₦airaland Forum

rhymz:
evil brain stop reducing the debate to saying Nigerians support it because of their religious beliefs and all that alien talk. Every decision that people take is informed by these factors, that is the fact. I am not a religious goon myself but I am in total support of the bill. If they choose to pound eachother fron behind, that is their own cup of tea so long as they keep it privated and closet. The minutes they start asking for recognition, representations, marrige rights, redefinition of the marriage institution and promoting their life style to target young impreesionable kids then there is need to tell them their limitations, simple!

Its the other side that keeps on bringing up religion not me. Am I supposed to keep quiet when they are using the same arguments as the sharia proponents to justify an unconstitutional bill?

Also, the gäys didn't ask for any rights or recognition. Nobody ever saw any Nigerian gays carrying placards until they were forced out of the closet to protest this horrible bill. The religious people fired the first shot in this battle. How can you blame people for asking the government to leave then alone in peace?

Iolo:
The bulk of Nigerians think same sex relationships are wrong. The senate passed the bill based on popular opinion. Not based on religion or anything else.

Prostitution is a criminal offence. Does this mean we are impeding the freedom of expression of LovePeddlers? Why don't we have a LovePeddlers Association of Nigeria? Same for Sodomists, People who sleep with goats and horses, rapies, serial killers, and the list goes.

Nigeria has chosen to PRESERVE ITS CULTURAL HERITAGE. Non of our 300+ tribes and religions support same sex marriages. So what is anybody complaining about?

If your man-lover, its either you keep the relationship without getting married, or you pack to Cameroon.

Two guys living together won't be tagged unless they've been acting suspiciously. And why would neighbors say you are man-lover when you aint. Just like a neighbor calling the police to say these girls here are LovePeddlers, arrest them. Don't think that happens.

If you think this bill wasn't motivated by religion then you clearly haven't been paying attention. David Mark clearly stated on multiple occasions that religion was a major justification for the bill. The entire senate debate was an endless stream of "koran says this" and "sodom and gomorrah that" preaching by senator who apparently have never read the constitution before. Videos of this stuff are available on youtube, see for yourself.

And just so you know, pröstitutes are still guaranteed freedom of expression under the constitution. And yes the can and do form associations.

And you insult your own intelligence when you compare gäys to räpists and serial killers. If you can't see the difference between a consensual act between adults and one person harming or killing another then there is no point arguing with you.

Your last paragraph is just plain dumb. Is it possible that you are unable to think of a scenario where someone is falsely accused of a crime? You think that everyone that is accused of stealing is guilty? "Why would anyone accuse him if he didn't do it" is home video logic. It suggests that you have no idea how things work in the real world.

ov:
In as much as there is freedom of speech, it should not be overstretched beyond simple and basic morality.

Evilbrain if u can show me ANYWHERE in either the Holy Bible, Holy Quaran or any other traditional religion where gayism is encouraged, supported or talked highly about, then u may have a point! Till then i think u just take your Joystick n shove it in your Bottom.

But hope u know if your pop was man-lover u wont even b alife! Kinda wish he was man-lover though. At least d world would b less one man-lover! PHOKING man-lover!

Now US now allow soldiers to bleep animals.

The next thing,some1 will say he wants to marry his mother!

eyin omor ale. Ko ni da fu gbo gbo yin o! olopolo dudu ni gbo gbo yin o! TOTO de free u say na yansh u wan bleep!

moderators should not even allow membership of man-loving-men on this forum.

Why do you people keep repeating the same nonsense? For the thousandth time, you religious beliefs are not relevant. Christianity and islam are not the only religions. The constitution does not recognize any religion and explicitly prohibits making laws based on them.

If you want to live in a sharia country, then go to Somalia.

Also, neither me nor my popsi are gäy. Have a nice day.

@ledafaze

If you want to see gäy animals in action, go to youtube.com

Also, you were the one who brought up animals to prove it was unnatural. So now that nature is disagreeing with you, you want to claim that it's not relevant? Learn how to argue like an adult.

ledafaze:
This evil brain of a boy i think u have issues.

When God created men, He said we should have dominion over all other things He created, including animals. So we are supposed to be super than them. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANIMALS OF SAME SEX MATING??

