The following was written by Nigerian Charter Team member, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo

The past year in Africa has witnessed a surge in intolerance towards Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender individuals, compared to developments in Europe where Russia stole the spotlight as the vanguard of discriminations against a minority. But, let’s go back to the continent I come from.

In Africa we are quick to cite morality, culture and traditions when it comes to issues of sex and marriage. This can be traced to the communal nature of Africans right from ab initio, where individuals came together to form communities with different laws that govern them. These laws helped to form their beliefs, traditions and culture. The only problem there is that these beliefs, cultures and tradition s are so rigid that it becomes a chain, enslaving communities into doin

Three men (some reports say four) suspected of being gay have reportedly been paraded naked in public and beaten by a mob in Nigeria.

g the same things over and over again. There is no room for thinking outside the box and change is far-fetched as individuals who choose to opt out from this way of life are regarded as outcastes, discriminated against, and in many extreme cases, murdered for “defiling the land”, or “offending the gods”.

It amuses me when people refer to morality as a reason for discriminating against certain other people, to the extent of justifying the murder of such people. They forget that one’s idea of morality would certainly differ from another person’s as our ideas of morality are influenced by different factors and therefore, can never be the same. But the Legislators at the Nigerian National Assembly never thought of that before signing various Bills into Law that has encouraged the proliferation of jungle-justice in the country, as mischief makers can accuse someone of being gay, and he/she is lynched immediately. Sometimes with law enforcement agents as their backup. Obviously the Nigerian Lawmakers believe every Nigerian is either a Christian or a Muslim and because it is condemned in the holy books of these two religions, they decided to assume the role of God and Allah and came up with these Satanic laws contrary to what, as a Christian, I think God would have done. In my opinion, they have failed to acknowledge and protect the rights of the Minority once again as has been continuously decried by Queer Alliance Nigeria a group dedicated to changing the perception of Nigerians on LGBTs.

I cringed and bowed my head in shame when I read the statements of renowned Christian leaders, even the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria, C.A.N, supporting this evil and dangerous Law by the National Assembly. In a fragile environment such as Nigeria that is already divided along religious and ethnic lines, with its high rate of illiteracy and consequent intolerance, the Nigerian Legislature decided to give the masses another excuse to go at each other. An example of this situation is that of a man who was mobbed  in Delta State, Nigeria late March 2013 because he had breasts like that of a woman. He was stripped naked to be lynched by the mob who thought it was “abnormal”, only for them to discover he had multiple genitals. One can imagine the frenzy that ran through the illiterate mob to spill an innocent man’s blood because he was deemed “abnormal”. And there would have been Muslims and Christians watching, encouraging and supporting such a heinous crime.

In a chain reaction, and probably emboldened by the passage of the discriminatory law in Nigeria, the government of Uganda passed a bill that would sentence LGBTs to life in prison if found out. Although the bill is yet to be passed into law due to some technicalities, LGBTs and activists have always come under serious persecution in this “God-fearing Nation” (according to the MP behind the bill, David Bahati), even as a popular activist was targeted and killed in 2011.

South Africa has continued to see a sharp increase in Corrective Rape of men and women who are gay, or even merely on suspicion, as reported here in the New York Times of July 2013. Where is the morality in all these barbaric actions against people who chose to be different? If it is “immoral” or “abnormal” for one to be of another sexual orientation, is it then “moral” or “normal” to discriminate against, abuse and even kill such a person? The Christian holy book says “Do to others what you want them to do to you”, while the Hadith, which is a collection of the oral and written accounts of Muhammad recounts the prophet saying “That which you want for mankind, seek for yourself”.

These are able-bodied men and women who can contribute to the development of their societies in one way or the other, and as long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others or impose themselves on others (as “straight” people are doing now), I believe they should be treated equally like every other person. It is my opinion that religious leaders in Nigeria should have stopped the legislature from meddling in what I deem a purely religious issue, and encouraged them to focus more on the economic and security issues plaguing the country. These people have set a terrible precedent that will affect religious freedom in Nigeria in the long run.

The almighty Nigerian social media self-styled activists kept mum in the face of this discrimination against LGBTs, but the moment the Nigerian Senate proposed a 7-year jail term for social media critics, all hell was let loose. Different Hashtags and op-eds were flying all over. Secret meetings were being held to organize protests against freedom of speech and individual liberty! But same people distanced themselves from the fact that the rights of a sexual “minority” were being taken away from them by the Legislature. When Men Play God!

While Students For Liberty’s Vice President, Clark Ruper shows here  the correlation between Community and Individuality, I reiterate in this article  that we need to do away with any part of our culture or religion that prohibits individual freedom of choice and development. I hope we also learn to stand up for others, in our quest for a free Africa.