Nigeria blasts UN for pushing ‘LGBT’ agenda

English: Political map of the 36 States of Nigeria (English) Deutsch: politische Karte Nigerias (Englisch) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The ambassador of one of the world’s most populous nations told the United Nations secretariat to stop promoting the LGBT agenda in defiance of a majority of member states that uphold natural marriage.

Nigerian Ambassador Usman Sarki told a meeting of national representatives, “We wish to remind the UN to limit itself strictly to activities mandated by member states and especially to promote issues that are beneficial to mankind rather than lend itself as tool to promote aberrant behaviour under the guise of promoting human rights.”

Sarki was responding to the UN’s issuance last week of six postage stamps tied to the UN human rights office’s Free and Equal campaign advancing the status of homosexual, transgender and bisexual people. In Nigeria, with a population of 182 million people, homosexual relations can bring the death penalty in the Muslim north and 14 years in jail in the Christian south.

Sarki said the UN secretariat should not be promoting causes when many and even a majority of states oppose it. “What is clear to many is that the UN has now decided without any reservation or hesitation to side with a minority of member states and practitioners of this lifestyle, in complete disregard of the wishes and concerns of the majority of its member States and the populations that they represent,” he declared.

In fact, reported an amicus brief by a team of 54 lawyers filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, 176 countries “retain the understanding of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.” In other words, explained the brief, “Over ten times as many countries disallow same-sex marriage as allow it.”

Sarki concluded, “The UN should not take unilateral decisions on such sensitive matters that offend the sensibilities of the majority of its member states, and contradict their religious beliefs, cultures, traditions and laws.”

Sarki came under immediate attack from Nigerian humanist Loe Igme, who took to the website of News Ghana to claim the ambassador was “peddling falsehood” and was not speaking for “most Nigerians” at all.

“Sarki is not representing the position of millions of Nigerians that support without reservation and hesitation the efforts of the UN to protect the rights of religious, ethnic or sexual minorities,” said the story, which was bylined “admin” but gave Igwe as its sole “source.” “In fact millions of Nigerians want the UN not to cave to pressure and blackmail from homophobic member states.”

However, according to the worldwide survey of attitudes towards homosexuality conducted in 2013 by the Pew Foundation, Sarki’s views are very close to those of most Nigerians, who turns out to be the least accepting of all 40 countries surveyed: with 98 percent answering “No” to the question: “Should society accept homosexuality” and only 1 percent answering “yes.”

Christian leaders in Africa and America have accused the U.S. and European countries of blackmailing African states into advancing homosexual claims by threatening the withdrawal of military or economic aid.