About gay rights

Reading the Dutch news, I see a lot of discussion going on about the Dutch official delegation for the winter Olympics in Russia. Many people say sending the king, the queen and the prime minister is too much. They refer to the human rights situation, especially regarding gay people in Russia. And to the fact that many other countries don’t send their political leaders. (The US is sending three homosexual ex-Olympic athletes, quite a cool statement!)

In the same week, President Goodluck Jonathan signed a new Nigerian law. This law makes homosexuality illegal. People who break this new law risk up to 14 years in prison. Supporting gay communities can bring you to prison for 10 years. (Just compare, raping a woman or a child can make you end up in prison for maximum 7 years). In northern Nigeria, it is even worse and gay people even risk the death penalty.

I think the consequences of this law can be so huge. Nigeria has the second population of HIV+ people in the world (about 4% of the population, 3.4 million people). Among men having sex with men, the percentage of HIV+ people is estimated on 17%. What will a law like this mean for AIDS prevention? The more illegal it is, the more difficult it is to reach the people I would say.

Being Dutch, it is hard to imagine that this kind of laws make it through the parliament. What is maybe the worst part for me is that the vast majority of the Nigerian population seems to agree with this new law. Most people are very clear that they want homosexuality to be illegal. Even the most liberal people I know here say they want homosexuality to be forbidden.

I am in doubt now. At the one hand, gay rights are human rights and we have to fight for human rights. At the same time, who are we as Europeans to tell the Africans what to do? Can you imagine a group of Nigerians coming to the Netherlands to tell us what to do? Let’s say they will tell us we are not allowed to have homes for the elderly and children should take their parents in their house, care for them, pay everything… I am sure our politicians and many Dutch people will ask what a Nigerian has to say about the way we treat our old people.

If we want to change this law, I believe we have to try to convince the Nigerians, not their politicians. I have discussions once in a while where I explain how things work in the Netherlands and how I look at things. Some people are not ready to listen, but with others you can discuss. Maybe this is a beginning.

I saw the new Pope doing so many great things in 2013. Maybe he can also fight for gay rights. I think he will be able to reach a lot of people all over the world. And in a country like Nigeria, the words of the Pope will most likely have much more influence than a king and queen from a small country in Europe.

Besides that, let’s hope football players and Nollywood actors will be open about being gay and supporting gay rights. This kind of people can hopefully (slowly) start a discussion which goes deeper than; I am against it because I hate it.

Till then, let’s support organisations like AMSHeR and try to discuss human rights and gay rights issues. And, being in Nigeria, let’s pray the situations for gay people in this country will improve and that change will be led by Nigerians instead of Europeans. My VSO ‘oga’ Jaye is one of these Nigerian people who try to bring the change. Read his great contribution here.