Opinion

Opinion: Contextualising the crimes of illicit sexual affair, rape

Published

1 year ago

November 4, 2022

Zinā is the technical term for any act of illicit sexual affair in the Sharī’ah. Literally, it connotes the act of casting lustful gaze at the opposite gender, engaging in dirty and flirtatious talks, listening, touching and making such moves that are aimed at gratification of the carnal desires.

Muslim reported on the authority of Abū Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَتَبَ عَلَى ابْنِ آدَمَ حَظَّهُ مِنَ الزِّنَا، أَدْرَكَ ذَلِكَ لاَ مَحَالَةَ ، فَزِنَا العَيْنِ النَّظَرُ، وَزِنَا اللِّسَانِ المَنْطِقُ ، وَالنَّفْسُ تَمَنَّى وَتَشْتَهِي ، وَالفَرْجُ يُصَدِّقُ ذَلِكَ كُلَّهُ وَيُكَذِّبُهُ

“Verily, Allāh has decreed for every son of Ādam his share of Zinā, which he will inevitably commit. The Zinā of the eyes is looking; the Zinā of the tongue is speaking; the soul may wish and desire, and the private parts confirm that (engage in it) or deny it (refrain).”

This hadīth confirms that every human being is guilty of the crime of Zinā in the literal sense, since everyone falls into it at some point, advertently or inadvertently. However, one may NOT be referred to as Zānī (adulterer/fornicator) or Zāniyah (adulteress/fornicatoress) unless he or she engages in the physical act of intercourse.

The punishment for Zinā in Islām depends on marital status of the individuals involved. For the SINGLE Zānī, it’s a PUBLIC floggin of a hundred strokes of cane, and banishment for the period of 1 year, while the MARRIED Zāni is to be stoned to DEATH. This is the consensus opinion of the scholars of the Ummah since the time of the Rasūl ﷺ till our present time. It is also the view of all the scholars whose opinions on matters of the Dīn matter.

فإذا كان الزاني حراً محصناً رُجم حتى الموت رجلاً كان أو امرأة ، وهو محل إجماع

“If the Zānī is a freeborn who is married, he is to be stoned to death, whether male or female. This is a matter of consensus.”

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Ibn Qudāmah رحمه الله said:

وأجمع عليه أصحاب محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم ، وعن أحمد رواية أنه يجلد ويرجم ، والمذهب الرجم فقط ، كما اتفق الفقهاء على أن الزاني غير المحصن رجلاً كان أو امرأة يجلد مائة جلدة إن كان حراً ، وأما العبد والأمة فحدهما خمسون جلدة سواء كانا بكرين أو ثيبين

“The Companions of the Prophet ﷺ all agreed on this issue. A report from Imām Ahmad states that such a Zānī be flogged a 100 times & then stoned to death. However, the position of the Hanābilah madh-hab is stoning to death only. The jurists are also unanimous that the unmarried Zānī, male or female is to be lashed a 100 times if he’s a freeborn. As for the slave male or female, the punishment is 50 lashes whether he/she is married.”

It is important to note that the hadd punishment mentioned above is APPLICABLE only to the traditional definition of Zinā as
إيلاج/ مَغِيبُ الحَشَفَةِ ,في فَرجٍ مُحَرَّمٍ
“penetration of the vagina (or anus) that is legally prohibited with the tip of the penis (whether or not ejaculation occurs).” That is, the perpetrator would be guilty of Zinā even if it was just the tip of his penis that had penetrated the forbidden hole.

Further explanations reveal that the act must neither be done under duress nor in ambiguous circumstances (شُبْهَة). Any other illicit sexual affair will carry the DISCRETIONARY punishments to be determined by the judge. Such includes touching, kissing, romancing, penetration of the mouth, the breasts, the hips, etc with the penis.

Furthermore, the Sharī’ah’s perspective of Zinā has NOTHING to do with CONSENT. What distinguishes Zinā from licit intercourse is VALID MARRIAGE, not CONSENT. This is also why the concept of MARITAL RAPE has NO BASIS in the Sharī’ah. Marriage validates sexual gratification among spouses. A woman may not refuse her husband sex without valid reasons of menstruation, postpartum bleeding, illness, obligatory fast, or injury. If he goes ahead and penetrates her forcefully, against her will, he’s a sinner but not a RAPIST in the context of the Sharī’ah.

