In No Way Nigeria Legalises Same Sex Marriage - Human Rights Lawyer

 

A human rights lawyer, Mr Odion Odia, assered today that Nigeria could not be forced into legalising same sex marriage, "abominable to our culture".

Mr Odia explained that for any human right law to be applicable in any state, it must be domesticated. He also highlighted that since international laws recognised the sovereignty of nations, Nigeria should not be threatened or cajoled by any individual or group.

“When you are talking about international law, human rights law on this issue, it is not part of our law and before we can have it here, it must be debated by the National Assembly. “It must be accepted by the National Assembly and our National Assembly is already proposing 14 years imprisonment for any practitioner of such marriage. “The international law also recognises the laws of nations, they also recognise the sovereignty of nations, and as far as I know as a lawyer, I don’t think there is any international human right on gay marriage that all nations must accept it.“

Mr Odia commended the National Assembly for not yielding to pressure from international community to legalise the act.

“If the National Assembly is to adopt it as our law, it will make the National Assembly very unpopular because this is Africa; this is a country in Africa; this is a black country. “I don’t think we elect them to start permitting such abominations, things that are abominable to our culture, to our conscience, to our religion. “So far, you can see the popularity they have gathered and garnered from the Nigeria community for proposing 14 years. “Some are even saying that it is too lenient.“

He also claimed that the bill did not constitute an infringement of the rights of the ame sex marriage advocates.

“What are they talking about here, gay marriage, and after the marriage, they start shopping for somebody that would rent them a womb to give them surrogate pregnancy and surrogate baby. “These are alien to our culture; these are alien to our conscience; these are alien to even our constitution that is the grand norm of our laws. “If they say it is an infringement on their right, let them be specific on which area of their right as guaranteed by our constitution has been infringed upon. “I don’t see any infringement there, if there is any, let them let us know so that we all digest it together, look at it and we can as well advice the relevant agencies accordingly.“ 

Also today the bill that sets prison terms for up to 14 years for same sex couples has been criticised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.