The US Government yesterday made it known that it won't
back down on anti-gay marriage law signed recently by the Nigerian President
Goodluck Jonathan.
The US Government in an emphasis said there's still a ray
of hope to ensure protection of human rights in the implementation of the law.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs,
Linda Thomas Greenfield, made this known on a live-web chat programme with
journalists in African countries.
“US is opposed to the legislation targeted against the
gay people and we will continue to press forward to see that it is changed so
that those group of people will have freedom to exercise their rights.
”We are of the view that criminalisation against anybody
on the basis of their sexual orientation and affiliation is wrong and we will
continue to press Nigeria government and the legislators to change the anti-gay
law,” Greenfield said.
Speaking on US-Nigeria’s effort towards combating Boko
Haram extremism, the assistant secretary said the group had been more daring in
carrying out attacks against innocent people in the country, adding that the US
was working closely with the Federal Government to bring an end to extremism in
the country.
She said: “There has to be a multi-faceted approach
to dealing with extremism and we will continue to work with Nigeria to combat
it.
“Terrorism we know affects the whole of Nigerian people
and with our collaboration with Nigerian government we hope to bring an end to
it in the country as we will not relent in our effort at fighting it to a
finish.”
On the US relationship with African nations generally, she said her
government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union in
different areas and hopes to build African capacity to solve crisis within the
continent.
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