Homosexuality in Nigeria - Condemning bigots who seek death

Suffering a different sexuality

It is no more a surprise that people whose sexuality does not align with the majority can get persecuted in some societies; however, African societies tend to prosecute them.

Add religious intolerance and tyrannical moralising to the mix and you have the result of people being condemned to death for being different.

Now, there are certain punishments which might serve as deterrents to others when it comes to crimes, but how would capital punishment serve as a deterrent to a situation that is inherently accepted as genetic?

Homosexuality a norm

Medical science no more considers homosexuality a mental disease, an aberration or treatable condition, it is a norm for the people who exhibit those tendencies and the same people have been, are and will continue to be worthy and contributing members of our societies whether we accept them or not.

Nigeria comes to the fore on this matter again as 18 men were remanded in custody for transvestism and homosexual practices (for those who seek great revulsion – sodomy) in a state that practices Sharia Law – Bauchi State.

When I was in Paris in June, I observed the Gay Pride march where a group against capital punishment highlighted a number of nations that imposed the death penalty on homosexuals (See Slideshow) - Sign their petition if your are concerned.

Stoning a taboo

Nigeria prominently featured in that list and it got me worried and quite concerned that all death sentences imposed through Sharia Law have yet to be carried out in Nigeria, but the possibility of execution is getting closer than is comfortable to countenance.

What better way to excite a lynching mob since the stoning of these people would most likely be done by the public who would be provided the stones to commit a public murder than to present them with a homosexual?

This is a human rights issue has been hijacked by irrational religionists and painted with the epithet of a taboo – but whose taboo is it anyway? And what right has anyone to make their taboo a crime on others who do not subscribe to that taboo?

Bigots deserve no tolerance

However, beyond the news of these arrests comes the comments (scroll down the linked page to see selected comments) that accompany the news, people who want to appear objective and rational spew out the most savage and primitive notions predicated on nothing but religious adherence and the willingness to sacrifice fellow human beings on the altar of fanaticism and irrational thought, with the hope that it makes them better human beings or committed religionists in line for great heavenly reward. I think not.

These selfsame people are the cancer that eats into our societies and deprives our humanity of talented, reasonable, tolerant and albeit different people to perpetuate an illusion of ridding our societies of corruption and moral laxities.

In my view, if anyone so advocates the death penalty for people being who they naturally are and are found committing supposedly victimless crimes amongst consenting partners then the accuser does not deserve justice for wanting to unnecessarily punish the innocent to validate their bigoted and prejudiced views, they should be first in line for the stoning - be they bishops, disciples, imams, politicians, fanatics or people who just refuse to use their God-given right to think and rationalise.

Our societies can tolerate and accept homosexuals but we must not tolerate or accommodate bigots and religious fanaticism that fork lifts Scripture for their own selfish ends seeking evil rather than mercy, speaking death rather than saving life.

Dishonest lending clue to market tremors

Central bank influence

I am no economist but I know that one has to be a little smart about the handling of money and investments.

Somehow, I had be quite concerned about the way hedge funds and their private equity counterparts have been buying up companies in takeovers and buyouts with highly leveraged instruments that heaps debts on acquisitions and sells on debt though systems that eventually have one institution holding the baby with adequate baby nourishment.

Interest rates have been going up in all regions for the past few years as Central Banks work hard to keep inflation down with the blunt hammer of interest rate manipulation and the assessments written in a language that would make parseltongue sound like baby chuckles.

Central bank to the rescue

What really bothers me is the way these sophisticated debt instruments have now come full circle as these debts cannot be sold on to raise more capital that the markets are presumably suffering a credit crunch, as if that is not fearful enough, the Central Banks in Europe, the Americas and Asia have pumped $326.3 billion into the markets to maintain investor confidence to no avail, the markets are falling like flies.

For Central Banks to be pouring money into the markets in this manner, the one side of maintaining investor confidence should not obfuscate that deeper issue of the possibility of Central Banks knowing a lot more about the problems inherent in the market than they are letting on.

Sub-Prime lending farce

It is the accepted legend that this whole debacle was caused by problems in the sub-prime lending for mortgages in the United States. Basically, people who normally would not qualify for loans and mortgages are allowed to take on these liabilities with lax due-diligence and higher interest repayments with the banks hoping to cash in on these higher risk stupidities.

