It’s deceitful to claim Samoa Agreement has no LGBTQ connection – Lawyer
A legal practitioner, Inibehe Effiong, has said that it amounts to “intellectual duplicity” to claim that the Samoa Agreement has nothing to do with LGBTQ.
Effiong made this assertion during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Friday.
He argued that article 15 of the agreement prohibits discrimination or violence based on gender, political orientation, and sexual orientation, which “indirectly includes LGBTQ.”
Effiong elaborated, “The starting point is to say that by virtue of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, no treaty between Nigeria and any other country should have the force of law except to the extent to which the treaty has been enacted into law by the National Assembly.
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“Nigeria, as a responsible member of the international community, is expected to comply with treaties, international conventions, and agreements to the extent that those agreements have coercive effects on Nigeria. In other words, those agreements are expected to be enforceable.
“Regarding the Samoa Agreement, the Federal Government has come out to say in a dismissive tone that this has nothing to do with LGBTQ. I beg to differ to the extent that if you look at article 15 of that agreement, there is a very interesting language. It prohibits discrimination or violence based on gender, based on political orientation, based on sex orientation. Sexual orientation includes LGBTQ”.
I think it amounts to intellectual duplicity, with proper respect, to say that the Samoa Agreement has nothing to do with LGBTQ. The argument should have been that having been a signatory to this agreement, will it supersede the same-sex marriage prohibition acts?”
Proofreading, editing by Sakinat Musa Abubakar, Editor at Neptune Prime.
