“Sex only for voters”: Queer Nigerians are campaigning for their choice presidential candidate on dating apps

Abuja, Nigeria — (Minority Africa) When I first spoke to Richard on Grindr in July, his bio had displayed his political view for months. It was simple: sex is available only for registered voters. If you want to hook up, you must show proof that you are eligible to vote. 

“I put it up on the day Peter Obi declared he would be running for presidency under the Labour Party,” he says. “I updated it because the number of active and reactive interactions on Grindr is way higher than that of conventional social media platforms. The urgency people come to Grindr with makes it easier to stop them in their tracks and have just about any discussion with them.”

Nigeria has appeared third in the list of highest users of Grindr in the world yet homophobia is ubiquitous. In 2014, then president Goodluck Jonathan passed a bill into law criminalizing same sex marriage in the country with up to 14 years in prison.  

Online and offline; Nigeria is currently brimming with political discourse centered on the general elections in February 2023. On Twitter, a presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and the name of his political party have dominated the discussion for months. Obi has been at the forefront of a social media rave that has inspired many young first-time voters to register to vote and also campaign.

A former governor of Anambra State, the Labour Party presidential candidate, sits at the centre as the people’s favorite, with followership determined to upturn the Nigerian duo-political party system that has recycled the same politicians for decades.

Richard was in Abuja when we interacted. He had been to two other states with that bio on his Grindr profile. It made people laugh, and it made them talk about politics, he says. By the time he took a break from Grindr four months later, he had discussed politics and Peter Obi with over two hundred people. 

“I decided to do something to help Obi gain more popularity because I agree with his plans to improve the education and tech sector here in Nigeria,” he says. “I also did it because I think we are our problem – as much as our government is – and as such, can do a great deal in fixing this problem by just voting the right candidate into office.” 

After watching the value of the Naira fall and the steady rise of insecurity, unemployment, and inflation, Nigerian youths — forced out of school, without jobs, and massacred by the current regime of President Muhammadu Buhari — have seen a glint of hope in Peter Obi. When Obi was governor, he made many unprecedented achievements across sectors in his state and has since captured the hearts of Nigerians by discussing the country’s principal problems today. He has also laid out how he plans to solve these problems, a choice that has set him apart from the other candidates.

In the months since he made his intention to run for office known, Obi, once mocked as Twitter President because of his popularity on Twitter, has grown to have popularity offline as well. His supporters embarked on a named “one million march” earlier in October. However, his followership has not only crossed the borders of Twitter into the streets but also traversed into the ‘dark alleys’ of gay dating and hookup apps in the country. 

Igwe Charles lives in Lagos and uses Tinder as his primary hookup app. He has a picture of Obi among his own images on display on his profile. Charles, who should be rounding off his studies in the university but is still in his penultimate year because of university strikes, speaks of encountering similar accounts with pictures and fliers of Obi and the Labour Party. 

“I saw other accounts like mine with pictures of Peter Obi. And the rest generally start with some small talk about politics and supporting Obi in the chats,” he says. 

On what inspired the decision to upload a picture of Peter Obi on his profile, Charles says, “Having photos of Obi alongside my own on my Tinder profile stems largely from how dearly I need him to win this election.” 

“Recently, I started chatting with a man who is also an ardent Obi campaigner. He has pictures of Obi on his profile. He sends me so many updates on everything Obi, his travels, speeches, interviews, videos, everything. The hope that Obi wins was one of the things we had in common.”

Nnadi Chukwukalidibia is another person who was not in school because of the strike at the time of our conversation in September. If universities were open, Chukwukalidibia would have defended his thesis for a postgraduate degree in clinical linguistics and be charting his next course in life. 

Instead, he worked as a manager in a fast-food outlet in Delta State until the recent call-off of the strike. “As a queer person, I cannot thrive where things do not work. And I know our problems as a country or the LGBTQ community will not be easy to fix. But if there is anyone to steer us in that direction, it is Peter Obi.”

Chukwukalidibia’s Grindr profile picture is a mannequin draped in an agbada. The white swooning garment had the Labour Party logo embroidered like a crest on a breastplate. He wanted to raise pressing political conversation in the minds of the people with whom he interacted. “I know we are in these spaces for sex, but that does not have to be the beginning and end of what we discuss,” he says. “It always felt like many gay men do not even know that beyond sex, there is more to being a part of society. I put up that picture hoping that it would raise that awareness.”

But are the LGBTQ Nigerians campaigning for Peter Obi on dating and hookup apps doing so because there is a promise that an Obi presidency will repeal Nigeria’s anti-gay law? Not exactly. But they voice certain hope. 

“If there will ever be a chance for people to appeal the SSMPA, Peter Obi is the best candidate who would listen,” Charles states. He adds that queer Nigerians like himself trust that Obi, besides being a capable leader, is also a leader who listens. 

A 2014 homophobic video of Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, Obi’s running mate, trending after becoming the Labor Party vice-presidential candidate, has done little to dissuade these voters. As Obi said when asked about his position, Chukwukalidibia observes, “Every human being is prone to change. I do not want to judge him by his words from almost a decade ago but by who he can be with Peter Obi.” 

LGBTQ Nigerians like Chukwukalidibia appear to have found a way around this difficult position and chosen a side. Since totally ridding the parties of homophobia is impossible, some say they are going with the most qualified candidate who sees people as people. 

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To draw out more on the meaning of this development for an institutionally homophobic country like Nigeria, I spoke to two Nigerian LGBTQ rights activists, Mathew Blaise and Chimee Adioha. One is at the fore of gay rights activism in Nigeria, and the other works globally and in Nigeria to promote inclusion and engagement. Their positions are not very different from those of the sources I have spoken to so far.

Mathew Blaise, who identifies as nonbinary and is an activist perceives this as a welcome development. Blaise came to the limelight during the #EndSARS peaceful protest. On and off protest grounds, they spoke up about how the Nigerian police specifically target and brutalise LGBTQ Nigerians.

 “It is important that we talk about these issues,” they say. “The outcome of these discussions can affect how we are treated in society someday. It ensures our fundamental rights as humans and members of a community.”

However, Blaise is not carried away by this phenomenon. In their view, the reality of LGBTQ Nigerians is more nuanced, and institutional homophobia in Nigeria goes deep. The solution, according to them, is not simplistic and will not spring forth only because some queer Nigerians campaign for a presidential candidate in untraditional spaces. 

“Through banter, politicians and the Nigerian public politicise [the] lives of LGBTQ Nigerians for popular votes, and afterward throw them under the bus,” they say. “And this relationship is why [the] history of LGBTQ legislation in Nigeria is a total disappointment. Yes, it is important that queer Nigerians participate in these conversations. But those who do must do so with gentleness and not fault people who – due to their own experiences – choose not to partake.”

Chimee Adioha, a member of the Inclusion and Engagement committee at the Commonwealth Youth Council and the founder of Masculinity9ja, explains why it is essential that LGBTQ Nigerians have political discussions about democracy and the political process in non-traditional spaces. 

“We can only change something that we know. I believe political noise and action that occur even in hookup apps and nightclubs that centre gay people should transition from hookup convos to a physical transformation.” 

For him, even though the purpose of the legal restrictions put on queer expressions aims to silence the LGBTQ population, Adioha believes the youth can refuse this.

“I also like to see this from a point that queer Nigerians are Nigerians too. It is even more than our queerness,” Adioha says. “To engage and to connect with the state is the most crucial box to check. We may be queer, but let us enjoy good roads and steady electricity.”