LAILAI, never , so haw could men bring themselves so low to mate with same sex? Ha, Fire bounce on them all

I'm tired of repeating myself. Hömösexuality is extremely common in the animal kingdom. Practically all higher animals do it. It's actually considered to be normal behaviour in more than a few species. Google "hömösexuality in animals" if you don't believe me.

Also I'm not a christian so keep the bible stuff to yourself if you don't mind.

eros:
Hmmmmm!!! Evilbrain, you don start again.

Oh boy!!! No let them catch you oooooo. Left this matter and face other better things.

You worry ooooo.

Let them do their worst. I ain't never scared. All this hypocrisy and bigotry has got to stop.

ikechukz:
if everybody turned man-loving-men and lady-loving-ladies,won't humans go extinct.

Nobody is trying to force you to gäy marry. You can continue to chase women all you want without harrassment. The majority of people are predominantly hetero so the human race is safe.

All I'm saying is you should allow the gäys to live their own private lives the way they want and stop supporting bills that turn them into 2nd class citizens.

cheekswat:
Nigerians never cease to amaze me, and the problem again is that the moment you start canvassing for human rights, especially as it concerns man-lover rights, people stupidly think that you must be man-lover.
I am not man-lover, but i've been involved in this argument more times than i can remember. Even though, I am not man-lover and will never see anything sexually attractive in a fellow man, with an anatomy that is predominantly made up of bone, it is absolutely wrong for the House to pass the anti-man-lover bill. And to top it all, I am yet to hear a convincing argument in support of the bill except that it's not biblical or cultural, and so on and so forth.
I think that Nigerians are selfish, emotional, sentimental and lack any sense of objectivity. We hear people condemn things, and we jump to do the same conclusion without thinking it through, for instance the implications and so on.
For instance, what right does anyone have to condemn what adults do with their lives as long as it's consensual and does not trample on the rights of another or others?
We may not support man-loving-men or what they do, but we have no right to deny them their rights as accorded them in the constitution, as regards freedom of speech, union and the rest.
Let me give a scenario here- the rights of people in a geographical setting can be likened to a large cake from which everyone has the right to his/her chunk. Now, if what we think is right in our eyes is that the cake is meant to be eaten, but some people, for one reason or the other decide to trample on their own share of the cake, what right do we have to jail them, if they are not denying others their own share, stealing from others, or trampling the cake belonging to others?
In essence, the cake is our collective human rights which we all deserve, the people who fervently believe that cakes should be eaten are the majority of us, while those who trample on their share of the cake are the man-loving-men. So, as long as they are not Desecrating or forcing an unwilling person or an underage, which is tantamount to intimate harassment, violation or denying somebody else his or her own rights, then what is our business what they do with their own piece of cake.
I hear people talk about culture and I laugh. Seriously, what is our culture? The last time I checked, we once had a culture of killing twins because we found them strange and evil. That was before Mary Slessor fought against the practice. Also, female Core mutilation (FGM) used to be our culture and still is, even though people get infected, die, and often live with the trauma.
As we speak, there is still a culture of marrying underage girls to men old enough to be their fathers or grandfathers in the north, sometimes leading to Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) for some of the young girls.
And to think that a senator who recently got married to an underage (13yrs) was there as the anti-man-lover bill was sponsored and passed continues to baffle me. If you asked me, that is worse that homosexuality because one party(the girl) is too young to take such a big decision on her own, cos invariably, her parents forced her into marriage with a man old enough to be her father. That violates the girl's right.
The bill stipulated a jail sentence of 14 years for man-loving-men, while just recently, a former boko haram spokesman, (self confessed) got three years for his atrocities, which of course include maiming and taking human lives, thereby denying them their right to life as stipulated in the constitution.
People are also quick to quote the quran or the bible in their criticism of man-lover rights, to this people, I ask one question. Is the law of Nigeria supposed to be based on the quran and the bible, since we have Nigerians who neither believe in the quran or the bible, does that make them lesser in status when the issue of rights is concerned in their country, especially when what they ask for does not infringe on anyone's rights whatsoever?
Let us not talk when someday, a senate president sits on his chair and says the quran stipulates the practice of sharia and wants to enforce it in this country or another says that the bible or grail book or whatever says an eye for an eye, or whatever, since some of us have blindly supported them on this one where the Holy books formed part of the basis for the bill.
We may not support them (man-loving-men) or like them, but we have no right to deny them their rights as long as they are not rapists, craddle-robbers, etc who infringe on other people's rights.
I have met people who sleep with their neighbour's wife or or do terrible things also condemning man-loving-men, and worst of all quoting the bible to back up their argument. The last time I checked, the bible says no sin is greater than the other, so what gives them the right.
Moreover, such actions as sleeping with your neighbour's wife or cheating on your spouse can even have worse implications as it can destroy homes, lead to broken homes, affect the children and cause all kinds of psychological trauma, especially for those on the receiving end if they end up finding out. man-loving-men do their business in their homes, and I don't see how what adults voluntarily do in their homes should affect us this much.
The bill is also setting a dangerous precedence in the country which many people are overlooking due to sentiments and emotions we have somehow attached to it. Sin is sin. Maybe we should all check what we do ourselves, and clear out eyes of foreign objects before plucking the speck of wood from another person's eye.

