THAT’S MICHAEL

THAT’S MICHAEL

That’s Michael.

Splashed on the front page of the dailies, he’s the first in a queue of 42 gay men who were arrested by the police in Nigeria last week.

White singlet – white, like the long white garment that flowed to his ankles when I saw him, almost ten years ago.

It was the uniform of the Aladura Church, a Nigerian sect of Christians well known for their frenetic and frenzied approach to prayer.

Prayer to heal the sick. Maybe cast out devils. Maybe cure same sex attractions too.

That sunny Sunday morning, his face subdued with a nervous smile, Michael sat with me by the soccer field along Awolowo Avenue in Ibadan. His big eyes, like saucers, were filled with watery innocence as he talked about his grandmother. He was staying at her house. She was very fond of him.

“I like staying with her, instead of at my parents’ house. In fact, I’m going to go to university in Lagos or Abeokuta,” he said, “just to get away from home.”

I understood. He had the air of some kind of geeky professor-in-the-making, even when he wasn’t saying much.

When I asked about his parents, his reply felt strained, and his gaze – and the conversation – was dropped.

Ten short years, an unethical law and a frivolous arrest later, it turns out Michael was right to be skeptical about his family. He now needs two sureties, family or neighbor, to be granted bail before his trial. Yet the same law by which Michael was arrested can also incriminate anyone else by association. Parents must choose between affirming their children and risking public ridicule, or turning their backs and sacrificing their own blood. Many often choose the latter.

In this sordid scandal, money in the millions will have exchanged hands, from the vulnerable, desperate and desolate victims of this brutish witch-hunt, to their captors: oppressive police, corrupt court administrators, and other agents of the Nigerian pseudo-theocratic state. Even if any of the 42 men meet bail conditions, they may no longer be able to return home.

Even if they are judged not guilty, which is unlikely, they have already been tried in the courts of public opinion. By unethically displaying Michael’s photograph, the Nigerian Media entertains a bloodthirsty cult of pseudo-moral savages who shall feast on the still-breathing carcass of his sullied reputation.

It is a worrisome plight, not just for Michael and the other 42 men. It is a fearful omen for the perhaps twenty million more homosexual men and women hiding in Nigeria’s shadows. The repression of some of us by the rest of us makes life a collective prison sentence for all of us, in which the dignity of being otherwise human is undermined by inhumane laws.

Written by Ayo

Previous Random Questions IX
Next "The Boyega Is Mine." James Corden and Jeffrey Tambor fight over John Boyega

About author

You might also like

Our Stories 19 Comments

Those Hookup Abbreviations You Should Know (Just In Case You Didn’t Already)

If you ever log onto Grindr, SCRUFF or one of the dozens of other knock-offs only to feel like you’re lost in a sea of newfangled and, at times, completely

Our Stories 152 Comments

THE CHILD FROM YESTERDAY

“Ome ka nwanyi, ome ka nwanyi…!”(Girly boy or sissy), a voice screamed through the window of the towering building. This is a voice I was so familiar with. It’s one

Our Stories 97 Comments

TAKING ON THE OFFENSIVE

I know violence is not the answer. I know I might be wrong for doing what I did. But I get very weary of being in the position where I

4 Comments

  1. Francis
    August 10, 06:07 Reply

    Very sad something. I hope the nightmare ends soonest.

    Yet the same law by which Michael was arrested can also incriminate anyone else by association

    I really need to read their same sex marriage bill again

    • omiete
      August 10, 20:50 Reply

      unfortunately they wont be tried based on the SSMPA, but on the criminal code of lagos state. Which calls it an offence against the laws of nature. I honestly wish they get good representation because the police has no case. no body was caught in any act at all.

  2. trystham
    August 10, 07:11 Reply

    And we are left to do guesswork with the names and faces of this/that governor from this/that place who are criminals…Issokay

  3. doe eyed monster
    August 18, 14:51 Reply

    well… As at yesterday, it remains 6 of them still searching for sureties

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.