A bill banning same sex marriages has been passed by the Nigerian senate

Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, and one of the few that hasn't bowed to western pressure to drop legislation that curbs gay rights. The bill, which makes same-sex marriage punishable by a 14-year jail term, still has to be ratified by the country's lower house before being signed off by the president, Goodluck Jonathan. It also seeks to tighten existing legislation, which already outlaws gay sex, by criminalizing anyone who witnesses or assists such marriages and making same-sex public displays of affection a jailable offense. Under the new law, groups that support gay rights would also be banned. During the debate in the capital, Abuja, one senator described homosexuality as a mental illness to cheers of approval. Another senator said that such elements in Nigerian society should be killed. Many in Nigeria see the bill as a way for the government to score easy political points in a deeply religious society which is largely intolerant of homosexuality. Only 1.4% of Nigerians felt tolerant towards sexual minorities, according to a 2008 survey by Nigeria's Information for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. Few dare to stand up for gay rights in the Muslim-majority north, where homosexual acts can incur sentences of death by stoning. Much anti-gay rights sentiment is rooted in perceived suspicion that it is a foreign import being foisted on Nigerian by interfering outsiders. While threats from western governments to cut off aid amid growing anti-gay sentiment in the continent has forced other African countries to scrap proposed anti-gay laws, it's had the opposite effect in Nigeria, whose treasury is awash with dollars from its 2 million barrels-a-day oil industry. The new laws will have repercussions well beyond the gay community, said Damian Ugwu, an activist with the Lagos-based Social Justice Advocacy Initiative. Migrants who shared accommodation for economic reasons would be particularly vulnerable, he said. "From what I know of the Nigerian police, they look for every opportunity to extort money. With this bill, they won't go looking for gay couples in the Sheraton – they'll go just go around rounding up people who are poor or don't know their rights," he said. In the north, policemen had visited hotels at night to seek out unmarried couples sleeping together. They demanded bribes or threatened to turn them in to the Islamic courts, Ugwu said.