Nigeria’s former president, Goodluck Jonathan has said that the same sex marriage prohibition law that was passed during his administration did not result in discrimination.
He also said he has no regrets because he worked for the well being of the next generation while serving as Nigeria’s president.
The president noted also that lack of education is at the root of some of the most violent crises in Africa. Thus the decision to prioritise invest in the education of youths.
The former president made the revelation while giving a speech at the Oxford Union, England, United Kingdom.
He explained that the bill banning same sex marriage in Nigeria was a passed by his country’s parliament and the President that he was could not veto it.
“Since passing the ban on same sex marriage, I can attest that not a single Nigerian has been discriminated against as a result of that law,” Jonathan said on Monday.
“While serving as President of Nigeria, I worked for the next generation and not for the next elections. I have no regrets for what I did.”
Jonathan also revealed that the Transformation Agenda was conceived to engage the latent potential in the entire nation, and to stimulate and enable higher productivity.
“We increased the allowances due to Youth Corp members by more than 100% in 2011,” he said.
“We identified Nollywood as a sector that can employ many young people and provided a grant of $200 million to boost the industry. As a result Nollywood became a major contributor to our GDP and in 2014, the industry contributed 1.4% to our GDP. My Administration came up with various programs to encourage young entrepreneurs.”
Jonathan urged contemporary African leaders to see youth entrepreneurship as a collective project transcending national boundaries. He noted further that despite incredible challenges, Nigerian youths are achieving great things and placing Nigeria positively in the world map.
“We may not have been perfect, but we did our best, and our best yielded an era of unprecedented economic growth for Nigeria,” he told the audience at the Oxford Union, a debating society in the city of Oxford, England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford.
“A growth that proved the truism that a Nation’s wealth is not underneath the ground but between the ears of her people. Under my watch, Nigeria was projected by CNN Money to be the third fastest growing economy in the world for the year 2015. Nigeria was rated as the largest economy in Africa and the 23rd in the world by the World Bank and the IMF, with a GDP above US$570 billion.”
Here are some of the photos from the event.
