Legal practitioner Inibehe Effiong has criticized the Nigerian government for arguing that the Samao Agreement has no connection to LGBTQ issues, calling it “intellectual duplicity.”
In an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today, Effiong emphasized that Article 15 of the Samao agreement prohibits discrimination or violence based on gender, political orientation, and sexual orientation, which he argued indirectly includes LGBTQ.
Effiong highlighted that under Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, no treaty between Nigeria and another country can have the force of law unless enacted by the National Assembly.
He noted that Nigeria, as a responsible member of the international community, is expected to comply with international treaties to the extent that they have coercive effects on the country.
His words, “The starting point is to say that by virtue of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution 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.
“Nigeria as a responsible member of the international community is expected to comply with the treaties of international conventions and agreements and so on to the extent that those agreements have coercive effects on Nigeria, in other words those agreements are expected to be enforceable.
“Regarding the Samao 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 an extent that if you look at article 15 of that there is a very interesting language. It prohibits discrimination or violence based on gender, based on political orientation, based on sex orientation. Social orientation includes LGBTQ.
“I think it amounts to intellectual duplicity with proper respect to say that the Samao Agreement has nothing to do with LGBTQ. The argument should have been that having been a signatory to this argument will it supersede same sex marriage prohibition acts?”
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