All It Takes For Innocent People To Suffer Is For The Majority To Work Against Them.

Dimgba Igwe, a board Director of the Sunnewspaper and former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of same newspaper, wrote an article in his back column, Sideview, on 28th January 2014.
The anti-gay article which he titled, “The Howling Of The Gay Mob”, piqued my mind so much that I had to send him a 5 pages response. But beyond him, it’s necessary for all well-meaning citizens to ask themselves crucial questions with sentiments aside before standing for or against something.
This is my letter to Mr Dimgba Igwe.

Good day Sir,
I usually don't write to editors but I felt it necessary at a time like this to do so. And I greatly hope that you will take the time out to read it all as it is a bit long.

I read with disbelief your column on pro-gays; it's not that the public views of Nigerians are alien to me, it's just because it came from a wonderful journalist. A journalist that I am fond of dropping quotes from him when I converse with my friends.

Sir, your take on the gay issue is wrong on all fronts. I am a pro-gay and have always been a supporter of freedom of rights except when those rights affect negatively the rights of others.
Can you tell me how exactly two women kissing or two men kissing deducts your bank account balance or endangers your life?
Can you say we have bad roads in Nigeria because of gays?
Can you say that without gays in Nigeria our government officials will stop stealing our money?
Can you say that kidnappers and armed robbers exist cause of gays?

If yes to all these, I would so much love to know how but if no, then why exactly are we making laws against a minority who are minding their own business?

I have seen people say "oh this is disgusting" etc, well, so also is a man having sex with a woman in public and last time I checked, I don't recall any pro-gay saying that gay rights is an endorsement of public sex as some are claiming.

And all these focus on America and Britain is just a cheap trick by anti-gays to divert attention away from the issue. I care not one bit what America or Britain has to say, I care only about the ease at which my fellow blacks choose to make hate laws against those who have done them no wrong except having the desire to love like all humans.

Yes, democracy prevailed but prevalence of democracy shouldn't be the enthronement of evil. Democracy truly considers the majority over the minority but the virtues of democracy lies in equality of rights.
Rights were denied when that law was made; rights of a people who were made criminals cause the majority detest difference.

I further observed, expectedly, as you went about quoting the bible. I can tackle that in a billion ways because religion is the last thing to use and argue a point in a world that races into the wonders of development and civilization.
In this same country, some well meaning Nigerians tried to protect the girl child by setting up a law that saves them from early marriage but some others used religious theories to put an end to that.

If you deemed it appropriate to raise religious angles, I hope you won't mind my telling you to equally advocate that we apply these 'remarkable' sections of the bible in our societal practices:
Ezekiel 9:5-7
Deuteronomy 22:20-21
Jeremiah 48:10
Exodus 21:7-11
Deuteronomy 17:12
Leviticus 20:10
Leviticus 21:9
Psalm 137:9
Deuteronomy 22:23-24
2 Chronicles 15:12-13
Deuteronomy 13:13-19
Deuteronomy 13:7-12
Exodus 31:12-15
1Samuel 6:19-20
2 Samuel 6:3-7
Jeremiah 51:20-26
Isaiah 13:15-18
Exodus 32:26-29
Numbers 31:7-18
Deuteronomy 20:10-14
Deuteronomy 22:28-29.

When you look at those portions, you will see that they contained many of the things that we all today condemn but they are all there in the Bible. The Bible even gave advice on how to treat slaves and about collecting money from child rapists and forcing the victims to marry their captors. We all know that these things are wrong today but they are all contents of the Bible.

My points are these:
1) Religion is not a perfect item of consideration in this modern age especially when deciding the fate of humanity.
2) Its bigotry at best to raise religious angles on millions of people without bothering to know if the said religion applies to them too.
3) Democracy doesn't call for disrespect and for democracy to be pure; people's religious and non-religious lifestyles should be considered and respected equally.

Sir, it will do us well if we stop fooling ourselves with the theory that Nigerians are religious; look around you, lots of things that are against every religious book on Earth take place in Nigeria while every street corner has a church or mosque. Where then is the religion? Are the kidnappers, looters, assassins, rapists etc irreligious?
Crime wave is forever high in Nigeria while Nigerians carry holy books that totally condemn those acts.

Religion in Nigeria is all about membership and identification sake; people love to let others see them on Fridays going to mosque and been seen on Sundays going to church.
People pray so loud and sing so loud all to draw attention. Usage of the term God in every conversation even when they are about to plan fraud is a trait common among our people.
Don't get me wrong, I do not say that there are no true and honest religious people in Nigeria but religious presentation as bases for anything by Nigerians is fraudulent at best.
Here is a link to an article by a writer, Elthan Jonathan, which he titled "How To Worship The Nigerian God". You will find it most interesting.
http://elnathanjohn.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-worship-nigerian-god.html?m=1

You also made mention of other possible rights being fought for, that's mixing things up. It's about rights equality not inequality.  Pedophilia is a crime not because of how we feel about it but because one party can't consent to the act.
Homosexuality is about consented acts. Animals don't give consent. People can argue all they want that they want to date animals but those creatures can't sign documents to prove their equal love for the humans nor can they explain why they desire to date them.
Bestiality is a selfish act, homosexuality is a mutual agreement. Let's stop mixing things up for the sake of argument.