With rising inflation also fuelled by cheaper credit coming from the appreciated value of existing homeowners, interest rates are raised to contain inflation making sub-prime loan repayments unserviceable.

Avalanche effect

Foreclosures take homes from the borrowers who cannot keep up and banks are left with debts that cannot be repaid and houses that cannot been sold at a premium to cover their losses – the avalanche effect has had banks reeling from exposures that has tightened liquidity and in some cases closed banks.

I am not convinced that we have seen the extent of banking exposure to sub-prime loans and the existing contingencies obviously have not been enough to give investors any confidence as they are selling up before thy get more caught up.

Thankfully, it is Friday, another trading day this week could have meant a complete meltdown – well, something close to a run on the markets.

Dishonest and fraudulent

Some people have talked about predatory lending practices that take the inadequacies of borrowers, sweeten up their circumstances to fit within lending parameters to derive commission and profit at completion of the deal but leaving the borrowers with liabilities the brokers know for sure they cannot handle.

The Financial Times yesterday gave an insight into the workings of this sub-prime lending activity. I will quote the text exactly as it appears in the article – Payback time.

"At the height of the US sub-prime lending boom, taking out a mortgage could not have been easier. Low credit score and history of bankruptcy? No problem. Income too low to qualify for a mortgage? Inflate what you earn on a "stated income" loan. Nervous that your lender might check up on your "stated income"? Visit http://www.verifyemployment.net

For a $55 fee, the operators of this small California company will help you get a loan by employing you as an "independent contractor". They provide payslips as "proof" of income and, for an additional $25, they also man the telephones to give you a glowing reference should your lender need it.

But perhaps the most absurd aspect of the US subprime mortgage market in recent years is that lenders became so generous with credit provision for out-of-pocket borrowers that very few checks were ever made."

If this is not completely dishonest and fraudulent, I wonder what is. In all the analysis and reckoning from market experts everyone seems to have an explanation apart from the real truth, people have been dishonest, banks have collaborated in perpetuating a lie and conducted financial transactions that are no more borderline criminal whilst Central Banks are now trying to clean up the mess without addressing the cause.

This problem would continue until honest, principled, truthful and trustworthy men step up to root out fraudulent practises in banks and lending procedures whilst ensuring that sensible due-diligence guidelines are adhered to for every loan offered.

Now, this should not mean that credit should not be available to all who seek credit, it means if doubts of recoverability do exist more should be done to safeguard the manageability of the loan when times do get tough – if that cannot be done, it would be a field day for loan sharks and that would be unacceptable.

NB: Like I said at the beginning of this write-up, I am no economist and this is not an exhaustive analysis of the sub-prime lending debacle or market volatility, it is simply a layman’s perspective on contemporaneous issues.

The First Gulder Ultimate Death II

Blaming the victim

The plot begins to thicken as the 4^th Gulder Ultimate Search took one contestant to the ultimate sacrifice - death.

My first write up on this matter was full of speculation and that was because the snippets of news we were given were far from satisfactory to allay the fears of foul play.

It now transpires that the young man died during a challenge when something of his apparently fell into the water as he was traversing it in a canoe, he tried to reclaim the object and he fell in the lake and drowned.

The story is developing a convenient means of exculpating everyone but the victim, but that would be getting off too easy.

The responsibility for safety measures

Given that the contest does require that contestant be able to swim if swimming were required, when you are in a canoe, I do not think you are prepared for swimming. In those circumstances, the occupants of the canoe should and must be wearing life jackets.

This should have been standard non-negotiable safety procedure monitored and enforced by the organisers who should have been more responsible for their wards.

It is also amazing that the organisers allowed the contestants to board the canoes with things or valuables that would have created the situation that compelled Mr. Ogadje to dive into the water to retrieve the thing that eventually lead to his loss of life.

More to this

I think there is still more to this story, but this story as it develops is building a case of criminal culpability against the organisers, if they think they will get away with drip-feeding us half truths rather than the exact chronology of events that lead to the young man becoming impossible to resuscitate, they have really got it coming.

I will not relent till I am convinced of the facts - keep talking and speaking up fast.

Walsall born in Warsaw pact

Cities, names and airports

Once and for all, I decided to deal with the confusion especially when a silly immigration officer at London Heathrow Airport was trying to be smart and catch me out by asking if I was born in Warsaw when it says Walsall in my passport and then saying Walsall, London?

Walsall is near Birmingham; sometimes these people really make you want to blurt out a derogatory expletive followed with a throttling of the neck.

