UK Boosts Aid to Nigeria Despite Its Anti-gay Laws

                     
Britain will increase aid to Nigeria this year despite its introduction of harsh anti-gay laws. David Cameron warned last year the UK would review its massive aid programme if the country pressed ahead with legislation that includes a ten-year jail sentence for gay men holding hands in public.

 But the Department for International Development, under pressure to meet targets on aid spending, said last night the West African state would not lose a penny despite a decision by President Goodluck Jonathan to sign off the law this week.

A spokesman added that aid to Nigeria would be increased as planned, from £200million last year to almost £270million.
Nigeria’s anti-gay law is an embarrassment for the Government, which is already under pressure to cut aid to a country wealthy enough to develop its own space programme. It has also been hailed in recent weeks as one of the ‘Mint’ countries – Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey – emerging as potential economic giants.
Mr Cameron said in 2011 that Britain would dock aid from countries that introduced anti-gay legislation.


 Asked last year if he would block the aid increase to Nigeria if it pressed ahead with its new law, the Prime Minister said:
 ‘When we meet with Nigerian leaders, we will be clear about those things we agreed on. We have to be clear where we disagree. We will make clear where we stand on those issues.’

But DfID said last night it would not cut aid to Nigeria as none was channelled through the country’s government.
It added that all British aid money there was spent via agencies such as Unicef and private contractors providing education, clean water and anti-malaria projects, for example.
The decision to increase aid will dismay human rights groups, which have condemned Nigeria’s crackdown. The Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act introduces penalties of up to 14 years in jail for a gay marriage and up to ten years for membership or encouragement of gay clubs and groups.

It also brings in ten-year sentences for gay couples who display affection in public, and penalties for those who try to help homosexuals avoid detection.
Activist Dorothy Aken’Ova said the legislation, known in the country as the ‘Jail the Gays’ law, would criminalise programmes fighting Aids in the gay community.

She added the police had drawn up a list of 168 wanted gay men, of whom 38 had been arrested recently.

 The legislation was condemned by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is also under pressure to cut aid to Nigeria. Mr Kerry said the law dangerously restricted ‘freedom of assembly, association and expression for all Nigerians’. The Act ‘undermines the democratic reforms and human rights protections enshrined in its 1999 constitution’.
A spokesman for the Nigerian president said the law is ‘a reflection of the beliefs and orientation of Nigerian people’.


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