Despite all the clamouring and campaigns to abolish the fate awaiting homosexuals and those praying for the abolishment of the death penalty, Federal Government yesterday sealed the case and said it was not the responsibility of any external government or the united nations to dictate our a country runs its government or what its traditional believe should be.
In his statement, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru said that the government has rejected the recommendation by the United Nations Human Rights Council on the protection of same sex marriage and abolition of the death penalty.
This is contained in the draft report to the United Nations Human Rights Council on resolution 16/20 discussed at a Stakeholders’ Consultative Forum on the second cycle of Nigeria’s Universal Periodic Review in Abuja on Friday.
The minister also said same sex marriage was against the tradition and customs of Nigeria, so it could not be imposed on the country by external forces.
Addressing the representatives of Nigeria, Ashiru, who wondered why gay rights had generated interest from the United Nations, queried the negative campaign against polygamy, which, according to him, was allowed in African tradition.
He said, “You should not shy away from defending what you believe is right. Whatever is in our constitution, you must defend it. We must stand by our constitution. We must stand by our customs and tradition.
“If you want to have gay right in your constitution; fine, but we have our own constitution. The same human rights they want to protect for gay people; how about people that want to go into polygamy if they so desire and women are willing to marry them. Polygamy is human rights in our tradition.”
On the abolition of death penalty, the minister said Nigeria should not be blamed because the Criminal Code in use was enacted by the colonial masters, saying, “If anything is wrong about it, why are they blaming us?”
Although the minister agreed that the Nigeria had some obligations to the United Nations, he said no country could dictate to another because as a sovereign nation, Nigeria has the right to protect the interests of its citizens
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