Dear Self Righteous Nigerian: Open Letter From a Humanist

Dear Self Righteous Nigerian

At what point did we become so comfortable with raising glasses to murder, with saying cheers to the act of one man taking another man’s life? At what point did you decide to mete out judgment because one’s sexuality does not conform to yours?

It amazes me to think you’d heap words of vilification on Boko Haram for their mayhem, yet you rejoice that a man killed his gay son – a 14-year-old boy with his whole life still lying ahead of him.

How much more callous can you get? How totally bereft of humanity can you be?

Hiding under the shadow of the scriptures to better cast damnation on others makes no sense, especially when He who led to the manifestation of your faith was Himself full of love.

Here’s a truth you have been too blinded by your hate to know: Gay people are human beings too. And until we begin to appreciate the beauty of human diversity, we will never truly live. A 14-year-old teenager who reportedly “brought happiness to those he came across” was shot by his own father, and instead of recognizing this horror for what it is, you are in the full regalia of your righteousness toasting the senseless loss of life – why? Because of whom he goes to bed with? That justifies his death, really? How did his sexuality affect your output at work or the probable repentance of your corrupt political figures who siphon your nation’s monies to more personal purposes? Or did the fact that he kissed a boy introduce your country into the chaos that it knows today?

Here we are calling Boko Haram insurgents and terrorists, and without even knowing it, you have become a terrorist cell yourself, with your words and actions that threatening the well being of average Nigerians who simply want to coexist peacefully with you. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves and hide your faces from the reality of light. For if you can find joy in the senseless murder of people who love differently from you, what then do you tell your children and friends when they tell you of their struggles, about bullying, domestic abuse, suicide and killings on our streets? What words of comfort can you genuinely muster for them when you are incapable of such human depth in the face of LGBT murders?

How quickly you seem to have forgotten campaigns such as Bring Back Our Girls and Black Lives Matter, movements that decry terror and human rights abuse, movements that seek to bring about the recognition of one’s right to live. You, dear hypocritical Nigerian, of all persons should be able to understand why the right to a good life is important.

A life was lost. Like so many others before Giovanni, a life was lost. A tragedy that needn’t happen has happened. And if you take nothing away from all this, take these words of Ann Marie Buerkle and think on them: “…People matter – whether or not we agree on the issue, people matter.”

Written by Awele