BUSINESS DAY
Clerics, rights activists, and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria are expressing outrage over the federal government’s decision to sign the controversial $150 billion Samoa Deal.
This agreement reportedly includes clauses that require underdeveloped and developing nations to support LGBTQ rights as a condition for receiving financial and other forms of support from advanced countries.
Named after the Pacific Island Samoa, where it was signed on November 15, 2023, the agreement is gaining traction despite opposition from many countries that uphold Islamic and Christian values and are sensitive to their cultural norms.
News of Nigeria’s ratification of the agreement emerged on Monday, July 1, when Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, the minister of budget and economic planning, confirmed the development at a European Union (EU) reception in Abuja.
However, Bagudu’s media assistant, Bolaji Adebiyi, clarified on Wednesday that the documents referenced by Bagudu during the EU reception pertained strictly to economic development and did not mention LGBTQ or same-sex marriage.
Adebiyi insisted that Bagudu signed an agreement related to a $150 billion trade component, not LGBT issues.
When contacted for comments on the controversy surrounding the Samoa Agreement, Kamarudeen Ogundele, spokesman for the attorney general of the federation and minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, indicated he needed to gather more information and did not provide further details by press time.
Sonnie Ekwowusi, a Lagos-based lawyer and chairman of the Human and Constitutional Rights Committee of the African Bar Association (AfBA), raised concerns in an article on Wednesday.
He criticised the signing of the Samoa Agreement, describing it as “nauseating” and questioned the judgment of Nigerian officials.
“The Samoa Agreement, named after the Pacific Island, Samoa, where it was signed on November 15, 2023, celebrates perversity. Certain Articles of the Agreement especially Articles 2.5 and 29.5 legalise LGBT, transgenderism, abortion, teen sexual abuse, and perversity in African countries. The signing of the Agreement by Nigeria constitutes a threat to the sovereignty of Nigeria and Africa. It further debases our democracy.
“I can wager that neither Minister Atiku Bagudu nor the Nigerian officials or diplomats who signed the Samoa Agreement on our behalf, understand the import of the agreement to Nigeria’s sovereignty, let alone the destructive impact of the Agreement in Nigeria. This explains why many African bodies including the AfBA have condemned the agreement and respectfully urged African countries not to sign it.
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