Anti-gay bill: US threatens to sanction Nigeria

The US has threatened to sanction Nigeria following President Jonathan’s signing of the Same-Sex Prohibition Act 2014. The world power is threatening to scale down its support for HIV/AIDS and anti-malaria programmes in Nigeria. This was made known yesterday Jan. 20th by James Entwistle, the US Ambassador to Nigeria.

Mr Entwistle 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.”

"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. 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.”