Thank you!!! Finally someone is thinking with his brain.

Baawaa:
Evilbrain or wat do u call urself.u ar on your own!

People in the right often are.

nwanna89:
@Poster

I tried to reason with your points, but I don't agree on the Collateral Damage part. The law as you defined does not stop people from practising homosexuality. It only prevents them from getting married, and forming man-lover organizations. So noone is stopping anyone from having a man-lover partner. They just can't get legally bound (married). Many people are misinterpreting this whole thing. Most states in the US don't allow man-lover marriage either, but they dont stop people from keeping same-sex partners.

The american states that have legislated against gäy marriage passed bills defining marriage as between a man and a woman which is fine by me. Their laws dont strip people of their constitutional rights. They dont prescribe ridiculous prison sentences for victimless crimes. They don't make it a crime to share a flat with same sex friends. And they don't make it illegal for gäys to participate in the political process.

All the americans do is refuse to legally recognize gäy marriages which our supreme court had already done for us here. So what is the justification for this law?

Besides, the US has a large openly gäy community and many of them had mounted court challenges demanding that their marriages be recognized. None of this exists in Nigeria. Nigerian gäys do their best to hide from the public and do what they do discreetly. All the publicly known gäys were outed against their wishes.

The first time most Nigerians saw gäy people out in public is when they went to Abuja to protest this bill at the public hearing. The senators responded to them by shouting them down and adding even more draconian provisions. But if this bill didn't exist, nobody would have seen or had to think about the gäys, and everybody would have been better off.

Seriously, you guys should stop using all this born-again stuff to argue with me. When it comes to the law and the constitution, religion should have no place.

Besides, I'm not a christian. And I'm not going to become a christian no matter how many imaginary demons you cast out. And until David Mark pushes through a bill forcing all Nigerians to convert to his christianity and replacing the constitution with the bible, I have the right to express my views regardless of whether you like them or not.

I've also noticed that a lot of you have wrongly assumed that I'm gäy. While there is no way of proving this as I pointed out earlier, let me assure you that I am not. I am happy to say that I have had great success convincing women to sleep with me and until I find a nice girl to settle down with, I intend to continue pursuing them.

Just because I'm defending the rights of hömösexuals doesn't mean I'm one of them. It just means that I understand that everyone is a minority in one way or the other. It means that I'm worried that after they finish with the hömös they'll go after the atheists, then the traditionalists, then the jehovah's witnesses, then the midgets, deaf and dumb, then the ibos, then the ACN members, then the christians, then maybe they'll come after me.

youngies:
If you can calm down a little bit, you will realize that your emotions are getting in the way of your critical reasoning.

Now to the bolded and the rest of your post. Unless you provide evidence of tyranny in the process of passing the bill in the Senate, I will not continue this discussion with you.  

From all the record available, the anti-man-lover bill was a private bill. It passed through the first and second reading on the floor of the senate. there was even a public hearing on the bill, representations were made from all interested parties including the man-lover community in Nigeria. I am not aware that any group of people were shut out from making representation during the public hearing before the bill was passed.

If you or your group was hindered from making representation during the debate please let us know.

Definition of Tyranny from dictionary.cambridge.org

1.  Government by a ruler or small group of people who have unlimited power over the people in their country or state and use it unfairly and cruelly.
2.  When a situation or person controls how you are able to live, in an unfair way

This is a law that strips gäys of their right to form groups for any purpose, assemble together, protest, form civil partnerships or even complain about their treatment.

