Scratching The Nigerian Surface

Nigeria once again is in the news for more gay-related events but  for mixed reasons this time. The most hilarious of course is the Google Analytics survey which found that the countries who googled searched for strings such as ‘gay sex pics’ or ‘anal sex’ were Nigeria and Pakistan, two countries with the strongest anti-gay positions, at least in the minds of the politicians, religious leaders and such. I have to say I’m not surprised. If 1% of all men are gay and Nigeria has 71,345,488 men then at least 713,454.88 gay men, not to mention the difficult-to-assess group comprising of bisexual and “bi-curious” men. It’s always the quiet, closeted ones who have difficulty getting their needs physically met that have the seediest browser histories. Also many Nigerian gays have come forward to air their views – unfortunately people cannot use their real names but at least people are talking.

The official website of the Nigerian government was recently cracked by PaddyHack, an Irish activist opposed to the recent progress of Nigeria’s anti-gay bill. Even though he announced via Twitter (of course) that he was going to take down the site, the government couldn’t  stop him. However he has called off his attack (temporarily) and the site is up and running again.

The not-so-good part: a 31 year-old married woman has been declared wanted by the Nigerian Police for acts of ‘lesbianism‘ that occurred in 2012. I’m not sure how true this as it appears that the police are jumping the gun, after all the bill hasn’t completed its circuitous journey yet. I still hope this is some sort of joke because if t’s not and this bill becomes a law, I shudder to think of what will happen to gay men and women in Nigeria.