Nigeria Part of Growing Line Opposed to Liberalism and Liberal US Policies

SINCE 2009 NIGERIA, ONE OF THE LARGEST Christian countries in Africa, has been facing an insurrection from Boko Haram (BH)  the radical Islamic State affiliate in Nigeria.  Southern Nigeria is predominately Christian, while the north remains predominately Muslim and a breeding ground for radical Islam. BH was founded in 2002 by a Muslim clergyman; translated BH roughly means “western culture is a sin”. In 2009 the extremely radical Abubakr took over the group and violence escalated. In 2014 hundreds of school girls were abducted from a government secondary boarding school in Chibok, Northeast Nigeria.

Prior to the rise of BH Muslims and Christians lived alongside each other (as in Syria, Russia, Iraq etc).  Today, they even fight alongside each other as members of the Nigerian army battling BH together.

Nigerian Bishop Emanuel Badejo confirms this coexistence prior to the rise of BH:

I’m from the West of Nigeria, where the Yoruba culture is very strong. In the Yoruba culture there are many Muslims. In my particular area we are a minority of Christians living with a majority of Muslims, but we do wonderfully well together. In my diocese—and I think this is something that hasn’t gotten into the public media enough—I have 17 schools. Seventy percent of the students in my schools are Muslim children and even some of them — not that many, but quite a number — opt to convert to Christianity and their parents don’t have a problem with that. I am telling you the truth.

The United States has refused to sell the legitimate government of Nigeria arms with which to counter BH. Instead, they are  forced to use Russian weapons such as the MI 24 assault helicopters that fire up to 4,000 rounds per minute.

The United States however is supporting homosexuality, LGBT and the full liberal panoply in Nigeria and refuses to help against BH until the Nigerian government accepts the liberal agenda. This scenario was fully evident during President Obama’s 2015 visit to Nigeria.

During this visit Bishop Badejo, who is also the Communications Chairman for for the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), was incensed enough to declare:

 “African values are not on sale”

Bishop Badejo also informed us that Nigeria is under the liberal threat of  “ideological colonization” that is seeking to destroy the family.

“It’s so bad, he says, that the United States has made clear it will not help Nigeria fight the Boko Haram terror group unless the country modify its laws regarding homosexuality, family planning and birth-control.”

“The United States actually said it would help Nigeria with Boko Haram only if we modify our laws concerning homosexuality, family planning, and birth control. It’s very clear that a cultural imperialism exists. In fact, I think that Africa is suffering greatly from a cultural imperialism that threatens to erode our cultural values.

Bishop Badejo is sure that  BH, like the terrorists in Syria, is not an indigenous force but one funded and supplied from outside in support of someone else’s foreign policy.

“I do that know Boko Haram has been strengthened by other groups coming from the north of Africa and beyond, like those who fought in Libya and who have been fighting in Syria. There have been quite a number of times when the security agencies have arrested Boko Haram terrorists and found that they were not Nigerians at all. So I wouldn’t be surprised if there would be an attempt made by the terrorists from different parts of the North of Africa and the Arab world — ISIS, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram — to link up…once they claim territory for themselves in the North of Africa, Nigeria, Chad and so forth, then we have a much bigger problem on our hands. I think that should not be allowed to happen.”

The bishop also reminds us that what happened in Uganda, the second largest Catholic country in Africa, recently is related to what is happening in Nigeria:

“You do know about Uganda, in which the government had put in place legislation against, for example, homosexuality, because it wasn’t part of the culture. And Uganda was eventually forced to change that legislation if it was going to have the benefit of a grant from the United States.”

Homosexuality is not a Human Right

The LGBT agenda is part of the cultural imperialism being fought by African bishops who do not accept the argument that homosexuality is a basic human right; for this opposition they are paying a price.

“Blacks fought because they wanted to be recognized as human beings. But the gays are fighting so that their behavior may be recognized as a human right. It’s not on the same level. It’s not on the same level at all.

 

The black man fought so that he could be allowed to exist like his white counterpart. Those are human rights. But that people engage in relationships that are unproductive, that’s not the same thing.

 

“Homosexuals are God’s children. They have a right to be respected. They have a right to compassion. They have a right to be accepted as human beings. But there is a distinguishing factor between human rights and human behavior. I don’t have to accept homosexual behavior, just like I don’t have to accept drug addition, robbery, and terrorism. But I accept human beings, and I think that is the bottom line.”

Like other people around the globe, especially in Third World countries such as the Philippines and the  newly emerging democracies of Eastern Europe, people are shaking the shackles of liberal cultural imperialism and returning to their roots, to human decency rooted in a cultural patrimony that respected basic human values even before the advent of Christianity.

