Nigeria's Parliament on 2 June 2013 passed a bill criminalizing gay
marriage, making it punishable with a 14-year prison term. However,
speculation is rife whether President Goodluck Jonathan would sign the
bill into law. The country's lower house, the House of Representatives,
followed the action of the Senate and endorsed the bill.
In November 2011, the country's Senate passed the bill with an
overwhelming majority with Senate President David Mark saying that
homosexuality was foreign to Nigerian culture. Included in the bill are
sections that make it unlawful to register gay associations and make
public show of same-sex relationships indirectly or directly. This
section attracts 10-year jail term.
To this end, there was hardly a dissenting voice throughout the
deliberations leading to the bill except few gay association members who
appeared during public hearings to oppose the move. United States and
Britain have threatened to cut funding for the country's AIDS and HIV
control programme if the President finally signs the bill into law.
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