Islamic group kicks against Samoa deal, urges FG to withdraw from pact

As controversy continues to trail the Samoa Agreement, a group under the aegis of the Islamic Forum of Nigeria, has called on the Federal Government to withdraw from the agreement as it was signed without consulting relevant stakeholders.

Rising from a one-day meeting on Thursday, the Forum with headquarters in Kano, said the Samoa agreement signed by the Nigerian government without consulting the people, stands condemned and rejected.

A professor of law, Bayero University Kano and a member of the forum. Prof. Shuaibu Zunnurain said though LGBTQ+ is not explicitly written in the Samoa agreement, but said Gay and homosexual rights were enshrined using other terms.

The law professor said the 2018 agreement which had protection of the rights of Gay, Lesbian and transgender was rejected by 30 countries including Nigeria.

He said though the LGBTQ were removed in the new draft, terms like gender, and reproductive rights were actually meant to protect LGBTQ+ and abortion rights, explaining that framers of the 1999 constitution were sensitive enough to use the term sex instead of gender in section 42 dealing with non-discrimination against a person on account of his sex, ethnicity or religion.

He noted that the Samoa agreement has, for example, a provision that says ‘the parties’ reaffirms commitment to achieving gender equality, the full enjoyment of human rights by all’ and that the agreement shall take precedence over national or domestic laws.

Also speaking, a member of the forum, Prof. Babangida Muhammad, said for a long time in Nigeria’s history, Muslims, Christians, North, and South and people from across the political divide were united against the Samoa agreement.

He faulted the Samoa agreement for no concise definition of terms as is usually the case in any law, agreement or academic publication.

Another member of the Forum, Prof. Aminu Sagagi, advised parents to be vigilant and take more than a keen interest in what their children watch on social media saying the + sign in LGBTQ+ could mean something fundamentally contrary to morality, religion, culture and tradition.

The immediate past chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria, Kano State chapter, Reverend Father Adeyemo Samuel, said there is nowhere in the Bible that God allows gays or Lesbians.

“Any man that sleeps with a man should be stoned to death immediately,” the cleric said.

While calling on the meeting to say no to the agreement, Samuel said Gender equality also stands for lesbianism and homosexuality.

A lecturer with Bayero University, Kano, Dr Bala Muhammad, recalled how Reverend Idowu Fearon, as secretary of the Anglican Church rejected the ordination of a gay Bishop in London, saying Exit clauses in agreement like Samoa may make it difficult for countries to leave.

The meeting called on the Nigerian government to withdraw from the agreement because it is in conflict with political, economic, religious and cultural rights of Nigerians