But then, the many times I have said I was born in Walsall, people have automatically said Warsaw, Poland and I have had to explain why the cities sound alike but are almost a thousand miles apart.

So having a long weekend from work because the company has compulsory holidays on Friday and Monday, my mind went into overdrive as to what to do this weekend.

Get off the beaten track and do something new, I thought, check for a good Accor hotel and then flights, by the time I knew it, the hotel taxi was picking me up from the Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport (Formerly Okecie Airport) at the spanking new Terminal 2.

This place was not like that dreadful, rotten, horrible and atrocious London Heathrow which is patently not fit for purpose, the atmosphere was easy only that we missed strains of the piped music of Chopin.

I should start planning my itinerary though I would not be able to do either Auschwitz or Treblinka which are miles away from Warsawa, but I would do my best to get a good view of the Poles and hopefully would not run into those twins.

Mile-high monkey takes hat seat

Fist full of monkey

One would hope that this was not for real, but the incredible is now par for the course, it really has to be astonishingly miraculous to be surprising nowadays - it is impossible to shock anyone such that ones jaw dropping to the floor can be termed a rebellious response to conserving energy and body heat.

In this age of the war against terrorism and the paralysing paranoia of running the gauntlet of airport security one would think this was a science fiction dream.

Somehow, a man travelled from Lima, Peru to LaGuardia airport in New York with a few hours stopover in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his monkey (marmoset) pet under his hat without detection, till the animal came out for a breather during the second leg of his journey within the United States.

It would appear there was a time someone thought the swishing tail of the monkey was the man's ponytail.

Scanning voids

So much for security checks, X-Ray scanning and checked baggage, if a man could successfully go through customs checks without once having to doff his hat - it is no doubt a daring thing to do and no matter that charges are filed against the man, there was a complete lapse in checks at Peru and within the United States.

Supposedly, he was a passenger in transit in Florida and hence might not have had to go through stringent checks reserved for those entering the travel circuit from Florida, it is still amazing that no one noticed on the flight from Peru which would have been a good few hours.

A vector for terror

The greater concern however is the possibility that if this animal were a vector for some pathogenic organism, the conditions in a depressurised cabin for the hours of flight might have had the passengers in such danger graver than could be imagined - the Ebola virus or some simian-borne agent that could be so contagious and transmissible.

Seeking commonsense and comfort

Before we get ahead of ourselves, the monkey has now been handed over to the New York animal control officials and the man arrested. There is the plan to keep the monkey in quarantine for a month, but what if, the people on that flight had picked up something for which they should be in quarantine rather that walking the streets incubating secondary vectors of a disease?

Commonsense should prevail in this case, but the more serious matter here is that checks did not discover this possible terrorism opportunism and the consequences that could be too scary to narrate. Roamland Insecurity rules.

The First Gulder Ultimate Death

The search for reality

The problem with reality shows is they do pertain to more reality than fiction or acting out some contrived event. There is no telling that at times producers could connive to instigate a particular scene through manipulation with the intent of gaining notoriety with the consequence of higher audience figures leading to more advertisement revenue and lucrative sponsorships.

Of the many that visit our screens in Europe and are now making rounds in Africa, Big Brother and West African Idols have been received with some acclaim.

I was not however aware of one Gulder Ultimate Search run under the auspices of the Nigerian Breweries which is part of the Dutch Heineken Brewery group.

Apparently, it is some survival of the fittest kind of game where physical challenges need to be surmounted and in the process the weaker ones get eliminated.

Shere Hills and beauty

It was about to commence its fourth season and prospective contestants were taken to Shere Hills in Plateau State where they were to demonstrate their physical prowess and deftness as the case may be.

Now, I do remember Shere Hills as the site of the 1^st All African Scouts Jamboree in 1976, but before then we lived in Jos and it was in some way a place for touristy recreation.

Drowned? How?

However, the news is a contestant named Anthony Ogadje died whilst preparing for the programme.

The devil must be in the detail somewhere but I am not sure we have that detail that clearly states what happened.

Apparently, the young man drowned and died suddenly - a drowning accident - the company states, I have analysed this scenario with all sorts of permutations and cannot seem to make it compute that a man somehow got into water, drowned and died suddenly.

For instance, did he fall off something into the lake or was he swimming in the water and he encountered some difficulty that nobody noticed till it became too late?

