LESBIANS AND GAYS: SHOULD THEY HAVE A SAY IN NIGERIA?

Two years after the Nigerian government placed a heavy penalty on same sex relationship, information reaching Lekki People Magazine suggests that the Nigerian people are massively in support of the decision of the law makers. This is buttressed by the growing incidence of intimidation and harassment of gays and lesbians in the Nigerian society. Two weeks ago at Okokomaiko, a Lagos suburb, a young lady named Nike  was striped naked and paraded by her aunt on the suspicion that she was a lesbian. Most recent report received on 21st August accounted that a gay, David Micheal, 24 years old, was stabbed and almost mugged to death by an unknown group in a border town in Nasarawa state, Nigeria. According to the source of the news, Michael was a known gay in the community and the youths of the community who are Muslim faithfuls have on numerous occasions commanded Michael to leave the community but his failure to do that made them to descend on him on this particular day with knives and clubs. Luckily for him he was able to escape with his life.

A similar and more gruesome attack was also recorded in early 2013 in Kano, a city not too far from Nasarawa state. In this particular incidence two gay boys were caught making out by the local Muslim vigilantes, a crime which according to their religion is punishable by death. One of The boys called Dan kano - an Hausa man and their fellow Muslim, was beaten to death on the spot while the other man called Loveday, from the igbo tribe, escaped by the airs breathe. Apart from the fact that gay-ism and lesbianism are alien cultures to Africa the big question is;do gays and lesbians deserve the treatments meted out to them or a more sacrosanct recognition?   Please drop your opinion.