The National Inter-Faith and Religious Organizations for Peace (NIFROP) has frowned at U.S president, Joe Biden’s threat of sanction on countries opposed to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) laws.
The leadership of the renowned inter-religious group, at a press conference, on Friday, in Abuja, said Biden’s stance is anti-democratic and contrary to the sovereignty nations of the world should enjoy.
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In his first foreign policy speech, the new president ordered all U.S government agencies active abroad to promote the rights of LGBTQI people and to come up with plans within 180 days.
Among others, Biden threatened financial and travel ban to countries like Nigeria with Same-Sex-Marriage (Prohibition) laws.
But making its stance known through Director, Public Enlightenment, Bishop Ugo Ugokwe, NIFROP cautioned Biden that Nigeria’s values and beliefs do not encourage relationships between same-sex sexual partners.
The cleric wondered that as the so-called ‘God’s own country’, the U.S has completely negated the teachings of the Bible with regards to same-sex cohabitation.
NIFROP, however, in strong terms rejected the position of the U.S, adding that it views the threat as “despicable and must be retracted with an unreserved apology to the Nigerian people”.
As a sovereign nation, it reminded the United States that Nigeria deserves the right to initiate policies that protect the interest of the generality of its people.
According to the group, the issue of LGBTQI remains a matter of values and beliefs and not compulsion evident in the threat issued by the Joe Biden administration.
The National Inter-Faith and Religious Organizations for Peace further called on all well-meaning individuals and countries to resist this threat.