None of us here have admitted to being gay, yet if this bill is signed, we'd could all be sent to prison for posting on this thread.

If you don't think that a bill that limits free speech and prescribes prison sentences just for writing a letter to your representative is tyrannical, the you really don't know anything.

okeyxyz:
having read the OP's articles , i'd have to say that he makes mostly good points which any sensible human would agree with. but the OP just somehow drags himself through the same mud that these senators wallow in shamelessly.

so here is my own take:
h0m0sexu4l1ty is unnatural, it's that simple for me, but what can u do about somebody who is g4y? can you make him\her straight, NO, so let them be, there are far bigger issues in life than persecuting homos, one simply cannot help or choose their intimate orientation\identity. but same-sex marriage that's a definite NO!!!

As for the OP, i'd just say to you to find better grounds of morality when you condemn these senators because the same basis that you judge them are very much flawed. words like undemocratic, child-molester, four-term senator(as if that makes David Mark above fault) are just laughable.
it is exactly for democracy that these guys have voted to criminalise h0m0sexu4lity, seriously, can you imagine any of them have a bright political future if he had voted against this bill? i'm sure a lot of these senators are reasonable people, but the truth is that the people they represent will call for their blood if they had done otherwise. so that is democracy for u, it is a silly system, deeply flawed, and a lot of times democracy is evil & history is replete with the evidence, like when slavery was booming & blossoming, supported by democracy, when germans went to war & genocide, that was still democracy. so do not use democracy as a moral standard here, it just is not a smart argument.

Thank you for admitting that I made valid points. At least that is something.

I'm not sure what basis on which you can claim that hömösexuality is unnatural. The best available scientific evidence tells us that hömösexuality is widespread in the animal kingdom. If its unnatural, why is it so common in nature? Remember that just because everybody keeps saying something doesn't mean its not nonsense.

Also I criticized David Mark because as a four-term senator and senate president, it is expected that he would be highly familiar with the provisions of the constitution. I can understand if if the newly elected senators passed this wildly unconstitutional bill out of ignorance or lack of experience (though really there is no excuse). I cannot understand why David Mark didn't raise a single objection to the bills many problems especially when they could have written one thaat did achieved the same goal without shredding the constitution.

Senate President David Mark's first duty is to defend the constitution. He swore an oath to do so and he is being paid a huge amount of money to do so. But he has betrayed his oath by championing this bill and that is why I want him out.

I know you're not about to start defending the child molester Yerima so I'll just leave that one aside.

youngies:
@Evil Brain

From your postulations, I can see you are true believer in Democracy.

Things like freedom of association, speech and so on mean a lot to you.

My questions:

1. As a true believer in democracy, don't you know that democracy guarantees that the majority will have their way, while minority their say.

2. Why are you not canvassing for the rights of other minority groups who also have rights to associate and speech. Such groups like armed robbers, p.rostitutes, drug dealers, smugglers, kidnappers, ritualists etc?

3. Why did you fail to demonize the Western democracies who criminalize free practices like bigamy? Don't you think that Bigamy is a cultural thingy?

Thanks for the polite reply.

I already addressed your first point in post #35 above.

As for number 2 I'd like to point out that the rights of all the groups of people you mentioned are guaranteed by the constitution and cannot be revoked.

Even armed robbers, pröstitutes and drug dealers have freedom of speech. They have the right to petition their senators, they have the right to protest, to assemble and associate with whatever groups they want. If charged with a crime, they have the right to fair hearing. Even their freedom of movement cannot be restricted without a full trial a the right to appeal.

Why should gäys be stripped of rights that even convicted urderers still have?

Point 3: I'm not demonizing the west for polygamy (bigamy is a crime, and violates the marriage contract) because I believe that all people have the right follow their own religion and culture.

I'm not demonizing Nigerian christians and Muslims for opposing hömösèxual practices, I'm demonizing them for trying to impose their sharia-like religious rules on the rest of us. I'm neither a christian nor a muslim so why should I have to obey a bunch of religious edicts that I don't believe in? Soon you people will be telling me that I can't drink beer or sleep through sunday morning because it is a sin.

I hope that answers your questions.

brainpulse:
PLease my advice Evil Brain, for God, drop the support, never support what God hates and dislike, not everything must be taken for Joke in life. Your action can have great negative influence on your life. If God can destroy a whole Generation and a Nation for it. Dont dine with God on the wrong side of life.

