Okotie, Buhari and same-sex law 

SEVERAL national newspapers recently published a report which also went viral on the social media.

In it, Fresh Democratic Party (FRESH) Chairman and former presidential candidate, Rev. Chris Okotie cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari against reversing Nigeria’s anti-gay legislation, which former President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law after an easy passage by the seventh National Assembly, in the twilight of his administration.

Nigeria is the 38th African nation to have signed such law. Nigerians publicly applauded ex-President Jonathan when he signed the bill into law. This was probably the one great act of the Jonathan-led government.

In the commentary, Rev. Okotie exposed the lurking danger of the trend, by making a public admonition to the Buhari-led government to resist external pressures from the western and international community to go against the grain of long-held cultural values and the basic building blocks of family and societal institutions. The U.S. and major western nations attempt to leverage on threats of economic strangulation to force a reversal of the same-sex Act to assuage the pleasure and spread the tentacles of their aberration to nations they perceive as economic slaves.

But the pastor-politician minced no words in connecting the insidiousness of same-sex marriage to the anti-Christ and ‘cult of the beast’. For those who are not versed in Christian theology, the significance of that claim may be lost.

So what makes the spirited enforcement and global acceptance of same-sex marriages a pressing ingredient in the U.S.-UK foreign policy, if not deceit? The American threat to sanction nations opposed to same-sex union smacks of arrogance.

As Rev. Okotie said, this ‘cult of the beast’ is a clamour being fuelled by a minority to put the yearnings of self-indulgence over commonsense. It is an act of defiance against God as the world prepares for the new world order. The cult manifests itself in governance through cultism, corruption and rituals. Same-sex marriage challenges the natural reproductive process; it has been a major avenue for the spread of disease, the degeneration of some of the most long-held traditions, societal and family structures and biological reality.

Traditionally, and even according to the American dictionary, marriage describes a union between a man and a woman, and is instituted according to the generally accepted customs of each nation or group: This is globally accepted, and that is why even co-habitation outside wedlock of couples was frowned at until western cultures made them attractive and acceptable. Now, they want to do same with same-sex marriage.

To make same sex unions globally accepted as traditional man-woman marriages, it has been moved from being a civil partnership into full-fledged marital unions. These First World nations are attempting to rewrite long-held definitions to suit their weird concepts. This is a deliberate action with pre-determined intent to subvert the will of God and ridicule the sacred word of holy writ.

So strong is the need to draft in the rest of the comity of nations behind this anomalous marital phenomenon that even some ministers in Christendom have been co-opted by openly endorsing an act that is at odds with the very tenets of the faith they claim to profess. This is hypocritical.

The march towards actualising the new world order, where nation sovereignty is surrendered to the control of a super-power is in the making. Characteristically, America, with political over-reach and strong media power, threw up the dust of the gay issue to lure economically weak nations to this strange philosophy.

This is what makes the global recognition and enforcement of gay marriages a landmark event in history. But like most modern trends championed by the liberal American leadership, the gay rights movement is a bandwagon and her mentality action which the global community is embracing without recourse to its far-reaching implications.

The problem with politicians is that they fail to see the far-reaching implications of their actions. The current socio-pandemia which western nations face today, whether it is terrorism, drug abuse, arms proliferation, pornography, child abuse, sex slaves, etc, are proof of this. This is even worse when those implications carry a spiritual undertone, as Rev. Okotie’s commentary adduces. The West’s narrow view blinds them to the fact that, when the ugly side of gay rights begins to manifest, it will breed its own new set of crimes like homosexual rape and more.

The anti-gay law in Nigeria states that gays and lesbians cannot ‘publicly’ display their ‘sexual preference’: “Any person, who registers, operates or participates in gay clubs, societies and organisations or directly or indirectly makes public show of same-sex amorous relationship in Nigeria commits an offence and shall each be liable on conviction to a term of 10 years in prison”. Public displays of gay relationships were never a part of the country’s public life. Prior to the promulgation of this Act, even the Nigerian constitution inherited from Britain made sodomy illegal in this country. This latest law just made it more explicit.

Do we hate homosexuals and lesbians? No, but as a nation which still hold as true, time-tested values that shape decency and decorum in society. We must therefore discern and resist any trend, culture or belief which runs counter to our traditions, culture and religious belief.

So as Rev. Okotie admonished, President Buhari must be rest-assured that the nation is fully behind him on this stand, irrespective of the subtle threat of the U.S. and western nations to turn his hand. Their fractured and permissive societal structures are not examples worthy of emulation. If the West does not wish to offer their support as development partners, they must be aware that Nigeria is not tied to their apron strings and our great nation reserves the right to approach other nations for support in its fight to safeguard its future, secure its geographic space and sovereignty, improve its economic fortunes and sustain its moral health.

•Elakhe, a Futuring, Trend and Security/Emergency Evacuation Consultant, wrote from Lagos State.