‘US will press Nigeria to change anti-gay law’

The United States of America (US,) has said that it is making efforts to press the Nigerian government to reverse the anti-gay bill which was signed recently into law by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Assistance Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, made this disclosure during a live-web chat with journalists on Tuesday saying that legislating against gay marriage will breach the fundamental human right of the gay community in the country.
“US is opposed to the legislation targeted against the gay people and we will continue to press forward to see that it is changed so that those group of people will have freedom to exercise their rights.

“We are of the view that criminalization against anybody on the basis of their sexual orientation and affiliation is wrong and contradicts human rights law. Nigeria is quick and has gone far in signing the bill into law. We will continue to press Nigeria government and the legislators to change the anti-gay law,” Greenfield commented.

On US-Nigeria’s effort towards combating Boko Haram extremism, Greenfield said the group has become more audacious in killing innocent people in the country adding that the US is working closely with Nigerian government to end violent extremism in the country.

“There has to be a multi- facet approach to dealing with extremism and we will continue to work with Nigeria to combat it. Terrorism we know affects the whole of Nigeria people and with our collaboration with Nigeria government we hope to bring an end to it in the country as we will not relent in our effort at fighting it to a finish,” Greenfield said.

On the crisis in Central African Republic (CAR) she said the crisis is not a humanitarian one but said that they are working with the UN and AU to solve the problem adding that the US has already spoken with leaders in Africa to help find a lasting solution to the country’s problem.
She said that the US signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union in different areas and hopes to build African capacity to solve crisis within the continent.