Nigeria Senate approves anti-gay marriage bill

ABUJA A Federal senator in Nigeria and some section of the public has called for harsher penalties for being gay. Speaking during a debate at the National Assembly in Abuja Senator Baba Dati said, “Such elements in society should be killed.”

Meanwhile, the senators in Nigeria voted on Tuesday to criminalize gay marriage, passing a law that incorporates a prison sentence of more 10-years for violations in a nation where gays and lesbians already face a discrimination and abuse.

During the debate, televised live from National Assembly in Abuja, Senate President David Mark said Nigeria would not bow to international pressure on any legislation.

"Anybody can write to us, but our values are our values," Mark said. "No country has a right to interfere in the way we make our laws."

The bill heads to Nigeria's House of Representatives, who have to approve the bill and send it to President Goodluck Jonathan for his signature before it becomes a law.

Under the measure, couples who marry could face up to 14 years in jail, and witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to 10 years behind bars. That is an increase over the bill's initial penalties.

Homosexuality is already technically illegal in Nigeria, a country evenly divided between Christians and Muslims that is nearly universally opposed to homosexuality.

Across the African continent, many countries have made homosexuality punishable by jail sentences. Ugandan legislators introduced a bill that would impose the death penalty for some gays and lesbians, though it has not been passed into law two years later. Even in South Africa, the one country where gays can marry, lesbians have been brutally attacked and murdered.

The proposed law also has drawn the interest of European Union countries, some of which already offer Nigeria's sexual minorities asylum based on gender identity. The British government also recently threatened to cut aid to African countries that violate the rights of gay and lesbian citizens. However, British aid remains quite small in oil-rich Nigeria, one of the top crude suppliers to the United States.

International opinion also did not seem to trouble lawmakers.