Your faith (and your god) may be against gäy marriage, but mine makes no judgement about it. Since your religion has no special status over mine in the constitution, your argument is invalid.

I'm curious, what nation did god destroy over hOmösexuality? I hope you don't mean Sodom and Gomorrah, because they were destroyed for failure to show proper hospitality to guests. Neither of the passages in Genesis or Ezekiel mentioned hömösexuälity as a reason for their destruction.

Go and read your bible.

brainpulse:
Pls leave this issue alone. In Democracy majority carries the day. In a society where culture and fundamental principle of man is valued, says it hates the culture that might affect the natural instinct and biological make-up of man.

Clearly, you don't understand what a democracy is.

FYI, while democracy involves majority rule, ir also requires that the majority deos not exercise its power in a tyrannical manner over minorities. That means that whites in America cannot turn the black people into slaves, muslims in Zamfara cannot force christians to convert to Islam, and the PDP cannot abolish other political parties even thought they have the power to do so.

Respect for minority rights is central to the concept of democracy. Nigerian gäys are a minority and we caanot strip them of their constitutional rights. End of story. The rest of you post is just unscientific suppositions and religious stuff so pardon me for ignoring it.

Here's a link to more infromation on minority rights. Please read it and educate yourself.

democracyweb.org/majority/principles.php

senbonzakura_kageyoshi:
my main problem is not so much the bill as why it was passed.Nigerians never learn.each time government wants to do something Nigerians won't like,they use something to distract us.then while we are hailing or shouting,they do what they want without us knowing till it is too late.how many Nigerians will think of man-lover people when they start buying fuel for N150 per litre?nigerians keep falling for the carrot while ignoring the knife coming behind them

Well said. Notice that the government isn't saying a word about slashing politician's jumbo salaries, reducing corruption or cutting all the ridiculous waste from the budget. When they need to save money, the only idea they can think of is removing fuel subsidy and impoverishing the masses. Now with this gäy marriage rubbish, they've managed to both distract the people and weaken some inconvenient constitutional protections in one move. I mean, the whole country is falling apart and look at what we're busy talking about.

When the American government wants to strip their people of their rights, they use "national security" or "think of the children" as an excuse. In Nigeria, all you have to do is mention hömösèxuals and 160million people suddenly become irrational and stûpîd.

donkarly:
@op, i didnt have d time to read your lenghty post,but judging by d topic,u'r talking rubbish.there's nothing wrong about d anti-man-lover marriage bill.d only wrong thing here is same sex union which is not just evil,but alien to our culture.david mark n d senate deserve an applause for this feat.nigeria is not n can never be a haven for homosexuals.

Always hear the other side, even when you don't like or agree with what they're saying. You have to understand that no matter how strong your beliefs are, in a democracy others have the right to disagree with you. One man's poison is another man's meat, we are not all the same.

Otherwise you might as well go and live in North Korea where everyone has the same religion, tradition, lifestyle and even haircut.

Also, I addressed this "gäy marriage is alien to our culture" argument in post #3. Maybe you should read just that and skip the rest if its too long for you.

Ovamboland:
The average Nigerian is brash and intolerant; that is very obvious from this man-lover bill palaver

But I still want to believe we have enough sensible people to defeat this bill and others like it. I don't want to give up on my country.

I'm particularly disappointed with David Mark on this issue. He has always portrayed himself as a sensible, level-headed person who takes his job seriously. Although there have been some worrying signs in the past (ammending the constitution to protect jumbo salaries, turning off the mic when senators say things he doesn't like), I've always had some respect for him. Until now.

It is unthinkable that a four term senator like Mr. Mark is ignorant of all the problems with this bill. That means he knows it goes against the letter and spirit of the constitution and he doesn't care. That, coupled with the powerful office he holds makes him extremely dangerous to Nigeria's democratic future.

I've decided based on his utterances on this bill to use all my little power and influence to make sure he never holds public office again. I'll vote against him, campaign against him, put insulting photoshops of him all over the internet and do whatever I can to end his political career for the good of the country.

I hope that others will join me.

The bill is an attempt to solve a problem that doesn't exist. How many nairalanders have ever met a gäy married couple? How many man-lover marriages have happened in the last 10 years?

