The Initiative for Equal Rights commissioned Vivid Rain to conduct a social perception survey to understand how Nigerians view lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights issues. This poll, which is the fourth in the biennial series, was conducted in all the 36 states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. Although Nigerians have consistently shown a negative attitude towards LGBT rights issues, there has been a gradual increase in acceptance as shown by the results from this survey. About 60% of Nigerians will not accept a family member who is LGBT. While this number is high, in 2017, 83% of Nigerians were not willing to accept such a family member. This represents a significant change in acceptance levels. Similarly, there were positive changes in the attitude to the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act as more Nigerians appear to no longer support the law. In 2015, 90% of respondents surveyed supported the law but in 2019 about 75% support it. This shows a 15% drop in 4 years. In addition, there is a 13% drop in the proportion of Nigerians who believe that people should be jailed for 14 years for having same sex relationships, as 74% of respondents surveyed in 2019 are in support of jail terms as opposed to 91% of respondents in 2017. Conversely, there appears to be a downward trend in the awareness of LGBT persons as fewer numbers reported being aware of relatives, community members, or famous people who are LGBT.
