Same-sex marriage: US-based Nigerians condemn Obama

US President Barack Obama

United States-based Nigerians, many of whom voted for President Barack Obama, have risen in stout defence of the recently passed Nigerian Senate bill banning same-sex marriage.

The Nigerian are concerned that while President Obama and the US government are opposing the same-sex ban in Nigeria, majority of states in the US have yet to recognise same-sex marriage.

A Detroit-based Human Rights Attorney, Kayode Oladele, said, "When you consider the issue of same- sex marriage in the US, it is not as if all the states recognise it even though they may not criminalise it as Nigeria has proposed."

He added, "There are 50 states in the US, a strong federal system, out of which only about six, namely, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington, D.C. currently grant same-sex marriage licences.

"Even in some states like California, where same-sex marriage was recognised, a later amendment to the state constitution changed it, saying, ‘only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognised in California’."

Another Nigerian- American, Dr. Baba Adam, who is a university administrator and former US-PRONACO leader said, "We think Obama is trying to get the votes of the gay community in the upcoming elections."

Adam added that it was wrong for the US government to "coarse other nations to accept same-sex marriage when within the USA there is no consensus on the issue."

Adam, who actively campaigned for Obama in the last US presidential elections, recalled that even in President Obama’s US home state of Hawaii, gay marriage had long been an issue.

Also, a leading US-based Nigerian female professional, Dr. Mercy Obamogie, who is a practising medical doctor and qualified US lawyer, said banning same-sex marriage had nothing to do with human rights violation.

She said, "US should not meddle with the internal affairs of Nigeria especially when it comes to passage of laws that affect her citizens. Nigeria is right in banning such marriages for cultural reasons."

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