Despite the law which criminalises gay relationships in Nigeria, Google Trends for 2019 points to the fact that there may be a growing community of same-sex groups in the country.
The bill, which was signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014, bans same-sex marriages, amorous relationships, and membership of gay rights groups. It stipulates a punishment of 14-years jail term for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender (LGBTQ).
But, according to statistics provided by Google Trends for 2019, South-East states rank high among the states searching for gay pornography in Nigeria and is closely followed by South-South states.
Imo tops the list closely followed by Enugu, Anambra, Abia and Delta states.
The Federal Capital Territory, Abuja comes in at number eight while Lagos places ninth on the list.
According to the data, March 10-16 of 2019 accounts for the lowest search period for gay porn while December 22-28 accounts for the highest search.
The top 10 states searching for gay porn in Nigeria according to web searches are:
- Imo
- Enugu
- Anambra
- Abia
- Delta
- Edo
- Rivers
- Abuja
- Lagos
- Bauchi
According to the statistics, four states from the South-East make up the top four positions while three states from the South-South take the next spots. One each from north-central (Abuja), south-west and north-east complete the list.
Similarly, YouTube recorded its highest search for gay porn in Nigeria on December 29, 2019 with another South-East state, Anambra, topping the list.
The top 5 Nigerian states searching for gay porn on YouTube are:
- Anambra
- Edo
- Oyo
- Lagos
- Abuja
The south-west takes two slots from the top five on this list with the South-East, South-South and North-Central having one state entry each.
In a related development, PornHub, a pornography website, had listed Nigerian women as the highest visitors to the platform in 2019.
According to the website, Nigeria topped its list of “25 Countries searching BBW” with other African countries like Ghana, Kenya, and Egypt following closely behind in second, third, and fourth places respectively.
