Nigerian Government Should Withdraw From $150billion Samoa Agreement Over LGBTQ Conditions – Shehu Sani

Nigerian Government Should Withdraw From $150billion Samoa Agreement Over LGBTQ Conditions – Shehu Sani

Despite oppositions by many religiously opinionated countries, the Samoa Agreement named after the Pacific Island Samoa, has been gradually gaining traction.

A former federal lawmaker from Kaduna State, Senator Shehu Sani, has said that the President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government should go back and unsign the Samoa Agreement it signed on November 15, 2023.

Despite oppositions by many religiously opinionated countries, the Samoa Agreement named after the Pacific Island Samoa, has been gradually gaining traction.

The agreement is said to have some clauses that compel underdeveloped and developing countries to support the agitations by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community for recognition, as part of conditions for getting financial and other supports from developed nations.

On Monday, information about the ratification of the deal by the Nigerian government filtered the air, when the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, confirmed that Nigeria signed the agreement at a reception organised by the European Union (EU) in Abuja.

With such controversial conditions of the agreement, some clerics, human rights activists and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria objected to the decision of Tinubu-led Nigerian government to sign the Samoa Agreement.

However, Bagudu’s media assistant, Bolaji Adebiyi, on Wednesday said the documents signed by the Nigerian government, which the Minister made reference to, were strictly for the economic development of Nigeria.

Adebiyi said that there is nowhere in the documents were LGBT or same-sex marriage was mentioned even remotely.

He stated that it would be wrong for anyone to imply that Nigeria had accepted those tendencies, stressing that what Bagudu signed was in relation to a $150 billion trade component.

But while also reacting to the reports of the Nigerian government signing of the $150 billion Samoa deal, Senator Sani said that African countries should not accept loans or grants from any country or group of countries that came with what he described as demonic conditions.

He said, “African states should not accept loans or grants from any country, group of countries or international institutions that came with demonic conditions antithetical to our culture, religious faiths and values.

“All African countries including Nigeria who appended their signatures should go back and ‘unsign’ the Samoa agreement.”