A former federal lawmaker from Nigeria’s Kaduna State, Senator Shehu Sani, has urged the President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government to go back and unsign the Samoa Agreement it signed on November 15, 2023.
Despite oppositions by many religiously opinionated countries, the Samoa Agreement named after the Pacific Island Samoa, has been gradually gaining traction.
The agreement is said to have some clauses that compel underdeveloped and developing countries to support the agitations by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community for recognition, as part of conditions for getting financial and other supports from developed nations.
On Monday, information about the ratification of the deal by the Nigerian government filtered the air, when the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, confirmed that Nigeria signed the agreement at a reception organised by the European Union (EU) in Abuja.
With such controversial conditions of the agreement, some clerics, human rights activists and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria objected to the decision of Tinubu-led Nigerian government to sign the Samoa Agreement.
However, Bagudu’s media assistant, Bolaji Adebiyi, on Wednesday said the documents signed by the Nigerian government, which the Minister made reference to, were strictly for the economic development of Nigeria.
Adebiyi claimed that there is nowhere in the documents were LGBT or same-sex marriage was mentioned even remotely.
He stated that it would be wrong for anyone to imply that Nigeria had accepted those tendencies, stressing that what Bagudu signed was in relation to a $150 billion trade component.
Speaking on the controversy surrounding the Samoa Agreement, Kamarudeen Ogundele, spokesman for the attorney general of the federation and minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, indicated he needed to gather more information and did not provide further details by press time.
Reacting to the reports of the Nigerian government signing of the $150 billion Samoa deal, Senator Sani said that African countries should not accept loans or grants from any country or group of countries that came with what he described as demonic conditions.
The human rights activist said, “African states should not accept loans or grants from any country, group of countries or international institutions that came with demonic conditions antithetical to our culture, religious faiths and values.
“All African countries including Nigeria who appended their signatures should go back and ‘unsign’ the Samoa agreement.”
A Lagos-based lawyer and chairman of the Human and Constitutional Rights Committee of the African Bar Association (AfBA), Sonnie Ekwowusi raised concerns in an article on Wednesday.
He criticised the signing of the Samoa Agreement, describing it as “nauseating” and questioned the judgment of Nigerian officials.
“The Samoa Agreement, named after the Pacific Island, Samoa, where it was signed on November 15, 2023, celebrates perversity. Certain Articles of the Agreement especially Articles 2.5 and 29.5 legalise LGBT, transgenderism, abortion, teen sexual abuse, and perversity in African countries.
“The signing of the Agreement by Nigeria constitutes a threat to the sovereignty of Nigeria and Africa. It further debases our democracy.
“I can wager that neither Minister Atiku Bagudu nor the Nigerian officials or diplomats who signed the Samoa Agreement on our behalf, understand the import of the agreement to Nigeria’s sovereignty, let alone the destructive impact of the Agreement in Nigeria.
“This explains why many African bodies including the AfBA have condemned the agreement and respectfully urged African countries not to sign it.
“Not infrequently, Nigerian officials in Geneva, New York, and other places sign international agreements or treaties over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine with little or no knowledge of their contents,” Ekwowusi said.
Ekwowusi further queried whether Nigerian officials who signed the agreement were representing the interests of the Nigerian people.
He recalled that Nigeria and 34 other African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries had initially refused to sign the agreement on November 15, 2023.
These countries include Benin, Senegal, Liberia, Botswana, Burundi, Jamaica, Mali, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Namibia, Grenada, Eritrea, Malawi, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, the Central African Republic, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Guyana, the Maldives, Mauritania, Nauru, Palau, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tuvalu.
Ekwowusi noted that Nigeria’s refusal to sign the agreement on the original signing date frustrated the EU, which issued a threat on November 24, 2023.
He called for Nigeria to immediately withdraw from the Samoa Agreement and urged the National Assembly to summon the officials who signed it to explain their actions.
Also reacting to the controversial deal, an official from the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) reiterated the council’s unchanged stance on same-sex marriage and LGBT issues.
Abubakar Akande, the administrative secretary of NSCIA, stated that although they attended a meeting in March this year, it was not their role to ratify or oppose the draft presented to them.
He mentioned that the 403-page document, containing 104 articles, was given to the NSCIA’s Legal Director and that it did not include provisions for same-sex marriage.
“We (NSCIA) would not welcome such agreement. Our stance remains the same since the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. We cannot agree to what is against the injunction of our Creator, Allah, on this matter, and which also disrespects Nigeria’s sovereignty,” he said.
Similarly, Abdulrazaq Ajani, the Ameer (leader) of the Abuja Muslim Forum (AMF), reported that African civil society organisations (CSOs), including AMF, met with top government officials and members of both chambers of the National Assembly, particularly the chairmen of relevant committees in the House of Representatives.
They also engaged with the administrative leadership of the legislators, and unequivocally rejected the proposed agreement.
The chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Treaties, Protocols, and Agreements, Rabiu Yusuf said that the Samoa Agreement had not been brought before the National Assembly for consideration.
“To the best of my knowledge, nothing has happened in the National Assembly regarding the Samoa Agreement,” he said.
Recall that former President Goodluck Jonathan in January 2014, signed into law a bill that criminalises same-sex relationships, defying Western pressure over gay rights and provoking United States criticism.
The law contains penalties of up to 14 years in prison and bans gay marriage, same-sex ‘amorous relationships’ and membership of gay rights groups.
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