Same-Sex Marriage: Between Buhari And Obama

There have been fears concerning President Buhari’s scheduled visit to the United States president, Barack Obama.

Many think there is more than what meets the eye as the scheduled visit is coming just after the US official legalised same sex marriage. Although, Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari is said to be meeting Obama to discuss political and economic issues as well as the fight against terrorism, there are great fears that the same sex marriage might part of the agenda of the meeting.

Recall that before Jonathan signed the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2014 into law, Obama had threatened to cut off foreign aid to Nigeria. All these highlight the supposed intent of the scheduled meeting.
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Eniola Akinkuotu of The Punch examines the implications of the United States’ Supreme Court judgment on the foreign policy outlook of President Barack Obama.

Although President Buhari has kept mute about the same sex marriage, the dwindling oil price, insecurity in the country and many more might just be avenues for the United States to make its wish come to pass. The  Us has already pledged $5m to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram but a calculated onlooker might just as well think the US could demand ‘something’ in return; making Nigeria more vulnerable to the bait.

Former minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has once insinuated Buhari was getting unbelievable supports from the world most powerful country because he had promised to legalize same-sex marriage. He said:



“The proposition and offer was that if he was prepared to support a legislation in Nigeria to allow same sex marriage and if he was prepared to repeal the anti-gay laws in Nigeria, they (US) will, in return, endorse, support and fund him, initially covertly and eventually publicly, at the right time.

“Instead of rejecting these offers and spurning this proposition, to our utter shock, Buhari apparently refused to rule it out and has put the matter under consideration. Instead of him to say no, he assured them that he would consider these two things.

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“We believe that this is a matter that ought to be brought to the attention of the Nigerian people as a matter of urgency. The APC are so desperate in ensuring that Buhari becomes the President of this country that they are actually prepared to consider the scrapping of all anti-gay or anti-homosexual legislation and at the same time, endorsing and supporting a fresh legislation that would allow same sex-marriage in our country.

“We are using this occasion to challenge Buhari to come clean and to tell the Nigerian people whether this is true and whether, in the unlikely event of his being elected President, he is seriously considering scrapping the anti-homosexual laws in our country and pushing through a new legislation which would allow same-sex marriage.”

A senior lecturer of the Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, Dr. David Aworawo, said it was very possible that Obama would want to convince Buhari to ease the law on homosexuality.

He said:  “They will try to make Nigeria approve same sex-marriage but Buhari must not give in. Whatever America has to offer Nigeria should not be predicated on throwing away a vital part of our culture because of small bread and butter. We expect that Buhari and all those who will go with him will stand their ground because it is also in the interest of the US that a growing terrorist group like Boko Haram is dealt with. So, I am sure that they will look beyond Nigeria’s stance on same-sex marriage.”