₦airaland Forum

mtcheeew...sahara reporter big APC lie lie machine

Please nairalanders who is the worst dressed Governor in Nigeria.

obi's giant strides speaks volume in anambra..he is a demi god...he demystifed politics and give it human face...obiano I believe will find the shoe big. but for now he is proving worthy successor

Buhari should beta leave London before every body go missing..

nko to wa ni ikpu oke lo wa ni ikpu ngwere. sumo ohu ka nwanne gi jo koo...omoge joo ooo...amu siri m ike

By Chimamanda Adichie
I will call him Sochukwuma. A thin, smiling boy who
liked to play with us girls at the university primary
school in Nsukka. We were young. We knew he was
different, we said, ‘he’s not like the other boys.’ But his
was a benign and unquestioned difference; it was
simply what it was. We did not have a name for him.
We did not know the word ‘gay.’ He was Sochukwuma
and he was friendly and he played oga so well that his
side always won.
In secondary school, some boys in his class tried to
throw Sochukwuma off a second floor balcony. They
were strapping teenagers who had learned to notice,
and fear, difference. They had a name for him. Homo.
They mocked him because his hips swayed when he
walked and his hands fluttered when he spoke. He
brushed away their taunts, silently, sometimes grinning
an uncomfortable grin. He must have wished that he
could be what they wanted him to be. I imagine now
how helplessly lonely he must have felt. The boys often
asked, “Why can’t he just be like everyone else?”
Possible answers to that question include ‘because he
is abnormal,’ ‘because he is a sinner, ‘because he
chose the lifestyle.’ But the truest answer is ‘We don’t
know.’ There is humility and humanity in accepting that
there are things we simply don’t know. At the age of 8,
Sochukwuma was obviously different. It was not about
sex, because it could not possibly have been – his
hormones were of course not yet fully formed – but it
was an awareness of himself, and other children’s
awareness of him, as different. He could not have
‘chosen the lifestyle’ because he was too young to do
so. And why would he – or anybody – choose to be
homosexual in a world that makes life so difficult for
homosexuals?
The new law that criminalizes homosexuality is popular
among Nigerians. But it shows a failure of our
democracy, because the mark of a true democracy is
not in the rule of its majority but in the protection of its
minority – otherwise mob justice would be considered
democratic. The law is also unconstitutional,
ambiguous, and a strange priority in a country with so
many real problems. Above all else, however, it is
unjust. Even if this was not a country of abysmal
electricity supply where university graduates are barely
literate and people die of easily-treatable causes and
Boko Haram commits casual mass murders, this law
would still be unjust. We cannot be a just society
unless we are able to accommodate benign difference,
accept benign difference, live and let live. We may not
understand homosexuality, we may find it personally
abhorrent but our response cannot be to criminalize it.
A crime is a crime for a reason. A crime has victims. A
crime harms society. On what basis is homosexuality a
crime? Adults do no harm to society in how they love
and whom they love. This is a law that will not prevent
crime, but will, instead, lead to crimes of violence: there
are already, in different parts of Nigeria, attacks on
people ‘suspected’ of being gay. Ours is a society
where men are openly affectionate with one another.
Men hold hands. Men hug each other. Shall we now
arrest friends who share a hotel room, or who walk side
by side? How do we determine the clunky expressions
in the law – ‘mutually beneficial,’ ‘directly or indirectly?’
Many Nigerians support the law because they believe
the Bible condemns homosexuality. The Bible can be a
basis for how we choose to live our personal lives, but
it cannot be a basis for the laws we pass, not only
because the holy books of different religions do not
have equal significance for all Nigerians but also
because the holy books are read differently by different
people. The Bible, for example, also condemns
fornication and adultery and divorce, but they are not
crimes.
For supporters of the law, there seems to be something
about homosexuality that sets it apart. A sense that it
is not ‘normal.’ If we are part of a majority group, we
tend to think others in minority groups are abnormal,
not because they have done anything wrong, but
because we have defined normal to be what we are and
since they are not like us, then they are abnormal.
Supporters of the law want a certain semblance of
human homogeneity. But we cannot legislate into
existence a world that does not exist: the truth of our
human condition is that we are a diverse, multi-faceted
species. The measure of our humanity lies, in part, in
how we think of those different from us. We cannot –
should not – have empathy only for people who are
like us.
Some supporters of the law have asked – what is next,
a marriage between a man and a dog?’ Or ‘have you
seen animals being gay?’ (Actually, studies show that
there is homosexual behavior in many species of
animals.) But, quite simply, people are not dogs, and to
accept the premise – that a homosexual is comparable
to an animal – is inhumane. We cannot reduce the
humanity of our fellow men and women because of
how and who they love. Some animals eat their own
kind, others desert their young. Shall we follow those
examples, too?
Other supporters suggest that gay men sexually abuse
little boys. But pedophilia and homosexuality are two
very different things. There are men who abuse little
girls, and women who abuse little boys, and we do not
presume that they do it because they are
heterosexuals. Child molestation is an ugly crime that
is committed by both straight and gay adults (this is
why it is a crime: children, by virtue of being non-adults,
require protection and are unable to give sexual
consent).
There has also been some nationalist posturing among
supporters of the law. Homosexuality is ‘unafrican,’
they say, and we will not become like the west. The
west is not exactly a homosexual haven; acts of
discrimination against homosexuals are not uncommon
in the US and Europe. But it is the idea of
‘unafricanness’ that is truly insidious. Sochukwuma
was born of Igbo parents and had Igbo grandparents
and Igbo great-grandparents. He was born a person
who would romantically love other men. Many
Nigerians know somebody like him. The boy who
behaved like a girl. The girl who behaved like a boy.
The effeminate man. The unusual woman. These were
people we knew, people like us, born and raised on
African soil. How then are they ‘unafrican?’
If anything, it is the passage of the law itself that is
‘unafrican.’ It goes against the values of tolerance and
‘live and let live’ that are part of many African cultures.
(In 1970s Igboland, Area Scatter was a popular
musician, a man who dressed like a woman, wore
makeup, plaited his hair. We don’t know if he was gay
– I think he was – but if he performed today, he could
conceivably be sentenced to fourteen years in prison.
For being who he is.) And it is informed not by a home-
grown debate but by a cynically borrowed one: we
turned on CNN and heard western countries debating
‘same sex marriage’ and we decided that we, too,
would pass a law banning same sex marriage. Where,
in Nigeria, whose constitution defines marriage as
being between a man and a woman, has any
homosexual asked for same-sex marriage?
This is an unjust law. It should be repealed. Throughout
history, many inhumane laws have been passed, and
have subsequently been repealed. Barack Obama, for
example, would not be here today had his parents
obeyed American laws that criminalized marriage
between blacks and whites.
READ: Eseoghene Ohwojeheri: [Rejoinder]
Chimamanda, Are Our Differences Not Enough
Already?
READ: Dave Abbah: Why The Nigerian Anti-Gay Law
Will Lead To The Rise And Acceptance Of Gay Relations
An acquaintance recently asked me, ‘if you support
gays, how would you have been born?’ Of course, there
were gay Nigerians when I was conceived. Gay people
have existed as long as humans have existed. They
have always been a small percentage of the human
population. We don’t know why. What matters is this:
Sochukwuma is a Nigerian and his existence is not a
crime.
- Award winning writer, Chimamanda Adichie, wrote
this piece ex[truncated by WhatsApp]