It is quite commendable that there was an attendant medical team and lifeguards as well as his fellow contestants about to help, but it is great concern that the situation was so bad that lifeguards trained in first aid for drowning and medical staff supposedly trained in resuscitation techniques could do nothing to save this man.

Basically, I am saying the story just does not add up at all.

Survival or suffering?

This is a survival show and I would suspect a good deal of it would be about endurance, strength and the ability to withstand high thresholds of pain or other forms of deprivation better than other contestants.

What makes me even more suspicious of the event is in May in Boulder, Utah in America, a man who was on a desert survival trek was refused water and succour that in the midst of fellow contestants and guides he died of thirst - in some ways, he was the weak one, but no contest should offer so great a reward and also exact a great price as to involve the loss of life.

Not pandering to the weak obviously makes a contest look really tough, it stops other contestants thinking one is favoured over the other and certain personalities might not know the limits of their abilities or cannot afford to give up too easily for pride and price that they might do something really foolish.

Maybe ...

One would suppose that is why there is a medical team, lifeguards, umpires and adjudicators about as well as a television crew to help ensure that all matters are handled with commonsense.

The phrase drowning accident baffles me, you can have a car crash or a car accident, but I do not think you can have a crash accident except of you were organising a crash and then had an accident. At the risk of being pedantic, the drowning would have be an accident as a result of doing something probably in the water, a drowning accident however sounds like a drowning that went wrong - maybe I have had a glass of wine too many.

But really, I do not think I would be far from the truth if looking at the lake, the lifeguards and the possibility of drowning, the contest was about how long people could hold their breath under water as a kind of endurance test - the man probably held it for so long that they thought he was breaking a record when in fact his soul was breaking away from his body.

Worse still it could have been dunking where the head is forcibly immersed in water as a form of torture or in this case horseplay.

Even so, since this game is about the search for treasure, probably the said treasure was placed in a proverbial Davy Jones' Locker - the truth will out somehow and hopefully very soon and the contestants had better start speaking up.

Assessing responsibility

If that turns out to be the truth, there would have been a gross dereliction of duty of the organisers from simple team discipline if people had gone off to do their own thing unsupervised along with issues of safety, but in the end, nothing short of manslaughter charges should be filed on anyone who has a stake in that show.

That is the fact of reality shows, something really bad could happen and when it happens it could be happening to you.

The quest to win the 4^th Gulder Ultimate Search Mr. Ogadje came upon the unexpected 1^st Gulder Ultimate Death, so, so sad.

20,000 Nigerians Denied British Visa

Getting a visa in Nigeria

Statistics and numbers sometimes tell stories depending on what kind of derived interpretation one wants to give concerning the data.

I remember some 20 or so years ago when I first had to visit the United Kingdom for business, I was a partner in a printing firm where I managed the new technology aspects of desktop publishing having been involved in major Nigerian legal publications using the same techniques.

The plan was to acquire new computers and peripherals to help grow the business and I had a clear idea of what I wanted to get.

My parents had neglected obtaining my long birth certificate soon after I was born in the U.K., so I had to go through the hurdles of getting my British passport in Nigeria.

I was completely put off by the waiting times to get a British passport, 18 months at the least, but it was the cheapest option and there was no time. So, I applied for a Single entry visa and got that all arranged in just a week.

English, German & French programming

What was interesting was how the conversation went whilst the consulate officer was trying to persuade me to go for the "Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode" (CERA) which was the equivalent of a British citizenship in a Nigerian passport but it did not really appeal to me.

I had enough information to prove why I was visiting the U.K., I had the means for what I wanted to do and had a business I was running in Nigeria, there was no reason for me to get stuck in the U.K. even though I could have claimed the entitlement eventually.

In fact, the interview was more like a discussion when the first question he asked after seeing my job title of Computer Field Engineer was name three computer languages - BASIC, ForTRAN and CoBOL were my answers, he then told me of a so-called Computer Science graduate who gave English, German and French as answers.

I expressed surprise as he shared other funny jokes about pretenders who misrepresented themselves and gotten caught out. Later, I learnt that putting in the postcode of an address wrongly could catch you out so easily, you just needed an A-to-Z of the city in the U.K. and your application ended up in the scrapheap.

Honesty breeds confidence and assurance

Having worked with lawyers, my case was quite complete when I presented the Men of Achievement 1977 in which my father featured, corroborating the fact that he was in the U.K. when I was born and many more things you can derive from that.

