On 4 July, Daily Trust reported that the Nigerian government had signed a partnership agreement deal which contains “clauses that compel underdeveloped and developing nations to support the agitations by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community for recognition, as condition for getting financial and other supports from advanced societies.”
Their report sparked a lot of controversy, even after Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, quickly clarified that the agreement does not mention LGBTQ or same-sex marriage.
Also, at a press briefing in Abuja, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malaga, said “We are alarmed by the level of reckless reporting and statements by some media organizations and individuals that border on national security and stability. We find that despicable and wicked, because the allegation is nowhere in the document signed on behalf of the federal government.”
Other media outlets were quick to publish fact checks, which all came to the same conclusion: that there was no mention of queer rights in the final agreement Nigeria signed.
The federal government filed a complaint against Daily Trust with the Nigerian Press Council (NPC), the statutory body that oversees ethical standards in the Nigerian press. But even this did little to temper the hysteria. Calls came from various political, cultural and religious organisations for the government to revoke its assent to the agreement.
The National Assembly even stepped in on 9 July, voting to investigate the agreement, despite the fact that only them—the members of the National Assembly —are empowered to make federal law. Only days after announcing the investigation, the Premium Times obtained a letter dated 9 May from the National Assembly to Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, urging the Minister to sign the agreement. It goes without saying that when the National Assembly is done reviewing the agreement, it will give it the green light. After all, our political elites and their associates own most of the private sector which is supposed to drive and further profit from the national economy, if the European Union is to have its way.
But make no mistake about it, this false alarm has been even more brutal for the LGBTQI community in Nigeria. The public denunciations by political and religious figures particularly, has stoked a witch hunt, leading to increased targeting by both state and non-state actors. Even social media accounts of ruling party chieftains have participated in sharing lists of human rights organisations that cater to LGBTQI concerns. Till date, neither the federal or state governments have taken any action to investigate what clearly amounts to an incitement to violence.
So, what really does this agreement contain? It has whipped up a lot of unease, fed by valid fears of imperialist imposition. But it is quite unfortunate that the irresponsibility of the corporate media in Nigeria continues to misdirect attention from legitimate issues towards bigotry and moral panic. Driven by their bottom lines, this media’s priority is clicks and engagement, through an editorial lens that manufactures consent for the capitalist system, if not the current government.
The Tinubu regime signed the Samoa Agreement on 1 June. The agreement’s stated goal is to “establish a strengthened political partnership between the [signatories] to generate mutually beneficial outcomes.”
Its strategic priorities include Human Rights, Peace and Security, Human and Social Development, Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth, Environmental Sustainability, as well as Migration and Mobility.
Each area of strategic interest is organised around the same principles of entrenching Western capital as the driving force in the neocolonial economy of developing countries in the global south, like Nigeria. As early as Article 1 of the agreement, it is stipulated that one of the central objectives of the partnership is to “mobilise investment, support trade and bolster private-sector development” in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. One of the ways this is to be achieved is by improving “regulatory environment as well as the quality, availability and accessibility of financial and non-financial services, to support the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the context of domestic investment mobilisation.”
In that regard, the Tinubu regime has signed on to the partnership as one of its most compliant participants. Since June 2023, the APC-led Federal government has implemented a trove of neoliberal reforms meant to cultivate and strengthen a local capitalist class. In April, the government announced a N200 billion intervention fund for Medium, Small, and Micro Enterprises (MSME). Private manufacturers cashed out big, getting N75 billion in grants from the Intervention Fund.
The regime has also begun speedy implementation of its new student loan scheme, as it allows tuition rates to soar across the country. In addition, it has further deregulated the electricity sector. In April, it allowed the private electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) to hike electricity tariff by 230% for 15% of connected households.
Under the articles covering environmental sustainability, the agreement stipulates that “the parties shall promote economic policy instruments that support climate change action, such as carbon pricing, market-based instruments and carbon taxes, as appropriate.”
Carbon pricing, carbon taxes, and all such other market-based instruments are incapable of tackling climate change and its many adverse effects in Nigeria, but they provide a lucrative avenue for enrichment that distracts from much more fundamental and effective solutions.
There are so many other provisions of the agreement which serve to stimulate economic growth in ACP through deregulation which enables the lowering of risks and responsibilities private capitalists have to worry about when embarking on new business ventures.
In exchange for these reforms, the Nigerian government, and governments of other ACP states, will receive development aid through the European Development Fund (EDF). While the agreement includes no financial protocol, the EU has committed to “communicate at the earliest opportunity,” the amount of aid it intends to disburse.
The agreement contains yet more troubling provisions cushioned between flowery platitudes about promoting democracy, human and labour rights, women’s rights and sustainable development. Provisions which would have received further scrutiny if our queerphobic media did not opt instead to remain preoccupied with LGBTQI scaremongering.
There is an important lesson in this, particularly for revolutionary and anti-imperialist forces of the Nigerian left. The moral panic queerphobia can whip up in neocolonial African societies has made it into one of the handiest tools of the local ruling class. While policy makers surrender the country’s economic sovereignty to the forces of imperialism represented by EDF, IMF, World Bank, etc., they paper over the perpetuation of Nigeria’s neocolonial condition in favour of a hatefest, a competition to determine who can outdo the other in inciting hatred and violence against minorities.
The queer liberation struggle has to assume a place of higher priority in the anti-colonial struggle, if nothing else, because of how regularly it is deployed to distract from systemic failures and to gin up support for the same collaborationist political class overseeing these failures. It is not just enough to point out that queer Nigerians don’t affect the cost of food in the market. The state’s extension of its assault against the rights of queer people functions as a mechanism to manufacture consent for its steady descent into fascistic rule, and it is crucial to properly understand this in order to effectively resist it.
by Kayode Somtochukwu ANI
