The British High
Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Andrew Pocock, has described the anti-gay
law recently signed by President Goodluck Jonathan as draconian, saying that informed
his government’s opposition to it.
Speaking at the
reception for Nigerian Chevening scholars in Abuja, Ambassador Pocock said the
law was also likely to conflict with provisions of the Nigerian constitution
that guaranteed the rights of the citizenry.
He dismissed as incorrect the perception of western antagonism to the law, insisting that the law would not affect the cordial relations between Nigeria and United Kingdom.
He dismissed as incorrect the perception of western antagonism to the law, insisting that the law would not affect the cordial relations between Nigeria and United Kingdom.
He said:
“We think it is unnecessarily draconian, it seems to us to be at least
potential in conflict in terms of its penalties with parts of the Nigerian
constitution that defends individual rights and with parts of international
instruments that Nigeria is a party to.
”We have
expressed our disappointments as well as many other Nigeria’s international
friends. Because we look very much at our relationship with Nigeria as a
partnership we feel we can speak plainly to each other without threatening the
basis of the relationship, so we have done that in this case; we hope now to be
able to move on.
“There is a myth
going on around that western countries have been trying to force Nigeria to
accept same sex marriage, we have never tried to do that, no western country is
trying to force Nigeria to accept this, that is a matter for Nigerian.
“Our
disagreement with Nigerian government over this piece of legislation is in no
way connected to our development programme.
“Our development programme is based on objective criteria on analysis of the needs of poor people in this country and wish also to bring input of many kinds into addressing some of the fundamental causes of poverty and of conflict in this country, those things remain extremely important to us and we think they are also very important to Nigeria.
“Our development programme is based on objective criteria on analysis of the needs of poor people in this country and wish also to bring input of many kinds into addressing some of the fundamental causes of poverty and of conflict in this country, those things remain extremely important to us and we think they are also very important to Nigeria.
“So we have no
intention of linking our aid programmes driven by those fundamental
requirements to a question like legislation. So as I said we can express our
disappointment and find ways of addressing it but it is not linked to our
development programme.”