The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is once again making a national fool of itself and its members. Listening to the rants of its spokesperson wants to make me puke. Really, how deluded are those religious nincompoops?
The latest hullabaloo occurred when the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Olugbenga Ashiru was reported to have said:
Nigeria is not against any country for legalising gay marriage, but in our country, given our customs and traditions, as well as religious beliefs, marriage as ordained by God is between a man and a woman.
“But if we have diplomats with same sex spouses posted to Nigeria, we have no choice but to accredit them accordingly because they come from countries where such law is in place
However, the spokesman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states and the FCT, Mr. Sunday O
ibe described the position of the minister as hypocritical and unacceptable. Mr Oibe, in a statement in Kaduna noted that both Christians and Muslims in Nigerians have all agreed that gay marriage is against their religious and cultural beliefs. Maintaining any nation that sends a gay diplomat to Nigeria is violating the laws of the land and it should be resisted.
“We want to make it abundantly clear, be it America or Britain or any country that sends a gay diplomat to Nigeria; we will mobilise to chase him out of the country.
Really, you will chase diplomats out of Nigeria because of the gender of their adult partner?
Now pray, will you chase them with a burning log and prick them with forks as in the days of old in your bible and Quran? Will they be burnt at stakes to please your God?
How the heck is this statement from Christian Association of Nigeria different from the statement of Nigerian Islamic Terrorist group, Boko Haram, who threatened that they will continue to terrorize and bomb innocent Nigerians because their God opposes western education?
Oh, wait a minute, the Christian Association of Nigeria is happy to join hands with its Muslim homophobic brothers and sisters to chase gay diplomats out of the country?
Nevermind that this is the same Christian Association of Nigeria that condones the branding of children as witches and never condemned Bishop David Oyedepo for slapping a young girl during a church service.
And of course even though Christians and Muslims disagree on child marriage, they are happy to unite to stone gays. How pathetically heroic!
The Christian Association of Nigerian spokes person further stated:
We are God fearing people. If America and Britain are Godless, that is their business. For us, we have fear of God and we will never entertain evil and they cannot intimidate Nigerians into accepting what is against our religious beliefs and culture.
As the saying goes, ignorance is a disease and the CAN spokesperson suffers from this disease. I wonder why the CAN members are not vociferously condemning him. Could it be that they all suffer from this same disease?
Not all Nigerians are God fearing. Some of us don’t even believe there is a God. There are Nigerians who are Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers and this loudmouth Christian Association of Nigerian spokesperson does not speak for us.
I am also tempted to ask Mr. CAN Spokesperson which of the thousands of Gods Nigerian fear. Is it Yahweh, the fabled God of Abraham, the Islamic God, the new Christian Trinity God or is it Orunmila? You really should understand that we don’t all have the same definition of God, Nigerians do not worship the same God and yes, some rational Nigerians do not worship any God at all, because we are rational enough to understand that there is no God.
Even some Nigerian God believers are not in support of persecuting gays therefore Mr Oibe does not speak for all Christians when he says Gay diplomats should be chased out of the country. There are some Christians who are moral enough to take a stand against a homophobic God. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said at the launch of the Free and Equal campaign in Cape Town:
I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place, I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this.
Archbishop Tutu went further to state that the campaign against homophobia was similar to the campaign waged against racism in South Africa. He added:
I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level,” he added.
Now, it seems the Christians too do have different Gods. What a crisis. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is obviously a decent enough human being to understand that you cannot persecute anyone because a God told you to. Someone with that morality and level of empathy can definitely be good without God. Unfortunately this is a concept the Christian Association of Nigerian is finding difficult to grasp!
Mr CAN spokesperson also claimed that:
If you bring a foreign diplomat to this country and these people come with their dollars and pounds as it were, they will begin to introduce our young people into this evil because of their joblessness.
OK, Mr CAN , if your people are jobless and can be enticed into homosexuality by the mere flash of foreign dollars and pounds sterling, why not try to cure the root of the enticement, which according to you is Joblessness? If you must speak, why not address joblessness and leave the enticement alone?
