Sufuyan Ojeifo
22 February 2007
Abuja — The Senate was excited yesterday when a bill seeking to prohibit same sex marriage came up for debate and read for the second time.
Entitled: "Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill, 2007", the bill was referred to the Standing Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters under the chairmanship of Senator Oserhiemen Osunbor (Edo Central) for further consideration and processing.
Section 8 of the bill prescribes a term of five years imprisonment for offenders, which includes witnesses of such marriages, awaits persons of same sex who are found guilty of the offence.
Senate Leader, Senator Dalhatu Sarki Tafida (Kaduna North) led the debate on the Bill's general principles, opening the debate with an explanation of same sex marriage.
According to him, "This simply means the coming together of two persons of the same gender or sex in a civil union, marriage, domestic partnership or other form of same sex relationship for the purposes of cohabitation as husband and wife".
He said further: "The bill provides essentially that only marriage entered into between a man and a woman under the Marriage Act or under the Islamic and Customary Laws are valid and recognised in Nigeria.
When this bill becomes law, it will prohibit the following:
"Marriage between persons of the same sex and adoption of children by them in or out of a same sex marriage or relationship is prohibited in the Federal republic of Nigeria; Any marriage entered into by persons of same sex pursuant to a licence issued by another State, country foreign jurisdiction or otherwise shall be void in theFederal Republic of Nigeria.
-Marriages between persons of the same sex are invalid and shall not be recognised as entitled to the benefits of a valid marriage.
-Any contractual or other rights granted to persons involved in same sex marriage or accruing to such persons by virtue of a licence shall be unenforceable in any Court of law in Nigeria.
Noting that there had been a spate of same sex marriages in some countries in recent times, Tafida said: "Nigeria is not exempted from the practice of homosexuality and in fact evidence abounds in this country of its existence".
He added: "It is to pro-act in this direction that this Executive Bill has become necessary to enact into law and stop anyone who might attempt to marry some one of the same sex in this country.
"It is therefore important for senators to support the passage of this Bill without delay, as delay might be dangerous.
"It is an offence, going by the provisions of the Bill, to celebrate same sex marriage in any place of worship by any recognised cleric of a Mosque, Church, denomination or body to which such place of worship belongs, and no marriage license shall be issued to parties of the same sex in this country.
"Similarly, going by the provision of this Bill, there is absolute prohibition of registration of gay clubs and societies and publicity of same sex sexual relationship.
"The offences and penalties are spelt out in Section 8 of this Bill. A term of five years imprisonment for offenders, which includes witnesses of such marriages, awaits persons of same sex who are found guilty of this offence".
He stated further, "As you all know, same sex marriage is an abomination in the cultures of our people and it should also be an abomination for this distinguished assembly of wise Nigerians to fail to act by passing this Bill expeditiously. I trust you will enact this Bill into law with minimum delay".
The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ibrahim Nasir Mantu (Plateau State) who spoke after the Senate Leader said that he would have throught that the government would devote more time to "do things more important to the lives of our country than for it to propose this Bill.
"What the government is now doing is creating awareness to this thing and for us to create this kind of awareness, people may now want to start exploring it. Mr. President we have more serious things to do than to be working on this bill, I therefore urge that members should help me to kill this bill". Senate Chief Whip, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma supported Mantu and argued that "When you pass a law, it is meant to deal with a problem. My view is that the marriage act that we operate in Nigeria defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. As the deputy Senate President said, I think we should set this aside so that we can concentrate on the more important things we have to do".
Senator Daisy Danjuma (Edo South) said: "This is not an issue here right now. It is such countries that issues like this have been discussed in Parliament that it is an issue. The problems we should face now are national issues concerning us; this is not an issue for now. We should not make an issue and give it the relevance it does not deserve".
But Senator Sani Kamba (Zamfara State) countered, saying, "You do not say that we have the Marriage Act. Let us enact it now. I disagree that we should throw it away".
Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, drew attention of Senators to Order 55(2), saying "There is what is called alternative lifestyle. We will be telling ourselves a lie if we say there are no homosexuals in Nigeria" .
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