Furthermore, you talked about culture and you, like many others I've seen their views on gayism, all said the same thing "It's not our culture".
My question is, what is "our culture"?
It always sounds good when we sing jingles even when those jingles really don't make sense.
Culture and tradition are not the same thing; culture is dynamic while tradition is static.
It was once our culture to kill people for the burial of a great king but we grew wiser and realized that it was wrong and we stopped it.
It was once our culture to kill twins but we stopped it.
Lots of things were part of our lifestyles years ago but we put an end to them just like we started others that we were never doing. That's the dynamism of culture.
That we have been doing something doesn't mean we shouldn't stop it if the present and future condition requires so. To do otherwise, is to reject development.
Saying no cause it wasn't what you were into is equivalent to the Arabians saying no to automobile industries because they, the Arabians, popularized horse riding as a means of transportation so they wish to remain permanent horse riders since car driving was not part of them.

Of course, the immediate paragraph above is based on the theory that gayism is a type of culture that should be a front burner issue, which it's not.
As I told a friend, if people were not making laws against gays, no one would be talking about gay rights.
There is nothing new about it even in our own society; it all started taking centre stage on global politics when religious adherents started condemning it.

I do not expect my country Nigeria to suddenly enact a go-ahead-and-get-married law on gayism; I know we are not yet ripe for that but the criminalization of a people who not responsible for our underdevelopment reminds one of the dark histories of European Inquisition.
All it takes for innocent people to suffer is for the majority to work against them.
I don't intend to attack our security forces but like I asked many people especially my Facebook friends, "Can anyone mention one law that wasn't abused by the authorities"?
Think about all the innocent people that were hounded and thrown into prison by the police. Think about those people who were never charged to court but they spent years behind bars. I've watched the police round up innocent bystanders, beat them and lock them up. Think about all the people that get beaten and burnt alive by the public even though we have a court system in place.
Now, think about the stigmatization associated with gayism; say people are dragged around in public and about to be set on fire cause they are gays, who do you think will want to plead on their behalf knowing the mass charade of homophobia in Nigeria?
Say the police arrest people and keep them behind bars for 5 years without taking them to court; do you think any NGO will rise to their defense knowing how well they will be condemned by Nigerians?
Sir did you consider all these scenarios while you were dancing in support to the law?
Are you okay seeing pictures of naked men whipped and dragged through streets because they are gays or are you about to say you haven't seen such?
I have a video someone sent to me of three lesbians that were caught by some boys who flogged them and subjected them to perform oral sex on each other while the cameras clicked away and just before the video cut off, one of the boys said "so something you should be giving us you are using it for nonsense? Una toto (vagina) go pain una today cause we (the boys) go do am tire".
Now who is the culprit? Who should be behind bars? Is it the adults who consented to their acts or the ones who assaulted them and raped them?
Even if those boys are identified, do you think that they can be charged for rape with the stigma going on or is rape not a crime as long as the victims are lesbians?
Such anti-gay law was made recently in one of our African countries and a gay was immediately beheaded by the public and I observed with horror as learned people were saying "yes, that serves them right".

So jungle justice is part of our Millennium Development Goal? Is it something that we should take pride in cause it happened to those we despise? Can we get any lower? Is there any depravity and cruelty left for us to explore?

We cannot pretend as though we don't know what is obtainable in our society. While we were making that law, did anyone bother to append that mob justice against gays is a punishable offense or don't they deserve justice even in death? Well, perhaps, since we now have a law that established them as criminals, they have no claim to justice.
Extra-judicial killings has been one of our banes in this country, if the police round up gays and decide to open fire on them, do you think anyone will rise in their defense? Even if any lawyer decides to brave the odds how much do you think such a lawyer will be booed by the public?

We have no idea the dangers anti-gay laws pose until things start to get ugly. I hope you know the law says no aide should be rendered to gays? So if hospitals refuse to treat gay patients they are justified. How will that pan out? What will be its effect on the war against AIDS or any other disease? What does that say about the morality that we preach?

Finally, you raised the issue of male and female being the standard.  Okay, very true, as far as population growth is concerned, male and female union is the standard.
But tell me Sir, are we lacking in population? Is the world suffering from population deficiency? Has the world catered for ALL its population needs? Has Nigeria adequately taken care of its 160 million plus population?
Last time I checked, governments were complaining about overpopulation and how certain resources are not even going round enough and is getting worse.
Our Asian brothers, the Chinese, set up a drastic law decades ago just for them to curb their population cause it was growing beyond what the government could provide for, India maybe towing same line too.
Our CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, complained about our population growth rate and how it could turn ugly if our resources don't grow at the same rate to meet the future demands.
What's the whole "Plant A Tree" global program all about if not for humans to compensate the Earth as we cut down forests to build cities for habitation and burn gasses all for us to take care of THE EVER GROWING HUMAN POPULATION and needs, respectively.
Lots of animals around the world are currently being protected because the rapidly growing human population and human needs for them have made them endangered species.

So why exactly are people complaining about gayism not promoting the perceived man and woman standard as though the world is running short of men or women?
Have we catered for all the orphans on the streets or put the child workers in school with proper shelter over their heads?
Sir, do you have up to 10 adopted children in your house because I am certain lots of children out there need proper homes? I guess not.
We make so much noise about how homosexuality is anti population when billions of the existing people can't afford their basic needs, so what's our strategy - to keep growing in despair?

I guess it's okay for an opposite sex couple that can't guarantee 3 meals per day to go ahead and have 5 kids but it's not okay for a same sex couple that can afford 3 meals per day to adopt abandoned children and give them education and other things to measure up in a competitive world all because the majority decided that they find same sex union disgusting.

What a world!

I need to stop here because I can go on forever analyzing this issue.

Take care and stay well.

Franklin Egbuche,
Enugu
dedondeemperor@yahoo.com