* As Tinubu-led government signs $150 billion Samoa deal
The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has joined rights activists, and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria to kick against the decision of the federal government to sign the controversial Samoa Agreement.
The agreement, according to Daily Trust‘s cover story of July 4, reportedly has some clauses that compel underdeveloped and developing nations to support the agitations by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community for recognition, as condition for getting financial and other support from advanced societies.
Although the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, through his media assistant, Bolaji Adebiyi, said the document signed were strictly for economic development of Nigeria, NSCIA, an umbrella body for the Nigerian Muslims insisted that the council’s stance on same sex marriage or LGBT remains unchanged.
When contacted by Daily Trust on Wednesday night, an official of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Abubakar Akande, who is the Administrative Secretary of the council, said that the council’s stance on same sex marriage or LGBT remained unchanged.
Akande said that though they were invited and attended the meeting in March this year, it was not for them to ratify or oppose the draft shared with them.
He said that the 403-page document containing 104 articles was given to the Legal Director of the NSCIA, and that there was no same sex marriage in the draft.
“We (NSCIA) would not welcome such agreement. Our stance remains the same since the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. We cannot agree to what is against the injunction of our Creator, Allah, on this matter, and which also disrespects Nigeria’s sovereignty,” he said.
On his part, the Ameer (leader), Abuja Muslim Forum (AMF), Alhaji Abdulrazaq Ajani, said that the African civil society organisations (CSOs), which the AMF is a part of, had met top government officials and members of the two chambers of the National Assembly yesterday, especially the chairmen of the relevant committees in the House of Representatives, and also the administrative leadership of the legislators.
He said they rejected the move completely. Read full report HERE
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