“Life has always been sacred. Family has always been honored, long before Christianity came.”

 

“More and more Africans are beginning to speak for themselves, and to resist the general attitude of the past that an African can hardly think for himself, that he hardly knows what it good for him.”

Because the common person in Africa can still think straight, the bishops are opposing the ideological imperialism from the West, an imperialism that endeavors to change their basic sense of decency:

Africa rejects an individualistic, selfish culture that thinks only about the quality of life rather than the sanctity of life. And Africa rejects the kind of culture that speaks only about freedom and no responsibility. We reject that kind of Western-style sexual education that is prevalent now, that attacks children, that seeks to “free” them and give them “choices” in their own sexual behaviors.

In Uganda President Yoweri Museveni signed a bill criminalizing homosexual acts making them punishable by imprisonment for life. Afterward, Mosoveni stated that homosexuality is “unnatural” and not a human right.

Irungu Kangata, a National Alliance (TNA) party leader, said,

“We are telling Mr. Obama when he comes to Kenya this month and he tries to bring the abortion agenda, the gay agenda, we shall tell him to shut up and go home.”

This kind of speech is intolerable to the purveyors of neoliberalism . Consequently, during a joint news conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, President Obama could not restrain himself. Despite the fact that homosexual acts are illegal in Kenya and despite numerous requests from political leaders throughout Kenya to avoid the issue Obama had this to say:

“With respect to the rights of gays and lesbians, I have been consistent all across Africa on this. I believe in the principle of treating people equally under the law and that they are deserving of equal protection under the law and that the State should not discriminate against the people based on their sexual orientation.”

For this statement President Obama came under fire from African politicians and clerics; it is a clear example of the  “ideological colonization” condemned by Pope Francis.

Ideological colonization is basically the same thing as cultural imperialism or global liberalism and is most likely the force behind BH, which is an asset in the  transition to a new government willing to impose a liberal agenda contrary to the indigenous culture of the Nigerian people. Politicians and church leaders in Kenya opposed President Obama when in 2015 he came to their country to advocate gay rights. For reasons such as these President Duterte in the Philippines is saying good bye to the United States; likewise Simon Lokodo, the Minister of Culture of Uganda, told Obama to keep his money:

“We will not shy away from this, we want to rid this country of homosexuality and if that means these people – Obama, Hague, you name them – want to stop their aid then let them.”

“We don’t need it, we won’t die poor, and we will at least be able to save these gays from damnation” (The Telegraph, UK  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/uganda/10668278/Keep-your-gays-and-keep-your-aid-Uganda-tells-the-West.html).

The point is rather clear, either democracy is rule by the people or rule by foreign imposition. If the former than Lokodo has the better argument  – it is an argument being used again and again by world leaders around the globe.  Either we have national sovereignty and rule by the people or international tyranny and rule by foreign dictate backed by missile strikes and ground forces, which is democracy?

As in Uganda and Kenya, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed a bill (2014) banning homosexual relationships and gay marriage and membership in gay rights groups.  The bill includes prison penalties of up to 14 years in prison for violation of its provisions. This new law was severely criticized by John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State speaking for the Obama administration. According to Kerry,

“It (the new law) is inconsistent with Nigeria’s international legal obligations and undermines … democratic reforms and human rights protections.”

That is, any culture, religion or law that opposes the liberal agenda must be evil and therefore thwarted to make people free, not in the name of God, but in the name of neoliberal democracy of the Kerry type even if it means disrespect of indigenous cultural values. Nigeria therefore must pay for its recalcitrance by either acquiescing to the threat of sanctions, losing its funding, or risk military intervention.  In this regard, Reuters, the International News Agency, confirms Bishop Badejo’s contention that the US will not help Nigeria unless it adopts the Liberal Gay Agenda:

“Britain and some other Western countries have threatened to cut aid to governments that pass laws persecuting homosexuals, a threat that has helped hold back or scupper such legislation in aid-dependent” (Reuters, Jan 13, 2014).

This helps us to understand why President Goodluck Jonathan was the first incumbent president in Nigerian history to loose an election and why BH is operative in Nigeria, as rebels are operative in Syria, trying to destabilize a legitimate and democratically elected government that happens to oppose the economic and cultural imperatives of someone else’s foreign policy. Too bad Goodluck’s successor Muhammadu Buhari unexpectedly endorsed the anti-liberal gay bill signed into law by Mr. Goodluck.

Speaking before a joint session of US Senate and House Committees on Foreign Affairs, President Buhari said:

“Sodomy is against Nigeria’s law and abhorrent to its culture.

Given such an attitude toward the liberal agenda, it should not be too difficult to project continued interference by BH in the political and cultural affairs of Nigeria.