Anyone who has done HIV/AIDS work can tell you that there is a huge gäy community in Nigeria probably numbering in millions. Yet all but a small handful of them are happy to remain hidden in the closet. Most of them have not told their loved ones about their sèxual orientation, many of them are in heterosexual marrieges due to family and social pressure. Most of the publicly known gäys were outed by journalists or busybodies against their will. Most fear being sacked, discriminated against, beaten up, or even killed if their status is ever revealed.

Gäy marrying is the last thing on the average nigerian hömösexual's mind. So why is the government talking about it? I think its because they want to distract people from the real problems like security, the impending government bankruptcy/fuel subsidy removal, widespread poverty, unemployment, corruption, and so on.

There is a saying that to keep the people happy, all you need is to give tham bread and circuses. The government can't give us bread (they've stolen all the money for it) so they are providing a circus. And you guys are all falling for it. Its so sad.

The senate made very little attempt to investigate the gäy marriage issue. There are many important questions that are yet to be asked.

What percentage of Nigerians, male and female, are gäy? How many of that number are practicing homosèxuals? How many want to marry their gäy partners? How many gäy marriages have occured in the last 10 years? What evidence is there that it is becoming more common? What makes gäys the way they are? Are they born that way? Do they learn it in boarding school? Could it be related to childhood sèxual abuse? Can hömösexuality be cured? How is gäy marriage harmful to society? Are there any possible benefits? What are the public health implications? How will this bill affect the non-hömösexuals? How will the bill affect HIV/AIDS prevention work?

None of these questions were addressed on the senate floor. Neither the hömösexuals nor people who had real knowledge of them were allowed to speak their part during the public hearing. Instead, they were shouted down while the senators quoted bible.

This is the opposite of what should happen in a democracy. Even unpopular views need to be heard. All aspects of an issue must be explored before a law is passed.

There is also the small matter of collateral damage. I mentioned earlier that this bill doesn't only affect hömösexuals. Anyone who cohabits with a member of the same sèx is at risk of imprisonment.

Imagine if 2 single, heterosexual men sharing a flat to save cost are falsely accused of being gäy. How do they defend themselves? How do you prove that a person is not gäy? How do you prove that a person is? There is no blood test for hömösexuality. There is no exam you can write to prove you're straight. Even having children proves nothing.

What about your right to privacy? Is the government going to start coming into your university hostel at night to check if you're smooching your roommate? The bill makes it illegal for a straight guy like me to write to my senator opposing the bill. It is now dangerous to hug your brother/sister in public.

The bill is so sweeping and and has so many possible unforseen consequences that I cannot understand how any rational person can support it.

Then there's the religious aspect. Much has been made of the fact that hömösexuality is banned in both christianity and islam. Having read both the bible and the koran, I have to agree on this point, the scriptures are unambiguous on this point. But the question again is "so what?"

Neither christianity or islam are state religions, Nigeria is a secular country. Not all Nigerians are christian and muslims, there are a thousand and one religions in this country as well as people who have no religion and all of them have equal rights, even devil worshippers.

It was very sad to see senators quoting bible and koran on the senate floor with no objections raised. The senate president David Mark has several times used his christian faith as justification for this bill, something that should worry all right-thinking Nigerians. It means that if Senator Mark had happened to be a muslim, he would have no objection to passing sharia laws that are binding on non-muslims placing him in the same class as people like Sani Yerima (former Zamfara state governor, now senator and child molester).

This is very a dangerous precedent, we simply cannot allow people to pass laws based on religion. It will damage freedom of religion and destroy the peaceful coexistence between faiths. Any senator could now introduce a bill saying that unwed mothers should be stoned to death for adultery and use exactly the same argument as the anti-gäy marriage bill since this is advocated in both biblical law and sharia.

Nigerians should think very carefully before they knowingly weaken the constitutional provision that prevents fanatical muslims, for instance, from imposing sharia on all of us.

There is also the cultural argument. The bill aims at protecting taditional values and beliefs. Members of the senate claim that hömösexuality is imported from the west and is alien to african culture. This is of course completely false as a simple google search will show, but if even if it were true the question is "so what?"

As we all learned in primary school social studies, culture is not constant, not fixed and is completely non-binding. No one has the right to enforce their cultural beliefs on others. My parents cannot legally force me to have a traditional wedding if I just want to go to registry.