Mr Can spokesperson also observed that:
Gay marriage is evil and we will resist any attempt to bring evil into Nigeria. Any country that practice sodomy, God is always angry with that nation. We have so many troubles in our hands already. Let us manage the ones we have; we don’t want any issue of gay.
The most developed countries in the world have laws protecting gays, lesbians, bisexuals and Transsexuals from discrimination. Their economy is stable and some are doing great. Nigerians are the ones queuing outside foreign embassies, enduring all sorts of insults just to get visas out of Nigeria into these sodomy countries. Even Britain has announced that as from September, Nigerians who apply for UK Tourist visa would have to deposit 3,000GBP (N750,000) bond before they are issued a visa. Now, Britain just legalise Equal marriage and has legalized civil unions for quite a while, this really does not sound like a country God is angry with. If God was angry with Britain, the UK government would not be in a position to be making arrogan
t threats against Nigerians. If anything, it seems with all the Nigerian righteousness and holier than thou attitude, Nigeria is the country God is very angry with.
Afterall, with all the human and natural resources at the disposal of this potentially great nation, Nigeria is still a rich country with very poor people. There are no good infrastructures, no healthcare packages, no long life expectancy, child mortality rate is high, education is in shambles and your lawmakers are busy feeding fat on the collective wealth of the people. Although the lawmakers do take time out once in a while to break the mace on each others heads, and exchange punches in the hallow chambers, however they hardly have time to make good laws for the nation, except when they are plotting to put homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals behind bars for 14 years.
Now, it seems even with all your anti sodomy laws, your high rate of churchgoers and the high number of churches on every Nigerian street, God is still pretty angry at Nigeria and Nigerians.
Mr CAN spokesperson concluded his ignoble statement with the ignorant remark
If America and Britain have deviated and ran away from God, we in Nigeria don’t want to turn our back against God”.
Actually, if we are to compare Nigeria with Britain or America, it would be very reasonable to say God turned its imaginary back on Nigeria a long time ago. Now, stop spewing nonsense, go get educated, and remember Nigeria is not a Christian, Muslim or Pagan nation. Nigeria is a secular country and the federal constitution does not give a shit about what your God thinks. Your religion is not my law and I am one Nigeria who does not fear your Skydaddy. Stop the delusion and do not project your ignorance on all Nigerians.
BARVO!!!!
Ta muchlies, very muchlies indeed, your blogging has helped me, as a white UK, gaelic’y type anti-Imperialist, see a damn sight more of the important questions that I used to.
It is a pity that even now, people can be so backwards. For goodness sake, mankind has walked upon the moon and mapped the genome! But why do Nigerians have to make a deposit before getting a tourist visa? Is it an anti-illegal-immigration thing?
by the very fruits of corruption, hypocrisy, demagogue, bigotry, etc, we have known the ‘Godly Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN’ &dr allies in govt. They know nothing and care less about loving their neighbours like themselves&refused never to judge that which they cannot create while they refused to ever know the truth about sexual orientation&individuality inherent in nature, for the same truth to set them free. They claim to be holier than the same people whose progenitors used same religion to seal the process of colonialism while their forefathers were sacrificing humans to dr imaginary gods….and whereas today they claim to be holier than the Pope, their hands are dipped in the till where they feed fat while majority of their congregation live on less than 2 US Dollars per day. This is the reprehensible&shallow-minded state of the Nigerian nay African religious leaders today and while most of the continent remains ‘dunghill of the savannah’
Meggamat:
Unfortunately this is a new UK immigration policy that targets a few countries. The money is a deposit that Nigerians are required to pay before they are issued a 6 months UK tourist visa. If they overstayed in UK , they lose the deposit. 3,000 GBP is a quarter of a Million Naira, which is hardly available to the average Nigerian. It therefore places a class restriction on who can or cannot be issued a UK tourist visa. It simply means if you are a Nigerian and you do not have 3,000 pounds swimming around somewhere you cannot come to UK as a Tourist, not even for a day. Needless to say, it is highly discriminatory.
THIS IS BEAUTIFULLLLLL. Nice.
Wonderful piece. Its a shame that very few of us here in d country think this way.
@Gabriel -- Hopefully many more will start thinking rationally instead of regurgitating what they are told by their religious leaders. Education is key to wiping out ignorance.