Nigerian civil society have raised the alarm that the Bola Tinubu administration might have covertly signed an agreement with the European Union (EU) that mandates the decriminalization and official introduction of pro-LGBTQ activities in the laws of its partner African, Caribbean and Pacific-area countries (ACP).
The Agreement, dubbed the “EU-ACP Agreement” was scheduled to be signed on Wednesday, November 15th, despite the objections of numerous other African countries that the supra-national law will render ineffective current very popular anti-LGBTQ laws already on the books in those countries, including Nigeria. For this
According to sources, for some months now, several meetings have been convened between the EU and ACP parliamentarians aimed at getting ACP leaders to sign the controversial LGBT agreement.
One such meeting between the EU and ACP Ministers took place in Brussels, Belgium, on November 28, 2022, to potentially exert greater pressure on ACP Ministers to persuade ACP heads of governments to sign the LGBT agreement.
Another meeting with the same objective took place from June 19 to 28, 2023, in Brussels.
In the aftermath of such pro-LGBTQ agitations by the EU over ACP countries, members of civil society groups in Nigeria are urgently urging Tinubu to avoid signing the agreement as it a violation of the values Nigerians hold dear and contrary to widely-acclaimed laws on the books about such matters in Nigeria.
Chairman of one of such groups, Human Rights Committee, Sonnie Ekwowusi, in a now-viral Instagram video / Interview with a national TV station, said, “This cannot go because LGBT is illegal in Nigeria. There is what is called Anti Same-Sex Act of 2014, which was enacted during the government of Jonathan and that law is still there.
“Why should we now go ahead and sign a document that has to do with the promotion of LGBT? It is completely unacceptable and we should not sign. Nigeria should say ‘no’.”
Namibia and Ghana are two of the ACP countries believed to have declined signing the EU-ACP agreement because of its concerns that it seeks to promote LGBTQ values and undermine the country’s current disposition to LGBTQ activities, especially in the public sphere.