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The crime of Zinā is established in the Sharī’ah through voluntary confession of the culprit(s), statements of FOUR credible witnesses, or (in modern times to some extent) through DNA tests. However, as Shaykh Wahbah Az-Zuhaylī puts it, “The DNA does not provide independent evidence in the sense of the court issuing a sentence solely on its basis, but it does provide supportive and persuasive evidence for a court decision.”

The reason for this skeptical approach to DNA results in establishing crimes is the fact that it may be fabricated, falsified and tampered with, just as its reliability may diminish with the lapse of time between the occurrence of the incident and its collection.

Concerning rape, the technical term for it in the Sharī’ah is الاغْتِصابُ. Literally, it means to take a thing by force. It is the worst form of Zinā because of its physical, mental and psychological effects on the victim. All the Scholars of Islām condemn the crime of rape in the harshest of terms. They are also unanimous in their opinion that a rapist is deemed a Zānī and would be punished according to his marital status (as stated above).

Imām Mālik رحمه الله in his Muwatta’ (2/734) said:

الأمر عندنا في الرجل يغتصب المرأة بكراً كانت أو ثيبا : أنها إن كانت حرة : فعليه صداق مثلها , وإن كانت أمَة : فعليه ما نقص من ثمنها ، والعقوبة في ذلك على المغتصب ، ولا عقوبة على المغتصبة في ذلك كله ” انتهى .

“Our position on the rapist who forcefully has carnal knowledge of a woman whether she’s single or married is that, if she’s a freeborn, he must pay her the dower of a woman of her status and if she’s a slave girl, he must pay the sum of what has diminished of her value. The punishment for the crime is on the rapist. The victim is not to be punished in such cases.”

Ibn ‘Abdilbarr in al-Istidhkār 7/146 further elaborates on the issue when he submitted thus:

وقد أجمع العلماء على أن على المستكرِه المغتصِب الحدَّ إن شهدت البينة عليه بما يوجب الحد ، أو أقر بذلك ، فإن لم يكن : فعليه العقوبة (يعني : إذا لم يثبت عليه حد الزنا لعدم اعترافه ، وعدم وجود أربعة شهود ، فإن الحاكم يعاقبه ويعزره العقوبة التي تردعه وأمثاله) ولا عقوبة عليها إذا صح أنه استكرهها وغلبها على نفسها ، وذلك يعلم بصراخها ، واستغاثتها ، وصياحها

“The scholars have all agreed the rapist shall be given the hadd punishment if credible proofs necessitating such punishment are established against him, or he confesses to committing it. In the absence of such proofs, the judge shall exercise his discretion in punishing him in a way that will deter him and others like him. The victim is not to be punished if it’s proven that he overpowered her and forced himself on her. Such can be known through her cry for help and shouts.”

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Protection of life and honour are fundamental aspects of the Cardinal Objectives of the Sharī’ah. It is for this reason that it has laid down strict procedures for the establishment of claims against one another. Bukhāri & Muslim reported on the authority of ibn Abbās that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said:

لَوْ يُعْطَى اَلنَّاسُ بِدَعْوَاهُمْ, لَادَّعَى نَاسٌ دِمَاءَ رِجَالٍ, وَأَمْوَالَهُمْ, وَلَكِنِ اَلْيَمِينُ عَلَى اَلْمُدَّعَى عَلَيْهِ

“If people were given whatever they claimed (in disputes), some people would claim the lives and wealth of others; but the oath (of denial) must be taken by the defendant.”

In the narration by Al-Bayhaqī:

اَلْبَيِّنَةُ عَلَى اَلْمُدَّعِي, وَالْيَمِينُ عَلَى مَنْ أَنْكَرَ

“The burden of proof lies on the claimant, and oath must be taken by the one rejecting the claim.”

