HURIWA KICKS AGAINST AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 2021 GOALS WHICH SUPPORTS HOMSEXUALITY AND ABORTION
Oru Leonard
The foremost rights group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has said that the 2021 Goals of the Amnesty International (AI), which it published recently on its Facebook page is against Nigeria’s Cultural Norms.
HURIWA who spoke through the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, noted that AIs objectives are against the constitutional and cultural norms of Nigeria.
Onwubiko commended the National Assembly recalled that the Nigerian Senate and the Federal House of Representatives passed the Anti-Gay Bill in December 2011 and July 2013 respectively with a unanimous vote, and the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act finally received presidential assent on 30th December, 2013, criminalizing gay marriage and related practices with fourteen years imprisonment for defaulters, against five years as proposed by the initial bill.
He said the framers of the Nigerian constitution are conscious of the fundamental obligation of government to promote, preserve and project our cultures and traditions which informs the inclusion of the safeguards against abuse of our cultures in section 21 which provides that: “the state shall –
a) Protect, preserve and promote the Nigerian cultures which enchance human dignity and are consistent with the fundamental objectives as provided in this chapter; and
b) Encourage development of technological and scientific studies which enchance cultural values.”
Article 16 of the Universal Declarations of Human Rights recognizes these constitutional provisions on our cultures when it states thus:
Article 16.
1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2) Marriage shall be entered into only with free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3) The family is the natural and fundament group unit of society and is entitled to protection by the society and the state.
“On the one hand, Cultural rights protect the rights for each person, individually and in community with others, as well as groups of people, to develop and express their humanity, their world view and the meanings they give to their existence and their development through, inter alia, values, beliefs, convictions, languages, knowledge, etc.
“Because culture affects all aspects of human life, cultural rights illustrate the indivisibility and interdependence of all rights in a more comprehensive fashion than any other rights. At the same time, cultural rights are often in a state of tension or conflict with other human rights”, Comrade Emmanuel explained.
The recent Amnesty International’s goals published on its Facebook account, which includes; making same-sex relations legal in all countries, making abortion legal in all countries and abolishing the death penalty in all countries has once again raised concerns over the issue of globalization and indigenous concept of sexuality and abortion which forms the fulcrum of this paper.
HURIWA President expressed their belief that Amnesty International which has also authored many negative reports against the Nigeria Army, is not a fit and proper organisation to do so, given their now advertised notorious trilogy of anti-African cultural objectives such as promoting recognition of same sex relationship, and promoting abortion rights.
“We are now convinced that the aim of all of these reports are targeted at destroying Nigeria or blackmailing Nigeria to unban same sex relationship and permit abortions which are offensive to our core constitutionally mandated obligations on government to preserve, promote and uplift our cultures and traditions which are not at variance with International human rights law.
“We ask our members who are members of Amnesty International to denounce such affiliations and we will ask the National Assembly to pass a resolution condemning these stated objectives of Amnesty International”, Onwubiko stated.
He further noted that, “Through the African eyes, homosexuality is a high pedestal immoral act, best imagined or possibly practiced exclusively by animals. Even, it is rated an inch higher than incest between close relatives, such as brothers and sisters, sons and mothers or daughters and fathers. Myriads of such sex misconducts are categorized among the taboos of the land and must be avoided with total disdain”.
Onwubiko stated that the struggle for same-sex relationship and abortion is really a much strayed politics that has no identity in the African cultural and religious landscape, adding that no true African culture can recognize or accept the strange habit of sniffing for sexual pleasure in the anus of a fellow human.
“Even if the anal sex lifestyle is a western conspiracy for global birth control, it is seriously stepping on the toes of African core values and the belief system of most religions of the world. After all, birth control is a matter of self-discipline by a married couple, which can better be achieved through gradual family education”, he stated
HURIWA President therefore called on African leaders to see it as an obligation to protect Africa against the invasion of these anti-African lifestyles, by bracing up to the challenge of protecting the African values in their custody, and also projecting the same to the consciousness of the generations yet unborn.
“Thus, in the African context, no matter how same sex relations and abortion lifestyle is fortified by fabricated laws, there is no known moral or ethical justification for the same sex and abortion struggle”, he ended.
