Widespread misinformation about an EU partnership pact has generated further hostility towards Nigeria’s LGBT community since Africa’s most-populous nation signed up to it last month. The Samoa Agreement between the EU and 79 countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific covers issues related to human rights, democracy and governance, peace and security, human and social development, sustainable economic growth, development, environmental sustainability and climate change, plus concerns about migration and mobility.
The fact that the 403-page document makes no mention of LGBT rights or same-sex relationships has done nothing to stem a growing – and mistaken – belief among many Nigerians that the very act of signing the pact has served to legalise same-sex relationships in the West African state.
Last week, an article in Nigeria’s Daily Trust newspaper wrongly asserted that by signing the Samoa Agreement developing nations were required to recognise LGBT rights as a precondition “for getting financial and other support from advanced societies”.
Additionally, Nigeria’s Catholic bishops have been calling for changes, claiming the pact would force African nations to adopt policies on sexuality, abortion and gender contrary to their social, cultural and religious values. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria cautioned that regardless of what attractive benefits the pact might offer, it contained “hidden ideologies” that were contrary to Nigerian values and a threat to national sovereignty. In their view, the agreement “gives international law status to sexual orientation and gender identity, comprehensive sexuality education, and abortion through its prolific reference to gender approaches and the phrase ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights'”. Stressing their concern about how signatories might interpret such concepts, the bishops insisted that “gender” is no longer “an innocent term”.
Under Nigeria’s current legislation, now a decade old, same-sex couples face up to 14 years in prison. In making clear that it would never compromise its anti-LGBT laws, the government said that it signed the Samoa Agreement to boost the country’s economic development.
Notwithstanding these assurances, opposition supporters have used the false story that is now trending across social media to attack the government and to focus public anger on volatile issues of religion, ethnicity and politics. It is in this context that President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima, both Muslims, have been accused of betraying their religion.
