ABSTRACT
This chapter embarks on a religious-political analysis of Nigeria's Same Sex Marriage Act, in particular, of the responses it has received from Christian and Muslim leaders, in the contemporary Nigerian context. It appears that the issue of homosexuality is a social and political concern for both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. Post-independent Nigeria was designed as a secular state. As Isaac Sampson points out that the Contemporary state-religion relations in Nigeria are characterised by ill-defined boundaries. The notion of a postcolonial resistance to what is experienced as a Western imposition is even more explicitly reflected in a statement of Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of the capital city Abuja. The evangelistic concern, according to Philip Jenkins, is particularly strong in the Anglican Church of Nigeria, which is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. However, it is clear that both Muslim and Christian leaders in their responses to the SSMA implicit or explicit the ideas of national and interreligious cohesion.
