In January 2014, Nigeria made headlines around the world. This was before Boko Haram became a household name or the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, and before the presidential election delays that currently distress the country. These headlines were in reaction to a bill signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan that prohibits same-sex marriage. Various bills that would broaden existing anti-homosexuality laws⁽²⁾ had been deliberated in the Nigerian legislature since 2006, but it wasn’t until January 2014 that results were finally delivered and Jonathan signed into law the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition (SSMP) Act. In addition to explicitly outlawing same-sex marriage, this new law further criminalised homosexuality with the prohibition of making a “public show” of same-sex relationships, and the imposition of a 10-year sentence on all those who “register, operate, or participate in gay clubs, societies, and organisations,” including supporters of these groups. A year later, Jonathan’s actions are being reviewed as he seeks re-election, while LGBT organisations in Nigeria struggle to overturn the law and find a balance between discretion and effective advocacy for gays.

Heightened persecution

Prior to the SSMP Act, convictions for homosexuality were rare in the south of the country and only occasional in the north.⁽³⁾ Attention, both legal and public, is often greater on gay men rather than lesbians, bisexuals, or transgender persons. Although there have not been any clear reports of the death sentence officially being carried out as a penalty for homosexuality under Sharia law in Nigeria, The New York Times reports that the signing of the SSMP Act sparked unprecedented violence against gays in Nigeria, including shocking vigilante attacks and extrajudicial punishments:

A mob attacked gay people in a neighborhood in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, dragging young men from their homes, beating them with nail-studded clubs and whips, and shouting that they were “cleansing the community” of gays… One victim was beaten nearly to death… Afterward, the mob of about 50 young men dragged four of the victims to a nearby police station, where the police further beat and insulted them…⁽⁴⁾

The initial wave of media interest has abated, but stories on homophobic violence in Nigeria continued to surface throughout 2014. In February, three men were arrested on Valentine’s Day in Ogun State. In June, The Economist ran a story about a Nigerian man who was facing “attacks, abuse, arrests and extortion”, in addition to increasing difficulties in accessing his HIV medication.⁽⁵⁾ In September, The New York Times reported on Nigerian asylees fleeing for health and safety. In November, 25 men were reported to have been arrested in Kebbi State on suspicion of being gay. Lastly, in January 2015, almost exactly a year after the law was signed, 12 men were arrested during a private party in Kano, accused of holding a gay wedding.

Regional context

Forbidden love: In both West Africa and greater Sub-Saharan Africa, most countries outlaw homosexuality.

Data source: ‘Making love a crime: Criminalisation of same-sex conduct in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Amnesty International

The majority of African countries have laws that criminalise homosexuality.⁽⁶⁾ Those that don’t are typically silent on the issue. South Africa is the only country on the continent that offers legal protection for gays, most notably, allowing same-sex marriages. Positive developments, in terms of decriminalisation, have been seen in such countries as Cape Verde and Malawi. Uganda, on the other hand, passed a heightened ban on homosexuality in February 2014, only to have it repealed on a procedural technicality six months later.

Virtually all of the laws against gays in Africa are holdovers from the colonial era.⁽⁷⁾ In West Africa, as with most of the continent, dusty colonial-era penal codes are, perhaps unsurprisingly, not a cultural touchstone for local sentiments. Attitudes about sex can transcend both laws and national borders in the region. For example, Côte d’Ivoire, where homosexuality is not criminalised, has been hailed as a gay El Dorado, but it has also seen its leading LGBT advocacy group headquarters extensively vandalised and trashed.⁽⁸⁾ In general, though, such open disputes are uncommon, and for the most part, homosexuality is patently taboo in West Africa. In Nigeria, however, groups are managing implementation of a refreshed law, discussing its merits in light of an election campaign and actively combatting it in courts. In fact, while President Jonathan himself usually avoids public commentary on LGBT issues, the heat of his re-election campaign has changed that. Proudly referencing the anti-gay legislation that he passed, Jonathan recently contended that his opponent made a secret pact with Western nations to allow same-sex marriage in Nigeria in return for political support.⁽⁹⁾

Diaspora dialogue

The SSMP Act is controversial not only in Nigeria, but also among its LGBT diaspora. Because the local LGBT community in Nigeria faces persecution when speaking out, the Nigerian gay diaspora has been especially vocal in its criticism of the SSMP Act. Shortly after it passed, there were protests at the Nigerian consulates in New York and London, which are home to some of the largest Nigerian diaspora communities. In December 2014, at a media event in New York, Nigerian LGBT advocate Bisi Alimi spoke about the challenges and successes of the Nigerian gay community since the passing of the law. Although he is currently based in London, he remains actively involved in Nigerian LGBT issues. He says that the law has sparked an increase in incidences of aggressive homophobia continuing beyond the initial period of Western media interest, but the law has also brought the larger conversation to moderates who now say the public should not bother interfering in the personal lives of others.⁽¹⁰⁾ Alimi says that the law has injected homosexuality into everyday conversation, especially as Jonathan seeks another term as president.⁽¹¹⁾ An increasing number of Nigerians who perhaps before had been silent bystanders are now rejecting aggressive homophobia and either saying that they don’t care or it should not be an issue.⁽¹²⁾

So while Jonathan perhaps wanted to use the law to ban homosexuality, he has actually succeeded in making it a topic of conversation for all. To continue this conversation one year after the passage of the SSMP Act, Nigerians in New York organised a special public screening of Veil of Silence. This documentary features interviews with gay Nigerian activists, who share stories of their struggles. Although filmed before the law was enacted, Jonathan’s signing of the law has increased the profile of the documentary.

