The Primate of All Nigeria Anglican Communion, Most Revd. Nicholas Okoh has said that those canvassing same-sex marriages in the country would face the punishment of God.
He was speaking in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital during the 70th birthday of his predecessor, Dr, Peter Akinola, held at the Cathedral of St. Peter, Ake, Abeokuta.
He however commended President Goodluck Jonathan for his courage in signing the anti-gay bill into law which has continued to generate reactions in some quarters in Nigeria and beyond.
According to him, those not in support of the bill are like the biblical duo, Adam and Eve who questioned God for asking them not to eat the fruits from the Garden of Eden.
His words: “Many people do not realise that what is referred to as the homosexual trouble is not the homosexual or lesbian trouble but people’s refusal to accept the scripture for what it is, authority for life and practice following God.
He added: “in the beginning, man questioned the authority of God in the garden by saying did God actually say that you should not eat the forbidden fruit. That challenge to God’s authority dethroned God’s power and enthroned man’s power.
“”So they concluded that God has no right to tell man what to do and that they were the people who knew what to do. So man set God aside and took over the command. Consequently, disaster followed”.
He said the same thing was happening today in the issue of human sexuality. “It is not about whether a man should marry a man or a woman should marry a woman, the question in the garden (of Eden) has come back again”.
Asking rhetorically, the primate said: “did God say that you should marry only a woman? Did God say a woman should marry only a man? God is wrong, we have come of age, man is right. And as in the former time, disaster followed when man dethroned God. So again it shall happen that if man decided to stick to the principle of dethroning God, He will face nothing but disaster”.
Akinola, during an interview with journalists said his journey in life had been tortuous and rugged but the good Lord is taking him through.
Commenting on his ordeals in the hands of hoodlums who attacked him last December and took away his vehicle, he appealed to Nigerian youths to be self-reliant.
