SODOMY IN NIGERIA AND THE MEDIA’S INTEREST: A STUDY OF ONDO NORTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT

Author:
Festus Folorunso Alabi, Mobolanle Ebunoluwa Sotunsa

Doi: 10.26480/ccsj.01.2024.28.34

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Sodomy or homosexuality has, for some time now, mainstreamed itself in Europe and America. For instance, Pete Buttigieg – a married gay – is the current America’s Transport Secretary. Bolu Okupe, son of Doyin Okupe, a one-time Nigerian minister, lives in France. He has just come out of his closet to declare that he is gay. This ‘coming out’ has unsettled his Christian father. Besides, Charlie Boy’s daughter is a lesbian. Charlie Boy, whose real name is Charles Okputa, son of to late foremost Nigerian jurist, is a Nigerian music icon. A lot of such stories fill the media as well as the social media. The Law of the land makes sodomy a punishable crime in Nigeria. The implication is that the law – passed in 2013 – is only meant to stem its tide. However, do the rural Nigerian communities have the faintest idea of sodomy, let alone, practise it? This paper aims to fix the problem. The paper adopted the focused interview research methodology, which is principally descriptive. The armchair approach and reliance on the media and social media were jettisoned in favour of direct interviews. This is significant because the West – Europe and America – is using the ‘Stick and Carrot Approach’ to foist Sodomy on the less fortunate and economically vulnerable nations of the world. Unfortunately, Nigeria is home to a vast population of the less fortunate across the globe. Queer, Deconstruction, Agenda-Setting Theories and The Wesley Maclean’s Model guided the research. The result of the fieldwork was transcribed and analysed accordingly. The findings lent credence to the set objectives. The assumption that sodomitic love is congenital is fast becoming a universal myth. The congenital myth (doll theory) of sodomitic love has been largely debunked by this paper. Further and similar research should, therefore, be conducted among other rural dwellers in Nigeria (and other parts of Africa).

Pages 28-34
Year 2024
Issue 1
Volume 5