In 2014 the former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in a last-minute effort to appease the voting public and secure a second term in office, signed into law the Same-Sex Prohibition Act (SSMPA). Since the passing of this law, queer Nigerians have faced harassment, discrimination, and violence because of their perceived sexuality. The SSMPA criminalizes marriages and civil unions between people of the same gender and “public show of same-sex romantic relationship.” The SSMPA further criminalizes the registration and operation of, participation in, and support for gay clubs or organizations.
The current Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has stolen a page out of Jonathan’s playbook by building on his legacy of homophobia. Channels TV is reporting that Muda Lawal Ulnar, a representative of Toro Federal Constituency in Bauchi State, has sponsored a bill seeking to amend the SSMPA and ban the act of cross-dressing in Nigeria. This bill which is undergoing its first reading by the House of Representatives, proposes the introduction of the word “cross-dressing,” defining it as “the practice of wearing clothes usually worn by a person of the opposite sex.”
The new bill stipulates a person would be guilty of the offense of cross-dressing even if the act was done in private but states that the provisions would not apply to people who engage in cross-dressing for lawful public entertainment. The bill also proposes a six-month prison term or a fine of five hundred thousand naira as punishment for anyone found guilty of cross-dressing.
The provisions of this bill are not only ridiculous but superfluous since there already exist multiple provisions in the Penal Code policing gender expression. And the fact that these laws already exist is a cause for alarm.
Clothes are a form of expression, and in this day and age, more people have become neutral and adventurous with their style. Consequently, this attempt to legislate what kind of clothes a person should or should not wear based on their gender or impose a precise and definite definition of clothes along binary gender lines is a gross abuse of legislative powers and a contradiction of the Nigerian constitution which guarantees every citizen the fundamental right to freedom of expression.
The bill highlights how misplaced the priorities of the government are. Nigeria is currently experiencing a security crisis. The government has failed to address the steady reports of kidnappings and killings all over the country. The economy is in the trenches, and inflation keeps rising. University professors are on strike, and students have no hope of returning to school soon. But surprisingly, Nigerian lawmakers have the time to deliberate a bill that would not only reduce the quality of life of a significant number of the country’s population but expose them to violence from state and non-state actors because they believe a mutual hatred for the queer community is enough to guarantee a favourable election result.
While the bill does not expressly mention queer or trans folks, its provisions are ambiguous enough to affect trans people who seek to affirm their identities through clothing and any person who is nonconforming in their gender expression. Thus once again, queer and trans Nigerians are the sacrificial lambs in an attempt to distract Nigerian citizens from the glaring failings of their government.
