“There were so many things we don’t
talk about,” Alimi told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday. “My career was on
the line, I was going to be outed by the media.”
“I have a responsibility to stand up for the
community, to give a face to the community, to demystify the old arguments that
there are no homosexuals in Nigeria,” People were not ready to educate
themselves. And this created a lot of problems for the LGBT community in
Nigeria.”I couldn’t get a job, I left university, nobody was going to employ
me, my life was constantly in danger, I was always beaten, arrested by the
police, discharged.Parliament passed the bill last year, so why did the
president sign it now?
“He has been boxed to a corner,” Alimi said, who believes
President Jonathan is increasingly politically alienated.
I know, like so many other Nigerians know, that this is a distraction.As for those fellow countrymen, Alimi believes that for many, their intolerant views are bolstered by religion.How many Nigerians know…what this law means? Or how many Nigerians have an understanding outside of religion what exactly we talk about when we talk about sexuality?”“Why then should religion be the basis of putting a law in place in a secular state?” He would eventually seek asylum in the UK, where he now lives.He became the first Nigerian to declare his homosexuality on television.In that same year, 2004, Alimi had been diagnosed with HIV. He had been working for years as an activist with the gay community in Nigeria, and was programing director for an HIV-advocacy group.
