Nigeria, dotting everywhere are people, who have been into relationships with their own sex. The difference between now and then is the fact that such relationships were shrouded in secrecy.

In cultures influenced by Abrahamic religions, the law and the church established sodomy as a transgression against divine law or a crime against nature. The condemnation of anal sex between males, however, predates Christian belief. It was frequent in ancient Greece which was then described as "unnatural" by Plato.  From the perspective of the Qur’an, same sex relationships is also condemned in no small way.

Same sex relationships were, however, a social institution variously constructed over time and from one city to another. The formal practice, an erotic, yet often restrained relationship between a free adult male and a free adolescent, was at a time in history viewed as a means of population control.

While I do not intend to cast value at the mental status of homosexuals, I intend to x-ray the implications of a constitutionally sanctioned gay world. Let us take it for granted that they are okay mentally and are only expressing their sexual preference bestowed on them by nature, are we, therefore, ready to make adjustments on some legal variables that must accompany the adoption of same sex culture?

Only recently, a banker posted to serve in Minna got himself trapped in the ‘lair’ of a gay. He was sexually assaulted by a fellow male colleague, who offered him temporal accommodation, while he was still in search of a place. Now, what law will be appropriate to try such sex offenders, as they are only interested in championing a cause for the world to recognise their sexual preference?

Other legal implications include scenarios, where a gay ‘couple’ visits Nigeria, a country against same sex marriage. What will be the legal implications against such persons? Is there going to be any form of international incident taken for granted that the couple or one of them is not a Nigerian? Rhetorics and semantics one may conclude, but from a rational perspective, the same gender marriage issue is gaining steam that may boil towards a disastrous end.

Now that the UK and US are in support of gay relationships in Nigeria, there seem to be no going back as the die is cast for mutually- assured destruction, which may in the nearest future take a religious dimension.

•Ebije, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) Media, Niger State wrote in from the Government House, Minna.

Comments (4)

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I'm not sure what the problem is
written by Blake, December 29, 2011

You ask:

"Now, what law will be appropriate to try such sex offenders, as they are only interested in championing a cause for the world to recognise their sexual preference?"

In the united states we still have laws against sexual assault and "aggravated sodomy". In your test case provided the assaulter could be charged with either.

Also, don't confuse gay people with gay sex. One can be gay without ever having sex. If one's primary desires are naturally attuned toward others of the same sex then one is gay whether one acts on these desires or not.

While gay sex is one thing that distinguishes gay people from straight people a "right to gay sex" is not what gay people are fighting for. They are fighting for a "right to have consensual gay sex in the privacy of their own homes without harassment from the state & its agents"; not for all gay sex in every case to be legalized.

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I'm not sure what the problem is
written by Blake, December 29, 2011

You ask:

"Now, what law will be appropriate to try such sex offenders, as they are only interested in championing a cause for the world to recognise their sexual preference?"

In the united states we still have laws against sexual assault and "aggravated sodomy". In your test case provided the assaulter could be charged with either.

Also, don't confuse gay people with gay sex. One can be gay without ever having sex. If one's primary desires are naturally attuned toward others of the same sex then one is gay whether one acts on these desires or not.

While gay sex is one thing that distinguishes gay people from straight people a "right to gay sex" is not what gay people are fighting for. They are fighting for a "right to have consensual sex in the privacy of their own homes without harassment from the state & its agents"; not for all gay sex in every case to be legalized.

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...
written by AndyCabon, December 29, 2011

OMG.who the hell cares?

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Plato didn't condemn homosexuality, he praised it
written by Aaron, December 30, 2011

This article is completely wrong about Plato and homosexuality within Classical Civilization.

The association of homosexuals with democracy and the military was intense and widespread, extending from Harmodius and Aristogeiton, a pair of lovers who founded Democracy itself by overthrowing the last tyrant of Athens, to the noted generals Pelopidas and Epanminondas, to the great military genius Alexander the Great and his male lover Bagoas.

Of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, no less acute a mind than Plato’s observed that: “Our own tyrants learned this lesson through bitter experience, when the love between Aristogiton and Harmodius grew so strong that it shattered their power. Wherever, therefore, it has been alluded to be shameful to be involved in sexual relationships with men, this is due to evil on the part of the rulers, and to cowardice in the part of the governed.”

For hundreds of years, larger-than-life statues of these founders of Democracy towered above Athens, as impossible to disconnect with the city as the Statue of Liberty is impossible for us to disconnect with New York.. and young male lovers from England to Egypt, and across the entire Classical world would journey there to pledge their faith and love to each other, underneath those statues.

Gorgidas, the leader of Thebes created the Sacred Band, composed of 300 men, who were all paired lovers. They were known as the ‘sacred band’ because as Plutarch later explained, “even Plato calls the lover a friend inspired of God.”

Philip of Macedon and Plutarch recounted how the greatest heroes in the Greek’s own history were all known to prefer other males rather than women: Meleager, Achilles, Aristomenes, Cimon, Epaminondas, Asopichus, and Caphisodorus.

Even Hercules was famous for his male lover, Iolaus, who fought by his side. In Plato’s ‘Symposium,’ he noted the eagerness of the great warrior Achilles to join his lover and military partner in death as an explicit parallel to a wife’s being willing to die for her husband. Their bones were burned and mixed together in a gold amphora, as was done in the case of married heterosexual couples.

Aristophanes said that “..males who prefer other males are the finest men because they have the most manly nature. Their behavior is due to daring, manliness, and virility, since they are quick to welcome their like.”

Plato and numerous other classical authors attested to the military value of armies made up of lovers. When Epaminondas fell in battle at Mantineia, his lover died beside him. One of the most formidable and feared Theban warriors of the early Classical Era was Kaphisodoros, who was part of the Sacred Band.

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