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In 2021, the United States Government recorded that there were over 500 human rights violations against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Nigeria.
In a report recently published by the United States Department of State, there were about five hundred and twenty human rights abuses towards LGBT+ persons.
It went on to say that LGBT persons in Nigeria, “reported harassment, threats, discrimination, and incidents of violence against them based on their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The report said the collating of these data was done by the Nigerian pro-LGBT+ rights Non-Governmental Organisation called The Initiative For Human Rights, popularly known as TIERS.
Some of the abuses recorded include invasion of privacy, unlawful detention and arbitrary arrest. These three were said to have been carried out mostly by the government or those otherwise representing security and law enforcement.
Away from law enforcement and state actors, the four recorded human rights abuses performed by citizens of Nigeria towards LGBT+ persons were blackmail, extortion, assault and battery.
Also recorded was the case of the arrest of five men in Kano State in July 2021 by the local Hisbah board. At the time of filing, there were no updates about their case.
In addition to these, LGBT+ persons were recorded to have faced discrimination in healthcare, housing and barriers in particularly receiving HIV/AIDS care from health workers.
The major barrier recorded against LGBT+ persons in Nigeria, is the fact that there still is an anti-gay law which makes same sex relationships punishable by 14 years.
The law which is called the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA), was signed in 2014 by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
