Nollywood director releases anti-gay film

Nigerian director Dickson Iroegbu is set to release 'Law 58', a controversial film that he claimes exposes the practice and consequences of homosexuality in African society.

Kanayo O Kanayo, Clarion Chukwurah and Halima Abubakar star in the film, which will be released on DVD next month. Law 58 has taken Nollywood director Dickson Iroegbu four years to produce, with difficulties consistently hindering production, such as actors declining roles in the film and the Nigerian censorship board refusing to certify the film in opposition to its unlawful taboo.

At the time of production, Iroegbu “saw the National Assembly debate on Gay Marriage” and believed it to be “prophetic because at the time I produced the movie, we hadn’t engaged ourselves constructively on how to address the issue of gay.”

“We pretended then as if it didn’t exist in our society. Not knowing that it was gradually eating into the fabrics of the society.”

“So, one saw it at that time and set out to discuss it via the tube. I may sound very judgmental about it but I have no apologies whatsoever. Homosexual [sic] is an evil act that our culture and religion as Africans prohibits, and so, speaking against it as a film maker is to re-echo what my society has been saying about the ugly practice,” Iroegbu is reported by Nigerian News Update as saying.

The Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2006, a draft bill that called for the criminalisation of gay marriage, has provoked international outcry with many human and civil rights organisations at work in Nigeria opposing the bill with the argument that it violates freedom of self-expression and symbolises a significant barrier in the struggle against the spread of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, spoke out in October 2011 against those countries who discriminate against homosexuality but continue to receive UK aid. “Britain is one of the premier aid givers in the world. We want to see countries that receive our aid adhering to proper human rights, and that includes how people treat gay and lesbian people” he said.

Additionally, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird stated that “The government of Nigeria must protect all Nigerians, regardless of sexual orientation,” and that Canada would provide freedom to homosexuality “in the most forceful of terms”.

These comments were rebuked by African authorities who have condemned them as bullying tactics, with Nigerian Senate President, David Mark, declaring “we have the right to decide for ourselves because no country can interfere in the way we run our country. Same sex marriage is against our own culture and tradition and against our beliefs.” At the end of 2011, the Nigerian senate passed the bill and is now waiting for the House of Represenatives’ vote, before the signature of President Goodluck Jonathan can make it law.

Amongst this discussion, Law 58 has been re-edited, at the Nigerian censorship board’s request, into one film instead of the two it was originally intended to be. As to his reputation as a controversial film-maker, Iroegbu wishes for audiences to “reconcile” with the “Dickson Iroegbu they have known for several years. The world will also ascertain whether I’m a homosexual or not.”