Several religious organizations in the country, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), the Methodist Church, Ndigbo Cultural Society of Nigeria (NCSN) and Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) have all condemned criticisms from Western governments led by the United States of America over the anti Gay bill signed into law in the country.
National Publicity Secretary of ACF, Mr Anthony Sani, said “It is difficult (for Nigerians) to share the sentiments of US and its allies on this matter, considering that it is not long that some of them approved same sex marriage.”
NCSN President, Chief Udo Udeogaranya, said the law would preserve and sustain African culture and insisted that “on the issue of marriage, relationship, social behaviour and our country, members of National Assembly and President Jonathan made the best choice.”
His words: “We commend President Jonathan for taking a strong moral stand in the face of vindictive Western world by signing the anti-gay bill into law. This singular act has once again crowned President Jonathan’s efforts towards promotion, preservation and sustenance of our African culture, heritage and values.
We urge members of the National Assembly and the President to consider filtering and censoring programmes being disseminated into the country from the Western media, as another major step in protecting our young ones from immoral and uncultured views.”
General Secretary of CAN, Rev. Musa Asake said, “the thing that bothers me is that, none of them in the US that is promoting this thing have gays in their family.
“We are solidly behind our president for doing the right thing. Can they allow their sons and daughters to marry each other like that or why are they bothered to meddle into our own affairs?
“I congratulate our president, our legislature, this is the right thing we are doing. We don’t have to drift into a situation, where we don’t have moral values, because somebody is helping you with a little money. Let them hold on to their money, we will still survive by the grace of God.”
Secretary General of Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, CSN, Rev. Fr Ralph Madu said: “Don’t forget that culturally, morally and biblically it is not right, we cannot swallow everything from Europe and America. These are some of the things they brought to us and want us to swallow.
“The President and the National Assembly are in the right direction as far as this matter is concern. The US is free to raise eyebrow, after all their own government is not against homosexuality and all that.
“This is the first time, we are doing the correct thing that is not in their own way of doing things. They should not forget that in certain matter like this, the tradition, culture, religion and many factors that go beyond giving money will come to play, and that is what Nigeria has done. We have no apology for that.”
Prelate, Methodist Church Nigeria, His Eminence Samuel Uche in his reaction, hailed the development.
“We are a church and an unrepentant standard bearer of the true gospel of God. He maintained that God, in His infinite wisdom had created the institution of marriage which must be between a man and a woman for primary purpose of procreation among other things.
“Marriage is created by God between a man and a woman and one of the benefits of marriage is procreation.”
Continuing, he argued that if a man and a man or a woman and a woman are allowed to marry each other there would be no procreation, describing it as the height of abomination and perversion.
A statement signed by the JNI Secretary General, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, said that, “We urge Muslim brothers and sisters to pray fervently especially for the Ummah against all manners of conspiracies in the name of gay marriage, and early or under age marriage as now being touted with seeming impunity in the country.’’