WESTERN GAY RIGHTS DEMAND, WILL BUHARI BUCKLE?

Icheoku says every attention-paying Nigeria knows that former President Goodluck Jonathan's problem with the West snowballed after he signed the anti same-sex (gay) marriage bill into law, officially banning same sex marriage in Africa's most populous country; thereby making Nigeria a gay-unfriendly country where it is not acceptable to be gay.  US Secretary of State John Kerry immediately attacked the law, stating that "Beyond even prohibiting same-sex marriage, this law dangerously restricts freedom of assembly, association and expression for all Nigerians. People everywhere deserve to live in freedom and equality. No one should face violence or discrimination for who they are or who they love." US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power followed with her condemnation of the law, saying "the law is a big setback for human rights for all Nigerians?" 

Icheoku says but these two officials of the United States of America government did not explain why Saudi Arabia is still the best friend of America despite the gross human rights violations in that kingdom, including the public beheading of gays and lesbians therein? The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not ever get any condemnation whatsoever nor have the eyebrows of America and the West raised when they carry out their persecution of the minorities of their country, including the beheading of gays and lesbians? So why this different treatment for different countries and varying standards of what constitute freedom and human rights violations set by the United States of America as it appertains to different countries, one may ask? 

So having got the green light, powerful gay lobby groups including the likes of Elton John and Apples' Tin Cook went into action, calling for their pound of flesh and eventually the head of this anti-gay president of Nigeria on a platter for daring to show the red light to gaydom in Nigeria.  Fortunately, with strong allies in the White House and 10 Downing Street, they organized and organized, manipulated the media including the staged Chibok girls abduction and successfully pigeonholed the former president into a corner, marked and branded, as the most clueless, unthinking buffoon in Africa, who must be got rid of. That the gay lobby also worked against securing the much needed help in the fight against Boko Haram including weapon sales is equally a fact of consequence. It is also within the public domain that the APC and their then presidential candidate made series of deals with their Western backers and sponsors, including to revisit the issue of gay-marriage in Nigeria? 

So Icheoku asks how far will the now President Muhammadu Buhari go to honor some of these deals, including the very one which is now known as the contract with the devil, the gay-rights question, being favorably revisited? Icheoku asks can a bill which has already been signed into law as an operational law of the country be so suddenly changed just because some powerful bloc in the West demanded it? How will the PDP senators see and react to this affront on the general Nigerian psyche? Would they allow a President Buhari to impose on the whole Nigeria, a deal he and Bola Tinubu privately reached with their Western backers in their desperate course of trying to win the presidential election in Nigeria? Now that President Muhammadu Buhari has secured the bargained for presidency of Nigeria, will he renege or shirk his own part of the bargain; and if so, what are the repercussions and ramifications, both for his government and the entire Nigeria? Would the West let him off the hook or are they going to come down heavy on his head with a sledge hammer and vanquish his presidency too like they did with Jonathan?

Icheoku is a firm believer that contracts must and ought to be respected but not one very repugnant to a society and which was contracted privately by private individuals in their rabid desire to get hold of power. Like the Devil's Advocate, where Keanu Reeves sold his soul to the devil in order to become a successful attorney and thereafter, like Andy in Living in Bondage, agonized that they did not explain it very well to him before he took that plunge, Icheoku is convinced that President Muhammadu Buhari must be similarly agonizing how he was made to enter into such a Catch-22 deal. The G-7 has already invited him to attend their forthcoming groups meeting on between 7-9 of June, 2015 in Berlin Germany; asking him to bring his "wish-list" of what he wants from them on behalf of his government and the country Nigeria. Icheoku hopes that energy/power will top that list, followed by stopping illegal oil bunkering and shutting its markets in Europe etc, repatriating back to Nigeria all the country's looted money in their European and island territories banks, Boko Haram routing, investments, and other assistance programs including growing and deepening democratic politics in Nigeria, retraining Nigerian police force and other security agencies as well as adequately equipping them.  

But what is the bargain the Industrialized nations G-7 will make or demand and get in return for all they are willing to do for President Muhammadu Buhari and his Nigeria? Icheoku does not know nor have all the answers, but sure, the reversing of the anti-gay law will certainly be one of them. But hopefully, President Muhammadu Buhari will find the courage to, like President Macky Sall of Senegal, tell them to refrain from seeking to impose their values on other people and beyond their borders. That unless they are ready to make a fair reciprocal trade of accepting our African polygamy values in their own Western countries as a condition for us in Africa accepting their gaydom lifestyle, there should and of course there will be no deal.