Based on this hadīth, the crime of rape cannot be brought against anyone without CONCRETE proofs beyond any shadow of doubt. Crimes are to be proven before the judge in a court of competent jurisdiction and not on the social media. Where there are no concrete proofs establishing guilt of the accused, the judge may look into the circumstantial evidence and exercise his discretionary powers.

However, if the victim was able to prove that the rapist gagged her mouth and restrained her, or knocked her out by the aid of pills or gas, or threatened her life with dangerous weapons, such a RAPIST is considered a مُحارِبٌ and, depending on the degree of his culpability, the judge is expected to apply any of the injunctions in Q.5:33 based on his discretion:

إِنَّمَا جَزَاءُ الَّذِينَ يُحَارِبُونَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَيَسْعَوْنَ فِي الأَرْضِ فَسَاداً أَنْ يُقَتَّلُوا أَوْ يُصَلَّبُوا أَوْ تُقَطَّعَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَأَرْجُلُهُمْ مِنْ خِلافٍ أَوْ يُنْفَوْا مِنَ الأَرْضِ ذَلِكَ لَهُمْ خِزْيٌ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَلَهُمْ فِي الآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ

“The penalty of those who wage war against Allāh and His Messenger and seek corruption in the land is to be killed, or crucified, or to have their hands and feet cut on alternate sides, or to be banished from the land. That is their disgrace in this world, and in the Hereafter they shall have a great punishment.”

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In a situation (though rare) where the victim of rape is a male, scholars of Islām have differed on the appropriate ruling in this regard.

قال ابن قدامة
فَصْلٌ: وَإِنْ أُكْرِهَ الرَّجُلُ فَزَنَى، فَقَالَ أَصْحَابُنَا: عَلَيْهِ الْحَدُّ. وَبِهِ قَالَ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ الْحَسَنِ، وَأَبُو ثَوْرٍ؛ لِأَنَّ الْوَطْءَ لَا يَكُونُ إلَّا بِالِانْتِشَارِ، وَالْإِكْرَاهُ يُنَافِيهِ. فَإِذَا وُجِدَ الِانْتِشَارُ انْتَفَى الْإِكْرَاهُ، فَيَلْزَمُهُ الْحَدُّ، كَمَا لَوْ أُكْرِهَ عَلَى غَيْرِ الزِّنَى، فَزَنَى.

Ibn Qudāmah رحمه الله notes:

“Chapter: If a man was forced to commit Zinā and he commits it, our companions (Hanābilah) said: he shall face the hadd punishment. This is the view of Muhammad bn Al-Hasan (Ash-Shaybānī) and Abū Thawr. This is because sex cannot occur without erection, and duress makes erection impossible. So if he has erection, it’s not treated as forced sex and as such he would be given the hadd punishment just as if he was forced to do something else and he commits Zinā.”

He continues:

وَقَالَ الشَّافِعِيُّ، وَابْنُ الْمُنْذِرِ: لَا حَدَّ عَلَيْهِ؛ لِعُمُومِ الْخَبَرِ، وَلِأَنَّ الْحُدُودَ تُدْرَأُ بِالشُّبُهَاتِ، وَالْإِكْرَاهُ شُبْهَةٌ، فَيَمْنَعُ الْحَدَّ، كَمَا لَوْ كَانَتْ امْرَأَةً، يُحَقِّقُهُ أَنَّ الْإِكْرَاهَ، إذَا كَانَ بِالتَّخْوِيفِ، أَوْ بِمَنْعِ مَا تَفُوتُ حَيَاتُهُ بِمَنْعِهِ، كَانَ الرَّجُلُ فِيهِ كَالْمَرْأَةِ، فَإِذَا لَمْ يَجِبْ عَلَيْهَا الْحَدُّ، لَمْ يَجِبْ عَلَيْهِ. وَقَوْلُهُمْ: إنَّ التَّخْوِيفَ يُنَافِي الِانْتِشَارَ. لَا يَصِحُّ؛ لِأَنَّ التَّخْوِيفَ بِتَرْكِ الْفِعْلِ، وَالْفِعْلُ لَا يُخَافُ مِنْهُ، فَلَا يَمْنَعُ ذَلِكَ. وَهَذَا أَصَحُّ الْأَقْوَالِ، إنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى.

