Some Nigerians on social media have reacted to the sexuality of the son of a former presidential aide, Dr Doyin Okupe, who on Thursday took to his Instagram page to announce to his followers that he is gay.
His father, Doyin Okupe, in a series of tweets said his son’s decision to openly declare himself a homosexual is a “spiritual challenge”.
Okupe, who served under former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, said as an evangelist, he would never accept homosexuality as it is at variance with Christian values.
This has generated a lot of controversies on social media with some people saying the son was influenced by the culture abroad.
Kus-p Chukwuemeka on Facebook wrote, “Great Dad, may God see him and you through…these are some of the effects of sending children abroad or far from you as parents, for studies or whatever, especially during their formation period. You end up welcoming back home a total stranger.”
“Well, I respect him as a good father, but it’s hard to control children who live outside Africa because they know everything about their right, there’s nothing he can do about it, he can only advise or disown him,” Ayobami Darkdot Arsenalholic wrote.
@shalamanh tweeted, “Spiritual challenge is a relative term, It depends on your definition. I see being “gay” as a choice.”
@Nosakhare777 said, “You can only be a father to your son. What he decides to do should not change your love for him. Just keep praying for him.”
Adedayo Emmanuel on Facebook wrote, “This is why we should be mindful of sending our children to the western world at times because they practice a lot of atrocities”
“As a father, it’s painful. However, most politicians and captains of industries don’t raise their children by themselves. They will be here making money while their children are alone abroad. Living all sorts of lives. No parental care only sends money to him. It’s very painful. But with prayers all things are possible,” Cornelius Ikpe added.
@soboss15 tweeted, “This is why African (Nigeria) is a big mess we enact laws we can’t implement that definitely lead to impunity. The White men know the consequences of enacting laws that can’t be implemented, this is why there is rule of law in the white man country.”
@EwelukwaF said, “Since anti-gay law was passed in 2014, I have not seen someone that is serving 14 years jail term as a result of this menace.”
“You didn’t monitor your son when he was young. It is not spiritual. It is psychological,” @Segungoke1 tweeted.
@VOrunla added, “In Nigeria, appealing to the spiritual is a way of evading substantive issues and shutting down conversations on matters that need to be discussed. You were the media aide of a government that slammed 14 years on gays, but you didn’t realize that your son was one of them.”
@kennethokorie10 also wrote on Facebook, “Oga, It might be a 40 per cent spiritual challenge as you say but you as the parents you also contributed cause most of you in government send your children abroad for their education and that’s what you get when you depend on the school to train them for you and this behaviour is mostly accepted in abroad.”
(Punch)
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