MUST READ: Nigeria's First Open Gay, Bisi Alimi Speaks To CNN's Christiane Amanpour

Nigerian gay rights activist, Bisi Alimi was on CNN with news correspondent Christiane Amanpour to speak on Nigeria's gay prohibition bill. Bisi who came out of the closet in 2004 revealed how he couldn't get a job, how he was threatened and how he fled to the UK for asylum.

"There were so many things we don't talk about," Alimi told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "My career was on the line, I was going to be outed by the media." It was better, he decided, to come out of the closet on his own terms.
"I have a responsibility to stand up for the community, to give a face to the community, to demystify the old arguments that there are no homosexuals in Nigeria," People were not ready to educate themselves. And this created a lot of problems for the LGBT community in Nigeria."I couldn't get a job, I left university, nobody was going to employ me, my life was constantly in danger, I was always beaten, arrested by the police, discharged.Parliament passed the bill last year, so why did the president sign it now?
"He has been boxed to a corner," Alimi said, who believes President Jonathan is increasingly politically alienated.

I know, like so many other Nigerians know, that this is a distraction.As for those fellow countrymen, Alimi believes that for many, their intolerant views are bolstered by religion. How many Nigerians know…what this law means? Or how many Nigerians have an understanding outside of religion what exactly we talk about when we talk about sexuality?""Why then should religion be the basis of putting a law in place in a secular state?"
Alimi who is daignosed with HIV also stressed that the recent gay prohibition law may be averted if the international community imposes sanctions to pressure the Nigerian government.