Going through Nigerian customs checks was a bit fraught if not nerve-racking when a pregnant customs officer decided to pocket my passport because I had nothing for her - I never understood Nigeria, I doubt if I ever would.

Getting to immigration in England, the immigration official asked about my business and I told him I had come to shop around for computer equipment for desktop publishing. Then he enquired about the application I used for desktop publishing - well, that was Xerox Ventura Publisher with Professional Extension - "You are free to go, Sir", he said, "and enjoy your trip".

How could I have known that you should not be roaming the corridors of Hoddle Promenade North in Peckham Rye Estate at night with ₤5,000 in my pocket, don't worry, nothing happened to me, I met my friend, did what I came to do in England and returned two weeks later with a copy of my long birth certificate and the equipment I came to get.

Opportunities U.K.

I was however, taken aback by the lack of knowledge and understanding of computers in shops, I ended up demonstrating to the shop experts how software worked and sometimes the equipment too, it made me think I did have a strong place in the U.K. market if I did ever decide to emigrate.

When I eventually decided to go for the "Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode" in my Nigerian passport because I just was not waiting 18 months to save 80% of the cost for a British passport, I was asked why I did not take it when it was first offered and well, I did not have the time to wait for it then, however, this time, I did not want to return again and again for a visa to visit where I by rights should be able to visit without let or hindrance.

Again, it ended up a friendly discussion as I expected and all was done within weeks.

Forms, comprehension and tales

I remember soon after settling in England, a number of friends planned a trip to the Netherlands and two of our group had the CERA, so it meant visiting the BeNeLux embassy to get a visa. As we got there, there were so many Nigerians seeking a visa for all sorts of business, we just filled in the simple forms and said we were going for a weekend.

One lady approached us and asked how to fill in the forms, there were no difficult questions in the form from what I could see - Name, Address, Destination and probably the hardest question of all was State Purpose of Visit.

This lady approached the first counter and said she was going to buy cars in the Netherlands but could not provide details of dealerships or necessary funds to conduct such a business, her story was turning into a bit of yarn that the consulate officer asked her step back and think over what she was trying to do.

Hardly, five minutes after that encounter, she was at the adjacent counter saying she only wanted to take a 4-day holiday, so the other consular official popped his head round the counter saying challenging her new story with an utterly perplexed look. Without batting any eyelid she feign total ignorance and said she did not understand anything of the first conversation, my jaw dropped to the floor, but that set the atmosphere in which other Nigerians had to honestly present our applications and be treated at face value. We got our visas the next day.

28% British visa success

But this long story points to a situation related to the matter of statistics I raised at the beginning of this write up, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Richard Gozney paid one of those "courtesy calls" on the new Minister of Education and intimated that only 8,000 out of 28,000 visa applications had been granted to Nigerian applicants.

The news report though paints the picture in a headline of a different light - 20,000 Nigerians Denied British Visa - you may read whatever you want into this headline, but was clear why many of the applications failed from the diplomat's comments.

Many applications were improperly filled in or claims could not be properly verified and since the application itself forms the basis of deciding to grant a visa, quite a few would have failed the required threshold of acceptability to proceed to a processing state.

Besides, a few bad-apple applications would have raise the level of scepticism in the vetting process that even border-line but truthful applications would have fallen by the wayside leading to an arduous appeals process and many do eventually make it through.

Dealing with applications seriously

However, the number of those not qualifying for a visa is really very high and much as the Minister of Education entertained the diplomat, he should have expressed great concern about the stringent requirements and at the same time instituted a means to help Nigerians understand the meticulous and thorough preparation that should go into a visa application process.

It is not something to be done in a lackadaisical manner, the typical "idea la need" mentality (a wishy-washy attention to particular detail, sloppiness) is not good enough for such formal settings.

The black sheep destroying honest opportunity

Beyond that, many have applied for student visas and have abused the process such that it makes it difficult for honest Nigerians to state their case as objectively and honestly as they can without resorting to less-principled means.

I know I cannot begin to understand in any detail the travails of visa applications in Nigeria having chucked my Nigerian passport in for a British one within a week of returning from the trip to the Netherlands when because of the passport rather than the content we were held up in France for over an hour almost missing our ferry crossing back to England.

I sent in the application on Tuesday by post and the passport arrived in the post on Saturday hardly 5 days after. Was I impressed? You bet! But that was long ago.