Moving forward in Nigeria

Kelechi Ugoh is Director of Programs for Initiative for Improved Male Health, an organisation that supports men who have sex with men (MSM) in several cities in Nigeria. When interviewed for this article, he said that after the law was passed, his organisation and others had to undergo extensive rebranding to comply with the law, editing everything from marketing materials to mission statements. They erased all specific mention of homosexuality and instead focused more generally on human rights and sexual health.

The umbrella group Coalition for the Defense of Sexual Rights in Nigeria (CDSRN), of which Ugoh’s group is a part, has been trying to repeal the SSMP Act through the courts. The timeline for such a strategy, or even its chances for success, are hard to gauge, as there is little precedence. The group says it has political allies on the Nigerian Human Rights Commission, a branch of the government, so the struggle certainly has hope.

Ugoh describes the strategy going forward as two-fold: legal attacks for the long term, and continued support for communities in the meantime. He and his supporters are actively taking part in a thoughtful legal strategy to dismantle the law. They are also continuing to support MSM through their programmes, even if they are barred from advertising their services as they would like. They offer HIV/AIDS testing, counselling and treatment, in addition to psycho-social and legal advice for MSM.

CDSRN, for its part, has called on international partners to refrain from public denouncements of Nigerian leaders, which may play into the narrative that homosexuality is a foreign influence. They also reject calls for threats of economic sanctions or aid cuts. Instead, CDSRN recommends a strategy of “firm but quiet diplomatic action” directly with Nigerian decision makers, along with support for locals working on the ground in Nigeria. Nigerian activists are focused on educating and informing the population regarding sexual orientation issues, seeking to illustrate the impact of the law on ordinary people and to shift the framework of the conversation from sex to love. They are also training policy makers and media outlets.⁽¹³⁾

One particularly successful strategy, said Alimi when interviewed, has been the use of blogs to deliver testimonials. This online medium provides the ideal combination of anonymity, so that identities can be protected for safety reasons, and effective story-telling that lets LGBT Nigerians share their experiences in a humanising way. The anonymous voices of bloggers can be coupled with faces from the diaspora to weave together a narrative that extinguishes exaggerated homophobic vilifications.

Alimi is confident that, in due course, the SSMP Act will be repealed, regardless of the outcome of the delayed presidential election. Ugoh also shares relatively openly and frankly that his organisation primarily serves MSM, an admission which in itself flies in the face of the SSMP Act. The law may have made life more difficult and dangerous, but it has not changed gay leaders’ dedication to expanding the scope of human rights in Nigeria.

Written by Written by Philip Rodenbough ⁽¹⁾

Notes:

(1) By Philip Rodenbough. Contact Philip through Consultancy Africa Intelligence’s South African office ( officesa@consultancyafrica.com). This paper was developed with the assistance of Charmaine Pretorius and Karin Alexander. Edited by Liezl Stretton. Web Publications Manager: Claire Furphy.
(2) Homosexuality has been effectively illegal in Nigeria since colonial times. The country’s official criminal code allows for up to 14 years imprisonment for “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature.” In 2000 and 2001, the northern states in Nigeria adopted Sharia law – an Islamic code of conduct based on the Quran – under which homosexuality can be punished by death. See Itaborahy, L.P. and Zhu, J., ‘State-sponsored homophobia: A world survey of laws: Criminalisation, protection and recognition of same-sex love’, International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association, 9th Edition, May 2014, http://ilga.org; ‘This alien legacy: The origins of “sodomy” laws in British colonialism’, Human Rights Watch, 17 December 2008, http://www.hrw.org; Johnson, T. and Sergie, M.A., ‘Islam: Governing under Sharia’, The Council on Foreign Relations, 25 July 2014, http://www.cfr.org.
(3) Nossiter, A., ‘Nigeria tries to “sanitize” itself of gays’, New York Times, 8 February 2014, http://www.nytimes.com.
(4) Nossiter, A., ‘Mob attacks more than a dozen gay men in Nigeria’s capital’, The New York Times, 15 February 2014, http://www.nytimes.com.
(5) ‘Almost nobody wants to help: Homosexuals with HIV/AIDS are struggling to survive’, The Economist, 7 June 2014, http://www.economist.com.
(6) Itaborahy, L.P. and Zhu, J., ‘State-sponsored homophobia: A world survey of laws: Criminalisation, protection and recognition of same-sex love’, International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association, May 2014, http://ilga.org.
(7) ‘This alien legacy: The origins of “sodomy” laws in British colonialism’, Human Rights Watch, 17 December 2008, http://www.hrw.org.
(8) Valenza, A., ‘Ivory Coast LGBT rights activist dreams of gay pride’, ILGA, 27 September 2011, http://ilga.org; ‘Côte d’Ivoire: Activists in hiding after wave of homophobic attacks’, Amnesty International, 29 January 2014, http://www.amnesty.org.
(9) Feder, J. L., ‘Nigerian president accuses ppponent of pledging to legalize same-sex marriage’, BuzzFeed, 12 March 2015, http://www.buzzfeed.com.
(10) Personal communication, Alimi, B., Social Commentator, 9 February 2015.
(11) Ibid.
(12) Togan, L., ‘Why I changed my mind on gay people’, YNaija: The Internet Newspaper for Young Nigerians, 3 February 2015, http://ynaija.com.
(13) Personal communication, Alimi, B., Social Commentator, 9 February 2015.