Obasanjo and the gay menace

The United States is not the only country where the president is using the "gay menace" as a smokescreen to distract from real problems. Nigerian leader Olesegun Obasanjo recently backed Africa's Anglican bishops who vehemently objected to an American Episcopalian diocese's appointment of a gay bishop. President Obasanjo, a born-again Christian, praised bishops for their "principled stand against the totally unacceptable tendency towards same-sex marriages and homosexual practice" adding that "such a tendency is clearly un-Biblical, unnatural and definitely un-African."

Perhaps, he could apply this vigor to fighting rampant corruption that gnaws away at every facet of Nigerian society.

In the light of recent general strikes, turmoil in the oil producing Niger delta, repressive Sharia being imposed in northern Nigeria and most recently, a fuel shortage which grounded air flights in the country, the religious controversy is useful distraction for Obasanjo.