“Nigerian Media Don’t Report Positive News About The LGBT.” Pamela Adie Observes

When 57 boys were arrested in Lagos in August last year – an arrest that led to the infamous “they didn’t caught me” comic moment that took the social media by a storm – the news made headlines everywhere you looked on the internet. All the blogs and news sites were falling over themselves to let Nigerians know that the police arrested some young men who they alleged (without proof) were hosting a gay initiation party, despite the contrary evidence unearthed Bernard Dayo’s investigative reporting.

When a similar arrest was made in August 2017, the Nigerian media not only delighted in splashing the names of the arrested men, but published the details of those who were reportedly HIV positive. And all this with an almost maniacal glee that hinted at the fact that the media had joined the rest of the public to try and sentence these detainees before they’ve even been properly charged with any law breaking.

And this is a pattern. Any time a known queer person breathes. Any time Bobrisky coughs. Any time Denrele Edun sneezes. Any time Bisi Alimi scratches at a boil. Any time some homophobe takes a shot at the queer community, whether in Nigeria or internationally.

The Nigerian media is there to sensationalize it for the consumption of the public.

But let something as positive as Angola’s decriminalisation of same-sex conduct and criminalisation of homophobia happen, and the only likely place you’ll find the news trending would be on Nigerian Gay Twitter. The mainstream blogosphere has no time to report LGBT news that doesn’t cast us in an embarrassing or condemnable light.

And Activist Pamela Adie observed this on Twitter.