Stefano Gennarini
(ZENIT News – Center for Family and Human Rights / New York, 07.28.2024).- Catholic Bishops and Islamic leaders called on the government of Nigeria to amend or reject an EU treaty that would commit Nigeria to gender ideology in exchange for investments and access to markets.
The new binding treaty expands cooperation between Nigeria and the European Union beyond economic matters to human rights issues, Western-backed sex education programs, gender issues, and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health, a phrase interpreted by the European Union as including abortion rights.
After Nigeria signed the Samoa Agreement, the Catholic Bishops called the agreement a “threat to the sovereignty and values of Nigeria” and warned that even though it appears “innocuous” on the surface, the terminology in the agreement was deliberately coded to avoid democratic scrutiny.
“We are concerned that our civil authorities may not be fully aware of the implications of the nuanced language in the document, which threatens our national sovereignty and values,” the Bishops said in a press statement first reported by Agenzia Fides.
The binding treaty builds on a previous economic partnership between the European Union and 79 developing countries from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. It expands the partnership to new issues including climate, migration, labor rights, and human rights. The focus on controversial social issues is new and central to the new partnership framework.
According to the treaty, no country is allowed to deviate from the provisions addressing human rights, sexual and reproductive health, and gender. These controversial issues are not so explicit in the agreement, but once the treaty enters into force it will give the European Union leverage to force changes in Nigeria’s laws and policies to align them with European values.
The Bishops justified their extraordinary intervention in secular affairs calling themselves “watchmen and guides, deeply committed to the sound moral, religious, and cultural growth of our dear country.”
The Nigerian government dismissed early reports that the Samoa Agreement runs afoul of Nigeria’s constitution and laws and threatened to act against news and media sources that repeated such concerns.
“The federal government insists that that report on the Samoa agreement was misleading, it was false and designed to create confusion in the land,” said Nigeria’s minister of information Mohammed Idris. This claim was repeated in articles in Western media, including the BBC.
Aliyu Madaki, a member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives called attention to the over sixty references to “gender” in the agreement and asked for the Legislature to further investigate the matter.
“The phrase ‘gender equality’ is a Trojan horse for deceptively bringing in all sorts of immorality to our country, as gender no longer means sexes male and female as traditionally understood. It now includes homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism and animalism,” Madaki said.
The Bishops urged the government to consult widely with the Nigerian people and only to ratify the treaty with an amendment declaring that “nothing in this binding Agreement can be interpreted to include any obligations regarding sexual orientation, gender identity, comprehensive sexuality education, abortion, contraception, legalization of prostitution, same-sex marriage, or sexual rights for children.” Failing that, the Bishops urged the government to exit the agreement altogether.
Their calls were echoed by The Islamic Forum of Nigeria, which called on “the federal government to withdraw from the Samoa Agreement without further delay.”
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