A Nigerian lady identified as Bukola Tijani has reportedly been victimised and ostracised by her family and community due to her sexual preferences.
In an online chat with a correspondent of AlimoshoToday, Bukola, who was married with two kids, said she has constantly been facing abuse and victimisation from her husband, her immediate family, her church, and society for being bisexual.
According to her, she has always hidden her identity because of the laws of Nigerian society, which forbade romantic and sexual relations between the same genders. This led her to get married and have two children under 10 years old. However, in early 2022, her husband caught her with her ‘partner’ and this was where the trouble started.
In her words: “When my husband discovered that my best friend of many years was my partner, he became violent towards me and even threatened to take away my kids. I don’t want to lose my kids. The problem became so much that I had to separate from my husband and go into hiding with my children. We are not living in the best conditions, affecting my children's academic and overall growth.
“Even my church and family that I thought would support me all blamed me and made me think I was evil for liking both males and females. Elders in my church called me and told me to stop coming to church until I fixed the demon in me. My family also abandoned me because they said I was embarrassing them. All this has affected me physically and mentally. My mental health is shattered and I’m calling on society to help me because I don’t know what can happen to me.”
Bukola also stated that the abuse did not stop with her family or church as she was beaten sometime in July 2023, by masked men. She said she was beaten and hospitalised for almost a week, and while in the hospital she was placed under suicide and self-harm watch because of her psychological state.
Bukola also added that she’s currently making moves to leave the country so that she can protect her sanity and live peacefully, noting that she did not want to end up like the popular Nigerian crossdresser who was jailed recently.
