Anglican Mainstream

Davis Mac-Iyalla who attended the Primates Meeting in Tanzania like others as a press representative confirms that with the closure of the current session of the Nigerian Parliament, the “same-sex bill” in Nigeria has now been “abandoned”. That part of the press release is consistent with the paragraph in the following letter to the Church Times today that, contrary to many reports, Anglican leaders have been working to uphold human-rights issues in the proposed legislation on homosexuality. The alternative scenario to be avoided would have been for Sharia law with its fatal penalties to be enacted.

Progress halted on same-sex bill in Nigeria

Thursday, 29 March 2007 by Davis Mac-Iyalla

Many people have been asking whether the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2006 which was debated on 22 March by the Nigerian House of Representatives is likely to be lost if the Nigerian election takes place soon.

The Nigerian Federal elections are scheduled to be held on 21 April and the ceremonial opening of the new session of Parliament on May 29, 2007, which the constitution recognizes as the hand over date to a new government. Allafrica.com reported on Sunday, 25 March 2007 that the House of Representatives will be prorogued on Wednesday, 28 March but this has not been confirmed by other sources. If the election takes place as timetabled, the present House of Representatives will be officially dissolved in May and the handover to the new House will take place.

The present sitting of the House has finished, and they asked the panel of Human Rights which continues to meet, to go and review the bill again. It is difficult to say categorically that the current House has been totally suspended because a lot of manoeuvring is taking place ahead of the election. It may be reasonably safe to assume the bill has been abandoned for now.

What we are hearing from CAN members in Anglican congregations in Nigeria is that the church leaders have been feeling big pressure on them and some are very angry because they expected the bill to be voted on prior to the end of this session. There are also rumours that money has exchanged hands, American money, and yet it has not proved easy for the Anglican Church leaders to push the bill through the House of Representatives. Corruption remains widespread at every level of Nigerian society.

It is also theoretically possible for the next government to reintroduce the bill. This would be unlikely to happen in the first term when they would be trying to satisfy many different expectations. It remains a possibility that the bill could be reintroduced in the next government’s second term

Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, said today (29 March):

“Because of the continuing uncertainty, Changing Attitude Nigeria will not celebrate the defeat of the bill publicly until after May 29. We are quietly confident and feeling more happy, but there is still the potential for lobbying in favour of the bill to take place by the Church of Nigeria and for the Government to spring a surprise. However, if the Church was confident about the success of the bill, we think they would be issuing a confident public statement now, which they are not.”

ENDS

Contact:
Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria
Tel. Mobile: +2348025866133
Email: davis@nigeria.changingattitude.org

Revd Colin Coward, Director of Changing Attitude England
Tel. Office: 01380 724908
Mobile: 07770 844302
email: colin@changingattitude.org

[Read here->http://walkingwithintegrity.blogspot.com/2007/03/progress-halted-on-same-sex-bill-in.html]

To the Church Times: From the Archdeacon of Hampstead, Canon Ben Enwuchola, and Canon Dr Chris Sugden

Sir, — In response to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement advertisement in your newspaper last week (page 9): the campaign to abolish the slave trade asserted the teaching of the Bible against the prevailing culture and economic theory of the day. This work developed into the work of the Anglican Church in the West Indies and West Africa to rebuild a better future with freed slaves.

Part of that better future was re-establishing the black family, which had been destroyed by slavery. Many slaves and ex-slaves embraced the Christian faith and scriptures.

Anglican leaders in Nigeria have been working closely to uphold human-rights issues in the proposed legislation on homosexuality. The Nigerian position is that those in their country who were set free from the slavery that was itself then a powerful global expression of contemporary Western culture do not wish to return today to the cultural bondage of sexual licence.

In the spirit of Wilberforce and the abolitionists, we are opposed to homophobic attitudes and actions against people made in the image of God. We nevertheless regard it as illegitimate to identify inclusion for lesbian and gay people irrespective of their behaviour — which is an expression of submission to contemporary culture, and against the teaching of the Bible — as an heir to the campaign to end the slave trade.

Michael Lawson, Ben Enwuchola, Chris Sugden
21 High Street, Eynsham
Oxford OX29 4HE

[Read here->http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=36802]

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