“Ash-Shāfi’ī and ibn al-Mundhir said: he shall not face the hadd punishment, based on the general implication of the texts, and also because capital punishments are waived by ambiguities. Duress is a form of ambiguity and as such, hadd punishment shall not be applicable in such circumstances. This is the same ruling if the victim were a woman. If a man’s life was threatened, his case is similar to that of a woman penetrated by force. Both would not be punished. As for the statement of those who say, “threat to life makes erection impossible, this is not correct. This is the most sound of opinions.”

Nowadays, it is possible to force a man to have erection through admission of aphrodisiacs (injections, pills, or drinks). This further refutes the claim of those who say that duress makes erection impossible.

Finally, it is important to abide by the clear rules that Islām has laid down aimed at blocking all the means to evils. Our emphasis should not be on the sexual aspect of rape only, but on all forms of objectification and degradation of women’s status by artists and business owners through advertisement of goods and services.

Dr. Sanusi Lafiagi is a lecturer in Department of Islamic Studies, Al-Hikmah University Ilorin

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Farooq Kperogi: Yahaya Bello’s EFCC comeuppance

Published

5 days ago

April 20, 2024

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Farooq Kperogi: Yahaya Bello’s EFCC comeuppance

I am not from Kogi State, but I have strong opinions on former Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello—as most Nigerians do. There is no doubt that few politicians in Nigeria are as universally reviled and despised as Yahaya Bello because of how he turned governance into a violent infant play, denuded it of even the faintest pretense to sanity and respectability, and developed an uncanny capacity to incite raw rage in people.

That’s why there is mass excitement in Nigeria over his current travails with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Most people see his fate as a richly deserved karmic retribution for his eight years of incompetent, anger-arousing, profligate, and terroristic governance in Kogi State, the consequences of which transcended the bounds of Kogi State.

He began his tenure as governor as the symbol of hope for youth inclusion in governance. But he soon became a byword for recklessness, malfeasance, ineptitude, incivility, and the greatest betrayer of the youth constituency. He shouldn’t have been governor—or, for that matter, anything in politics.

He had no guardrails on his tongue. Like a spoiled, over-indulged, ill-bred, and uninhibited child, he blabbered whatever inanities caught his febrile fantasies with no care for consequences. He ridiculed civil servants, and terrorized opponents with full-strength viciousness— as if he would remain the governor of his state forever.

He even nicknamed himself—or was nicknamed by his flunkies—as the “white lion.” But when the EFCC came calling, the “white lion” transmogrified into a pitifully frightened, yellow-bellied chicken. Now the white-lion-turned-chicken is fluttering and hiding like he has gone insane.

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A wanted notice has been issued for him by the EFCC, the Inspector General of Police has withdrawn all police officers assigned to guard him, and the Nigerian Immigration Service has placed him on its watchlist. I can’t wait to see him brought to justice for all the crimes he committed while he held sway as the governor of Kogi State.

In a 2022 article, I described him as an ignorant, incorrigibly petulant child who was trapped in an adult’s body, who was destroying the littlest semblance of decency left in government in Kogi State, and who thought he could democratize his infantilism nationwide by seeking to be president.

According to several Kogi State civil servants, Bello didn’t pay full salaries for most civil servants for most of his tenure as governor, yet he is being hunted by the EFCC for allegedly laundering up to 80.2 billion naira, presumably the money he should have used to pay the salaries of workers.

In less than one week after he was sworn in as Kogi State governor on January 27, 2016, according to a May 13, 2016, Premium Times’ investigation, Bello approved N250 million naira for himself as “security vote” and another N148 million to “furnish” and “renovate” his office. At that time, Kogi State workers hadn’t been paid their salaries for months.

Bello’s spokesman at the time said the raiding of the state’s treasury in the name of security was justified because Kogi had become the seedbed of crime as a result of its location.

“It is public knowledge that Kogi State has been contending with serious security breach for the past 10 years,” he said. “As a result of the location of the state as gateway to many states of the federation, the state drifted into a criminal hotbed. Also, years of gross maladministration and blinding embezzlement has left the youth bare, exposing them to all sorts of criminal activities to survive. Kogi became a haven of robbers and kidnappers.”