Jonathan caused it..
he should av provide enabling environment so that d fada will not travel

sorry bro Ur story terrible... ain't homophobic

cheap asses

Chelsea hot dry gin

1973,,,myopic thinkin... Gayism z more wot dey gav as rizn here... If u ever sleep in d same room wt a gay u wil know dt d spirit pursueing gay z disastrous....

Dat boy has aura of greatness... I know he do win.... Congrt edu nwa

Hmmmm....this Igbo people , only God knows what their country would have looked like if they have gotten Biafra.. So so industrious and making Nigeria proud

Keshi win or loose ur job...bored match

Who dey wan endorse befor?... Abi u wan mak efcc catch dem one by one

Ok i wil tel oda nairalanders...oya anoda story!!!

2015 politic... Ajumose and APC

Naija of wonders

Am servin in osun...no opon imo here...just distributed to less than 100 students in d whole state..

Tolexander: i would have gone into entering a pair of trousers of argument with you but your handle detered me!

But just to clear the controversy and bring you into the gathering of knowledge.

'opon imo is a tab given to the secondary pupils in osun state. It has all the textbooks needed by this pupils installed on it so as to save them from carrying the textbooks around and also the government on purchase textbooks annually to distribute freely to them.

'opon imo' has no internet connection to download games, porn, music, etc which may distract the attention of these pupils like the laptop Obi is giving out.

Jonathan bought d eclipz...obj use am setle him for 2015..

koonbey: What a Bullet!!

I bet u naija politicians av bribed dz eclips dey thought it z comin to kil them...here i am z damn suny hot

Both are for kids

All na same...it bestow honour

Osun have received

That you are a gay doesnt mean u are not a christian..both of them are two different things...but christianity demand walking out of sin and not living in sin...so u can be battling with ur weakness while servin ur God..but how fast cos nbody knw wen d end wil come...if not gayism, we all av one sin or the other we engage on.

Pdp my foot...bounch of idiots lookin for treasure to loot...both factions should kiss hell...even apc z a faction of pdp cos de r al old wines...let dz country go into pieces

bushwailo: I'm not surprised.
Very soon they will come out with a letter from the Pope, asking Anambra Catholics to vote for a certain candidate.

With Umeh visiting Ojukwu's grave he might come out with something Ojukwu said from the dead.

You might hear stories of how some parties are Yoruba party or Hausa Party or MASSOB Party.

Or stories about mobilizing another Biafran War

u are just an idiot..wot concerns ur write up wit d issues at hand...mumu

Who knws, d woman may be their biology teacher and was teachin them reproduction and guy was busy imaginin, aft class he decided to practicalise...absurd

Am not surprise, this is a typical Nigerian society...they have sectionalised sin...what is the diference between this pastor and a gay, corupt politician, a robber, kidnapper...only that he perform his with style

sincerenigerian: You have so much agression, rage, and anger in you. Take a chill pill and lay low. I wouldn't be surprised if you have lived all your life in Lagos or any Southwestern states. Soludo becoming a Governor is not guaranteed yet. Were you the one that diagnosed Fashola with cancer? Why some of you love courting enemies here and there? You hate Yorubas so much to the extent that you have forgotten they sheltered you and gave Igbos help after the civil war. If Yorubas are your enemies, what about the Hausas? Show us which one of the two tribes is your friend. You don't bite the hands that feed you.

you are bereft of statistics..who helped who....go and sleep onuku

No dif btw APC and PDP..they are all old wine in new botle....shameless tinz!