US Threatens To Sanction Nigeria Over Anti-Gay Law

The latest country is the United States of America, whose Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle threatened that  the United States will scale down its support for HIV/AIDS and anti-malaria programmes in response to the Federal Government’s position on the gay rights issue. Member countries of the European Union and Canada have expressed their objection to the law but United States Ambassador to Nigeria said he was worried about “the implications of the anti-same sex marriage law which seems to restrict the fundamental rights of a section of the Nigerian population.”
This came as a former Nigerian Ambassador to US, Dahiru Suleiman, yesterday, described homosexuality and lesbianism as “animalistic and degrading to humanity. Ambassador Entwistle said  he was aware that “the issue of same-sex marriage was very controversial all over the world, including within  the United States where 17 states out of 50 had endorsed it, but others still reject its legality”. According to him, “the issue that we see and I am speaking as a friend of Nigeria is that as I read the bill, it looks to me that it puts significant restrictions on the freedoms of assembly and expression; in my opinion which applies especially in advanced democracies, once government begins to say something in these areas, freedom no longer applies. It seems to me that this is a very worrisome precedent. Vanguard learnt that the US is committing “substantial” resources to fund the emergence of gay clubs and advocacy groups across Nigeria.