CAST THE FIRST STONE

When did we become so discriminatory? Has it increasingly become our nature to discriminate against any sector of our society just for being different? He is an Ibo man, a Yoruba man, a Hausa man, a settler; they have come to take over this place, why can’t they go back to their place? There is something intrinsically wrong with this, as Nigeria belongs to all of us.

There is also no justification for a people to take the law into their own hands in the name of ridding the land of perceived misfits or foreigners. It has happened in various parts of the country where young youth corpers have been maimed and killed by a community simply for being outsiders and a little different. They are as lambs to slaughter. But I digress. I wanted to speak of morality and the law. The government has just criminalised homosexuality. Ever since the anti-gay bill was passed into law, people have been brutalised and killed. In Bauchi, seven suspected homosexuals who were taken to court in Anguwan Jaki, Bauchi State for trial narrowly escaped lynching by a mob at the court premises! The judge also narrowly escaped summary justice for not carrying out his perceived role to the full. People actually feel justified in meting out what they believe is moral justice.                

Proponents of the new law are getting what they intended. In the midst of all the confusion and broken promises, with crucial bills lying fallow, one wonders where the presidency and legislature acquired the kind of vigour, willpower and man hours to speedily dispense with this bill in record time. If they channelled half the energy expended on the anti-gay law to the PIB, subsidy probe, missing funds, insecurity, power and unemployment, Nigerians would have seen some results by now. Instead, we are distracted and our anger redirected at people who have not hurt us in any way.

I may have my own opinion regarding two people of the same sex involved in a romantic relationship, but it is not for me to judge them when God has made it quite clear that judgement is His. Jesus Christ demonstrated his understanding of man’s hypocrisy towards fellow man when he proclaimed, “He who had not sinned should cast the first stone.”         

  

Talking of fornication, Abuja must be the prostitution and human trafficking capital of Nigeria. Young ladies are trafficked to Abuja with the sole purpose of providing entertainment and sexual gratification for rich politicians and civil servants old enough to be their fathers. But at this political level, there is no ethnic discrimination! It is an exclusive club that excludes the rest of us and we seem powerless to restrain it. Why?     

Our Mosques and Churches are filled on Fridays and Sundays. Before we start any business, we pray. Do we truly understand what we pray for? Do we appreciate the responsibility that comes with our faith? Can we honestly say that we act as Muslims or Christians when we so easily close our eyes to the injustices around us and victimise anybody who is weak or just not like us? If we attack others or stand by and watch injustices then are we not terrorists too? Isn’t “love your neighbour as yourself” the greatest show of love? “Do unto others as you would have them do onto you.” We are all hypocrites, because we have attached conditions to these divine tenets, such as “unless they are gay, from another tribe or from another religion”.      

We have ‘baby factories’ where young girls, are “reared” to carry pregnancies which are sold to dubious buyers, often for ritual purposes and God knows what else. What inhumanity surpasses this? What laws have been passed to combat this? How many of such criminals have we lynched? We have deplorable infrastructure and missing public funds but when we perish from poor services, do we stone the politicians driving in their latest cars and flowing robes? Our world is a diverse one occupied by all kinds of people, with an equal right to be here. God in His infinite wisdom did not make us all the same. Why? I cannot fully answer that question but what has the black man ever done to anybody to experience racism and discrimination? Why are some disabled from birth, what was their crime? Black, White, Indian, Chinese, thin, fat, strong, weak. Dare I say it, gay or straight? Does anybody really have a choice in determining what we are?

And if as has been alleged, homosexuality were a disease, why would you criminalise it? Having a condition is not a crime but rather a matter that needs understanding. We are punishing these people for being. This cannot be right and therefore I cannot sign up for it. What about you?