TheCable

Oby Ezekwesili, the presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), says everyone, including members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender (LGBT) community will be treated equally when she becomes president.

Speaking at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, best known as Chatham House, in the UK on Monday, Ezekwesili said, when it comes to public policy, everyone is entitled to equal opportunity.

Responding to claims by Bisi Alimi, a Nigerian gay rights activist, that she discriminates against the LGBT community based on her Christian faith, the former World Bank vice-president said in her government, everyone will get equal opportunity.

“Bisi spoke about the LGBT, I absolutely believe in the fact that everyone is entitled to equal opportunity. So at the realm of public policy, it wouldn’t matter to me what your belief is, what you chose to believe it,” Ezekwesili said.

“It is basically the fact that equality of opportunity will define my time in government, I believe that equality of opportunity offers everyone the right to live.

“It offers everyone, the right to aspire, that will definitely be the way that I run the government that I shall lead.”

She said as vice-president at the World Bank, she reached out to governments across the world on the need for equality of opportunity, explaining a specific case raised by Alimi.

“On your specific mention of Tanzania, when I was the vice-president at the World Bank, one specific measure that we took was to make sure that governments understand the concept of equality to a human life,” Ezekwesili added.

“So, I don’t know where you got the particular impression that I didn’t do anything. I reached out to the Tanzanian government on that matter, on the premise that equality of opportunity is an entitlement to every member of society”.

The former minister of solid minerals, in her Chatham House speech, shared her story from childhood till date, stating how she made critical decisions as a young girl in secondary school to her days at Harvard University.