As Biden Shows His Hand
“America is back,” said Biden about a week ago. But which America, and whose America, is back? The answer to this questions was given earlier in a Presidential Memorandum, wherein he threatened to sanction countries which are still reluctant to make laws to promote, accommodate and perhaps even expand the rights and privileges of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) people. The Memorandum seeks a worldwide plan to strengthen the protection of LGBTQI+ rights, in such a way that it would be taken for granted that humanity must now collectively drive a new global priority under this umbrella of rights. But is this continuation of the Obama government’s agenda of driving LGBTQI+ issues willy-nilly as welcome as they are making it seem? Should all mankind tremble and fall in line because an American president has announced that his country would roll out sanctions against other countries which do not subscribe to America’s preferred values? Can he even do that in US states which are yet to fall in line in this regard? Can he do anything about the legislative federalist orientation of the American State, despite a respected Supreme Court?
What warrants Biden’s presumption? In what way did it make sense to him to pass his country off as defender of humanity and protector of the ideal values? Is America, with its daily murder records in New York City alone, and its many socio-culturally disruptive engagements all over the world, really in a position to speak about guiding the world to greater sanity? By what universal standard was Nigeria rightly classified a “homophobic” country; as was done under Obama, because of the country’s anti-gay law? Surely a US president who was Vice President when the Nigerian anti-gay law was passed, despite great pressures from the Obama government where he was Vice President, would be out to “call Nigeria to order?” So, watch out! The drama is only just beginning. With Nigeria deemed an anti-LGBTQI+ country, Biden’s threat of “…financial sanctions, visa restrictions, and other sanctions” targeted at “…foreign governments” that “restrict the rights of LGBTQI+ persons…” applies here. Worse still, Biden’s Vice President, Kamala Harris, is as dead set on pro-Gay values as anyone can be. Go. Look at her public position on the matter, including her submission on what to do about homeless homosexuals.
For the record, the foregoing and subsequent comments here today constitute no evaluation or judgment on the antics of the Trump Administration one way or another. This column did not, for once, comment on the person of Donald Trump before, during, or after his stint in the White House. He was, in my view, a historical necessity. His tenure as president threw up much about America that needed recalibration and reconsideration, especially along deep fault lines the country was pretending did not exist.
Returning to our subject matter for today, the question for us now is whether, after the peculiarly laughable celebration of a Biden Victory, the Buhari administration will find itself under pressures from the US government to change the country’s stance on gay marriage. It most likely will be under pressure to do so. In fact, it is already under that pressure, based on Biden’s Presidential Memorandum. When Biden says: “The United States belongs at the forefront of this struggle – speaking out and standing strong for our most dearly held values”, does he consider that “our most dearly held values” in
Nigeria are not American values? Since when did America start speaking for all climes? When Biden speaks of “…enforcing freedoms and promoting tolerance,” does he consider that he is the President of the US, rather than the earth? Does he even look at the overall impact of the US on “rights” with regards to global peace, climate change and morality? Less than two months into the Biden presidency, what are we seeing and what do the things we are seeing portend?
On November 23, 2020, this column carried a piece with the title “Biden and the Global Gender Crisis.” That article observed as follows: “The Obama Government threatened Nigeria with official sanctions, when the National Assembly passed a law against samesex marriage. The Obama government also refused to sell arms to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram. It also discouraged other countries from selling arms to Nigeria; even as thousands were being slaughtered every day. The argument, then, was that the Nigerian government was not respecting the human rights of the terrorists! …The Obama Presidency stood