Then there is the completely stûpid idea that our local traditions are inherently good while western ones are bad. There are plently of traditional practices that are now considered pure evil, for example female circumcision, killing of twins, the treatment of widows in parts of the east, burying obas with human heads in the SW, the osu caste system, etc. Then there is the fact that christianity, islam and our entire system of government is imported.

The most obvious problem with this bill is that it is completely unconstitutional. In fact, it violates the 1999 constitution is so many ways that it's shocking to me that it even survived its first reading talk less of being passed.

It has provisions to prevent gäys from forming associations, gathering together, protesting or petitioning the government. It makes witnessing, publicising or promoting gäy marriage a crime. By doing this, it tramples on freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, the right of the people to petition the government to redress greivances and limits open political discourse.

It is important to note that this affects the rights of not only gäys, but all Nigerians. If this becomes law, anyone who forms an HIV/AIDS advocacy group that targets hömösexuals will be liable to a long prison sentence. Even posting on this thread will make you a criminal. This cannot be allowed to happen in a democracy.

There have been a lot of comments recently on this forum about the "anti gäy-marriage bill" most of them being curses or insults directed at gäys and claims of hömösexuality being unafrican. The few voices who have spoken out against the bill have been shoured down and accused of being closet hömösexuals and children of the devil. In order to prevent this forum from becoming an echo-chamber, I have decided to put down all the reasons why this bill is harmful and dangerous, and why it must not become law. Prepare for a long read, because there are many of them.

All you people have missed the most important point. All these women must be stoned to death for adultery according to biblical and koranic law. Sèxual immorality is unafrican and alien to our tradition and culture. We have to act to protect our moral values.

The senate should hurry up and pass a bill.

@OP

Reusing needles between patients or using unsterilized instruments is considered an abomination in modern medicine. While I want to believe that nobody does this, we all know that occasionally, crazy things happen and not all nurses and doctors follow their training. Even in the US, you'll be shocked at the kinds of things some bad egg nurses do.
Also, in a resource-poor environment, its not unusual for health workers to reuse disposables (like syringes) on the same person. Usually, its when the person can't afford to buy up to the number he needs. The practice is frowned upon, but people need to take their drugs to get better so we usually turn a blind eye as long as the health worker makes sure there's no chance that the same syringe will be used for 2 people. You best bet is to buy your own pack of needles and syringes so that you never run short.

As far as surgical instruments are concerned, you can more or less guarantee that they are sterilized. Using unsterilized instuments in surgery will surely lead to a massive wound infection and any surgeon who does so won't last long before people notice that he's killing all his patients.

cashmentor:
No nation can and will ever achieve long lasting success witout God! America fought and worked 2 get 2 where they are now, buh, God is still their number 1 strenght and source of wealth: until they started misbehavin recently wit homosexuality and other religious crimes, And God is gradualy punishing them!
Our Govt. needs 2 work, buh it'll all amount 2 emptiness without positivity, prayer and God!

This makes no sense at all. You sound just like that Iranian mullah who said that scantily dressed women were the reason there are so many earthquakes. It's this type of rètarded thinking that is keeping us in the dark.

Wonderful, another "Jonathan wants to , " article. Talk is cheap, he should start working and save us the BS.

He's talking about reforming the power sector, but there has been zero progress in achieving this in the past year. Most people with inside knowledge of the process have lost faith in it. Everything is being done in such a shoddy and haphazard way. For instance, many of those power plants they are trying to sell don't even have power generation licenses yet, and they expect oyimbos to come and stake hundreds of million of dollars on them. We were actually closer to privatizing the power plants during Obasanjo's tenure than we are now.

I don't know if Jonathan thinks its by mouth that you grow an economy, but thats how he's been behaving. He's not doing anything tangible about the power problem. He hasn't even spoken about reforming transportation or building standard guage railways. He's not doing anything about fixing the judiciary or the police, and he's relying on bribery, appeasement and prayers to solve the security problem.

I don't know how any rational person can look at the FG's performance and expect economic growth. I seriously doubt if Nigeria will become a major economy anytime soon. And if it does happen, it'll be in spite of this government, not because of it.

They'll just start deceiving themselves that its not true/a lie of the devil. "Men of God" get away with all sorts of nonsense because their sheep consider them to be above criticism.

Just look at how people have been defending the child molester Eddie Long.