That was the start, which most people ignored. Everything went downhill from there. The man didn’t even pretend to govern.

In 2020 when COVID-19 raged and most people were caught in a complex web of uncertainties and anxieties about the new infectious disease, Bello chose to become a abhorrent, ignorant conspiracist and the conduit for all sorts of wild, crazed, dangerous, fringe chatter about the disease.

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Yet, although he openly questioned the existence of COVID-19, he fed fat on it like the vampire that he is. The Premium Times of March 26, 2021, reported that Bello spent 90 million naira in 2020 to purchase COVID-19-tracking software that cost only 30 million naira.

“The software, approved by a COVID-19 sceptic, Governor Yahaya Bello, was for tracking coronavirus cases in the state,” Premium Times reported. “However, the software is no longer functioning as the developers said they had a contract to host it for only one year.”

It’s impossible to chronicle Bello’s in-your-face financial malfeasance in a newspaper column. Not even a book-length narrative is sufficient to do justice to how much Bello financially bled and sucked the blood of Kogi State.

The man’s daring electoral terrorism is another issue that has earned him well-deserved loathing in Nigeria. This is a man who commanded his toadies to dig deep ditches on roads (that were built with billions of naira) just to stop voters from a part of the state he knew won’t vote for his candidate from being able to cast their votes.

According to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, at the time the senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Kogi central, “We woke up this morning to the news that Yahaya Bello has instructed the excavation of all access roads to my hometown. My hometown is cut off from Obangede community; it is also cut off from Eika. And right now, I am in front of another road which was just excavated, thereby cutting me out of travelling out of my hometown.

“What this means is INEC would not be able to [access] certain communities, especially my hometown. What this also means is if Yahaya Bello and his APC goons decide to attack me and the good people of Kogi central in Ihima community, it will be impossible for the DPO to get across to this place. That means I, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, my fellow candidates, and supporters are trapped. We have no way out because Yahaya Bello has dug gullies.”

This is a vile and detestable vermin who should never have been allowed to get anywhere close to governance, much less be a governor. He is an excellent specimen of how not to be a governor—or, in fact, a human. I have not the littlest drop of sympathy for him.

Given the peculiarities of the Nigerian political environment, it seems likely that he is in trouble with the EFCC only because he has fallen out of favor with the president or his henchmen. I honestly don’t care.

More than anything, though, Bello’s troubles exemplify the transience of power and the imperative for humility when you wield it.

Farooq Kperogi is a renowned Nigerian newspaper columnist and United States-based Professor of Journalism.

Farooq Kperogi: Yahaya Bello’s EFCC comeuppance

Opinion

Bobrisky, Cubana Chief Priest and Indabosky Bahose

Published

6 days ago

April 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Tunde Odesola

Bobrisky, Cubana Chief Priest and Indabosky Bahose

Tunde Odesola

(Published in The PUNCH, on Friday, April 19, 2024)

Abido Shaker! Life is a widening gyre where women fear cockroaches, cockroaches fear cocks, cocks fear men, and men fear women. A few years ago, Chukwemeka Cyril Ohanaemere was an ordinary name in Nigeria until fakery kissed bombast and vainglory took materialism to bed, birthing ‘The Lion Himself’, ‘The War’. ‘The Fight’, ‘Dabus Kabash’, ‘The Indabosky Bahose’.

Ohanaemere, the unlettered Anambra indigene, more famous for his comic displays than his cleric claims, also calls himself ‘The Liquid Metal’, which is another name for mercury. Ohanaemere aka Odumeje doesn’t call himself ‘The Liquid Metal’ because he understands that mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. He calls himself ‘The Liquid Metal’ because of the fancy the name carries.

