Senator David Mark

From Kunle Akogun in Abuja

The overriding determination of most Nigerian senators to ensure that the malaise of same-sex marriage otherwise called gay marriage does not take any root in the Nigerian society, propelled the overwhelming support which the bill proposed to prohibit the practice, scaled through the second reading yesterday at the Senate. From indications, the days of the practice appear numbered, given the massive support it received.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Domingo Obende (PDP, Edo) and 13 others would have been shot down by Senator Ita Enang (PDP, Akwa Ibom) who argued that the criminal code had already criminalised gay marriage but for the intervention of Senate President David Mark who allowed the bill to proceed.

Mark's position was that the bill should be allowed to go through the second reading and people who have objections against it could table it at that stage.

However, after a very exhaustive debate, the bill passed the second reading and committed to the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, as well as the Committees on Health and Interior for further legislative fine-tuning.

In his lead debate, Obende observed that same sex marriage could not be allowed on both moral and religious grounds, noting that, “Even the Muslim religion forbids it, Christianity forbids it and the African traditional religion forbids it.”

He argued that same sex marriage should not be allowed because it would lead to the breakdown of the society.

While defining marriage as an institution where man and woman are joined in a special kind of social and legal dependence for the purpose of founding and maintaining family, Obende noted that by admitting homosexual and lesbian relationship to the privilege of the married state, “we would be devaluing and weakening the duties and the sense of obligation that marriage entails”.

According to him, “No same-sex marriage is best. The problem associated with it causes more sexually transmitted diseases, more childless relationships, more mental health problems and other major social problems, especially deprivation at old age.”

Other senators who supported the bill included Senators Victor Lar (PDP, Plateau), George Thompson Sekibo (PDP, Rivers), Ajayi Boroffice (LP, Ondo), Gbenga Kaka (ACN, Ogun), Emmanuel Bwacha (PDP, Taraba) and Remi Tinubu (ACN, Lagos).

In his contribution, Lar noted that from the religious point of view same sex was ungodly and satanic and desecrates the institution of marriage as ordained by God. He said the whole essence of marriage as ordained by God was for procreation and wondered that if same sex was allowed who would feel the world tomorrow and who would replace them in the future as senators?
“Many believe that same-sex marriage is a practice that is foreign to Nigeria and only being forced on the society by those who feel that Nigeria must copy everything from abroad.”

The Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, led by former Anglican Primate, Very Rev Peter Jasper Akinola, had led a crusade against the practice when the Anglican Church in Britain and United States of America had seemingly endorsed it by consecrating gay bishops and priests in the church.

But Akinola had launched a ferocious campaign against it by mobilising West and East African Bishops to boycott the Lambeth Conference in England.

His successor, Rt Rev Nicholas Okoh, recently re-echoed the campaign against same sex marriage, stressing that it was never what God planned for the sacred and honourable institution of marriage. 

But reprehensible as the practice is in several countries, some 10 countries, in the last 10 years, have begun allowing same-sex couples to marry nationwide. Some of such countries include Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa and Sweden. Same-sex marriages are also performed and recognised in Mexico City and parts of US.

Some countries which have not quite endorsed the practice however accept those who have undertaken gay marriages from other jurisdictions. Some of such countries include Israel, the Caribbean countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, parts of the US and all states of Mexico.

Those who argue in favour of the practice insist that it is an affirmation of the rights of the “couple”, and that denying them the privilege of marrying is tantamount to denying them their basic rights, as well as constituting discrimination.

“The controversy is often over whether gay couples should be allowed to enter into marriage, be required to use a different status (such as a civil union, which either grant equal rights as marriage or limited rights in comparison to marriage), or not have any such rights. A related issue is whether the term marriage should be applied,” they argued.

Although the practice is not yet very rampant in Nigeria, it is a known fact that the community of gay practitioners is growing in the country, even though social, moral, cultural and religious ethos are strongly opposed to it.