By Richard Murphy
The joke is on Nigerians who routed for a Joe Biden presidency in the country without understanding the deeper issues that shape politics in the United States of America, and indeed in any other country of the world. The reference here is to the Donald Trump-hating Nigerians, who detest the former US President for no reason other than the fact that CNN told them to do so plus the fact that it is considered “woke” to align with whatever subject the social media trend is pushing.
It was thus comical that some Nigerians went as far as making enemies of their compatriots in their desire to have Trump out of the way and Biden stepping in. Their wish came to pass and so did the worst of their nightmares. Biden’s early actions include one that may soon compel Nigerians to be in same sex relationships and other such abominations that will erase their identities.
According to Reuters, “President Joe Biden issued a presidential memorandum aimed at expanding protection of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer and intersex (LGBTQI) people worldwide, including potentially through the use of financial sanctions.” This smack puts Nigeria in Biden’s crosshair because the country has the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act 2013.
The implication is that the US will target officials in Nigeria and other countries that are not LGBTQI-friendly with a “range of diplomatic tools, and potentially financial sanctions and visa restrictions,” as reported by the news agency. Usually, financial sanctions will include assets freeze and nationalization of companies connected to the targeted officials. Travel restriction will extend beyond the shores of the United States, which will leverage its relations with collaborating nations to squeeze targeted officials and their relations.
The folly of our ruling class has again been exposed by this threat of sanctions. Unless citizens pressure them, they will likely hop from one foot to the other looking for ways to dampen the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act 2013 so that they can continue to visit the United States unfettered while having unrestricted access to their assets and businesses in that country. Such capitulation will come at a higher cost to the country for what Biden is offering threatens to contaminate the land and make all Nigerians abominable before God.
Those who should fear more, however, are the ardent Biden supporters, who were deluded to the point of not realizing that evil can never bring forth good. Biden’s directive is for US “agencies working abroad to work harder to combat the criminalization by foreign governments of LGBTQ status or conduct,” which would be extended to including trawling the social media accounts of these same Biden-supporters for anti-LGBTQI content. Sadly, these same Biden supporting crowd had ignorantly loaded their social media walls and timelines with remarks that would be adjudged homophobic. Their situation is compounded by the possibility that their mobile devices could be searched for such contents upon entry into the US and that is assuming that they have not been denied visas based on their social media activities.
The foregoing possibilities are child’s play compared to the other realities that are implied and contained in the US President’s memo. From the look of things, to protect LGBTQI rights and advance their agenda, he is willing to go the extreme against countries irrespective of the fact that they are in their rights to manage their affairs in the manner they see fit. The coded expression, for US agencies “to consider appropriate responses, including the full range of diplomatic tools” encompasses devilish acts like sponsoring terrorists to unleash on Nigeria and then preventing arms sales in Nigeria.
It is not surprising that part of that devilry has played out in Nigeria. We must recall that the #EndSARS protests were first triggered by the LGBTQI, which financed the protests with sumptuous meals and transport fare being provided to those taking part. The LGBTQI community might have distanced itself from the protests after allowing them to descend into crippling violence. That violence is a prelude to what US affiliated NGOs will now do unleash on Nigerians, something that will torment Nigerians irrespective of whether they supported Biden or were for Trump.
Citizens have a responsibility to themselves, which is to put pressure on the Federal Government to come up with a comprehensive list of possible sanctions that can be imposed on the United States for being pro-LGBTQI. The sanctions should include a derecognition of all marriages contracted in the US and all other such sanctions as would force that country to reconsider its sick stand. This deterrence will ensure that Nigerians are insulated from the chain reactions that the US plots to trigger with its supposed sanctions.
Thoughts must also be given to redefining Nigeria’s foreign relations, if not its foreign policy in a manner that pivots away from over-dependence on approval of the US in whatever it is doing. It is time to adopt a firmer response where the interest of Nigeria is concerned and the country just so happens to have experienced citizens that can be assigned such duties.
For now, one can only engage in rueful headshaking about how the joke is on those who had placed much stock on the Biden presidency without realizing that his place in history is to implement the devil’s agenda of making homosexuality mainstream. The joke would further be on Biden himself because Donald Trump has somehow enlightened the world to understand that the US, even as a superpower, has its Banana Republic side, with the implications that it must also have soft spots that can be hit with well packaged sanctions from supposedly weaker countries that he is trying to bully to accept homosexuality as a way of life.
Murphy wrote this piece from Calabar, Cross River State.