In a viral video, 41-year-old Odumeje boasted to some fans about his numerous spiritual powers that he hasn’t used yet, saying, “…Indabosky Bahose is power, Lebadusi Prelamande is power, Abido Shaker is power, Dabus Kabash is power, Lipase Parrel is power, Gandukah Gandusah is power; those powers, I have not touched them, I’ve never used them, I’m still on Indabosky Bahose!” All na wash (in Nyesome Wike’s voice)

Odumeje’s gung-ho powers are like the sands of the beach. When angry, he can make people go deaf and dumb because he’s the ‘Warlord’, which he pronounces as ‘Worrod’. In 2022, however, when the men of the Anambra State Environmental Task Force pulled down his illegal church in Onitsha, the all-conquering God that Odumeje serves refused to rescue him. Odumeje’s God was probably snoring when the officials of the environmental task force rained slaps on him and kicked him around like a graven image.

Because of their unique adaptability nature, the female gender deserves the ‘Liquid Metal’ title much more than the jester of Onitsha. But the female gender shouldn’t undermine their flexibility and overlook a worrisome development that the case of popular cross-dresser, Idris Olanrewaju Okuneye, presents.

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Ever since Okuneye aka Bobrisky confessed before a Federal High Court in Lagos, to possessing a cock, the calm in the women’s rights community nationwide has been disturbing.

By his confession, it’s not out of place to imply that Bobrisky had seen the nakedness of women in public restrooms. In this light, I had expected Nigerian women’s rights advocacy groups to test the (in)elasticity of our laws by pressing against Bobrisky charges such as invasion capable of causing breach of law and order, intrusion of privacy, and potential sexual threat against children and women, among others. Or, how else can you explain the dangers posed when a man in a woman’s clothing uses the same restroom with unsuspecting females?

In the US, a man or woman who wishes to change their sex must first live the gender they want to change to for a year before undergoing sex-change surgery. They must also undergo a series of psychological and psychotherapy care before they can change their gender. This is to test their resolve.

Both Odumeje and Bobrisky are the creations of a society whose gaping vacuum for icons has been filled by Mammon-seeking pranksters. They are the products of a crippling economy and morally shattered nation unfurling as Paradise Lost. This is why you see the millions of Nigerians seeking guidance from yeyebrities, who themselves are lacking-thought broken spirits.

Many see the prosecution and conviction of Bobrisky for naira mutilation as scapegoating, coupled with the ongoing prosecution of a former shoemaker, Pascal Okechukwukwu aka Cubana Chief Priest, for the same offence. The position of people who hold this belief can’t be impeached because scapegoating, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is ‘a goat upon whose head are symbolically placed the sins of the people after which he is sent into the wilderness…’. This is the same reason why the Yoruba say the fellow on whose head the community coconut is broken won’t wait to partake in it, ‘eniti won fi ori re fo agbon, ko ni duro je ni be’.

It was former President Goodluck Jonathan who defined the lack of shoes as an index of poverty. I don’t know whether to categorise shoemaking as a mirror reflecting poverty or affluence. But a background search describes Odumeje as a hustler who ‘had his humble days as a struggling leather designer on the streets of buzzing and busy Onitsha City in Anambra State’. I’m not unaware that the dazzle in razzmatazz can polish a shoemaker into a leather designer on the streets of Onitsha. Cubana Chief Priest wasn’t ashamed to reveal life on the streets of Aba, Abia State, as a shoemaker.

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Valid questions are being raised as to the parameters used in singling out Bobrisky and Cubana Chief Priest for prosecution when the children of former President Muhammadu Buhari and their powerful guests ‘sprayed’ and trampled on naira during the wedding of Hanan, one of Buhari’s daughters. I’ll offer free consultation here: the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission can pin the prosecution of the two citizens on their serial abuse of the naira, but for Christ’s sake, Nigerians need an explanation on why a musician like Wasiu Ayinde, who was garlanded by an Ogun State monarch, Oba Kolawole Sowemimo, with taped naira notes, is left of the EFCC hook. Sowemimi, who’s the Olu of Owode, was suspended by the Ogun State Council of Traditional Rulers but Wasiu was not even questioned by the EFCC for his consistent abuse of the naira. Is it because Ayinde is the bard of the ruling All Progressives Congress? For the integrity of its brand, the EFCC should explain lest the crackdown be seen as a witch-hunt.

Instead of picking on Bobrisky for naira abuse, numerous online videos of Bobrisky showing Bobrisky claiming to be a woman and having boyfriends abound. Her nickname name, ‘Mummy of Lagos’, points at homosexual allegations trailing her. In an online video, Bobrisky said, “If you dump me, na another man go kari me. Do you get what I’m saying? If you dump me, if you think you’re done with me, na another man wey dey cherish me, wey wan nack me, go kari me.”

On account of this video alone, and in the light of his confession before a court, to being a man, Bobrisky is guilty of the anti-homosexual laws of the country. Also, the EFCC should know the dangers inherent in leaving Bobrisky’s five million online followers, mostly youths, to manipulation and indoctrination.

If Nigeria had laws against homosexuality, the country should man up to defend the laws and stop hiding behind the naira-spraying fingers of Bobrisky – US position on homosexuality notwithstanding. Nigeria and the US both need each other. The ‘not guilty’ plea of Cubana Chief Priest is expected to expand the frontiers of the laws against naira abuse, and I wait to see how the case unfolds. C-o-u-r-t!

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com
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Bobrisky, Cubana Chief Priest and Indabosky Bahose

Opinion

The real reason government went after Bobrisky – Reno Omokri

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2024

Trends Admin

Idris Okuneye, better known as Bobrisky

The real reason government went after Bobrisky – Reno Omokri

What happened with Bobrisky just shows you the savviness of Nigeria compared to other nations and the intellectual response to governing on display by the current administration.

The Nigerian government obviously wanted to clamp down on the trending cross-dressing culture in Nigeria. But the government was also aware of the fact that any direct move in that regard would earn it the whip of the Western powers.

And being that our economy is only just improving after eight years of General Buhari’s wasteful locust years, Nigeria could not place itself in the position that Ghana now is.

On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, Ghana’s parliament passed legislation cracking down on LGBTQ rights, of which a significant aspect of that law addresses the issue of cross-dressing.

Perhaps the most powerful bloc in liberal America and the UK is the LGBTQ community, and their pushback against Ghana was quick and with a stick. The alacrity of response was not treated with temerity in Ghana. Within days, it was announced that if the Ghanaian President signed that law, the World Bank would have to reconsider a $3.8 billion loan to Ghana.

That announcement made the Ghanaian President turn blind, as Nana Akufo-Addo was quoted as saying that he had not yet seen the law on his desk, therefore, he could not sign it.

Three months after its passage, President Nana Akufo-Addo still has not seen the law. Maybe JAMB sent a Nigerian snake to eat the law!

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In case you ever wondered why President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron moved against then-President Jonathan and, in an unprecedented manner, worked against his re-election in 2015, do note that it was because, on Monday, January 13, 2014, Dr. Jonathan signed a law criminalising same-sex relationships and its appurtenances.

General Buhari’s handlers were competent. They immediately hired the same guy advising both Obama and the LGBTQ movement in America-David Axelrod. They passed the word that if Buhari were supported to be President by the Western powers, he would frustrate the anti gay marriage las that their enemy, Jonathan, signed.

In my book, Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years, I provide proof of this.

So, the Tinubu administration was in a dilemma. How to deal with Bobrisky for being a cross-dresser but not to make it about his being a cross-dresser. And this is where you have to respect the subtlety of the Tinubu administration. They found a way, a creative genius way.

Bobrisky violated a law against the abuse of the Naira. That is why a first-time offender committed an offence that even government officials engaged in during Buhari’s son’s wedding, and, despite pleading guilty, was sentenced to six months in prison.

In fact, there is more video evidence of Naira abuse via spraying at the wedding of no less a person than Abdul Aziz Malami, the son of Abubakar Malami (SAN), Nigeria’s Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

And the scapegoating of Bobrisky has worked. Since his arrest, have you seen any of his ‘colleagues’ prancing about?

We used to see them almost daily on blogs and social media. The traditional media, too, could not have enough of them. They got the memo. They have run for cover since Chairwoman answered to the gender of male in court, when asked to state ‘her’ gender.

The Tinubu administration has just shown that there are more ways than one to skin a cat. And you can choose a way that will not bring you negative attention.

Now, cross-dressing will be on the wane, and Nigeria will not suffer any economic sanctions or diplomatic repercussions, as has happened to Uganda and Hungary.