In 2013, a 19-year-old in Lagos was taken to a prayer house by his mother. He was told to fast for three days. A pastor laid hands on him and prayed, loudly and at length, against the spirit that had entered him. He was not told what spirit. He already knew.
He had not consented to being there. He did not know, at the time, that what was happening to him had a name.
It is called conversion practices. And it is happening across Nigeria, in churches, family homes, hospitals, and rehabilitation centres, to people who often spend years afterwards unsure whether what happened to them counts as harm.
It does.
What are conversion practices?
Conversion practices are any attempt to change, suppress, or redirect a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. It is a set of practices built on the assumption that queer people are broken and need fixing, which is wrong, and the practices cause serious harm.
Every major medical and psychological body in the world, including the World Health Organisation, has said the same thing. Conversion practices do not change who someone is. What they do is cause depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and in many cases, suicidality. The people who go through these experiences do not come out straight or cisgender; they come out injured.
In Nigeria, TIERs has worked alongside Outright International and researchers across the continent to document what these practices look like and who is carrying them out. What the research found is that conversion practices are not rare, and they are not only happening in fringe spaces. They are happening in mainstream religious settings, in clinical offices, and inside families, carried out by people who often genuinely believe they are helping.
What it looks like here
Because conversion practices in Nigeria rarely use that name, it is worth being specific about what it actually looks like.
The most common form is religious. A person is sent to a pastor, an elder, or a prayer group. Deliverance sessions are arranged, sometimes lasting hours, sometimes over multiple days. Fasting is prescribed. Prayer is directed specifically at the person’s sexuality or gender identity. The underlying message, repeated in different ways, is that what the person is feeling is a spiritual affliction and that faith can remove it. According to TIERs’ research, religious leaders are the most frequently identified perpetrators of conversion practices in Nigeria. In one study, 59 per cent of respondents who had experienced these practices said they involved religious rituals.
The second most common form happens inside families. A relative notices something, or a young person comes out, or someone is found out. A meeting is arranged, sometimes framed as a conversation, sometimes not framed at all. Extended family members attend. Sometimes a pastor or counsellor is brought in. By the time the person walks into the room, the conclusion has already been reached. It is an intervention with a predetermined outcome.
A third form involves mental health professionals. Some therapists and psychiatrists in Nigeria still treat homosexuality or gender nonconformity as a pathology to be addressed. People are referred to by parents or other family members. They are told their identity is something that can and should be changed through the right treatment, which is malpractice.
In more extreme cases, people are admitted to psychiatric facilities or rehabilitation centres by family members, without their consent. Confinement, isolation, and, in some documented cases, physical harm are all used as part of the process of correction.
Why is it hard to name?
One reason conversion practices persist is that they rarely identify themselves. The person going through a deliverance session is not told they are being subjected to conversion practices. The person sent to a counsellor is not given a form to sign. The person admitted to a facility by their parents is not shown a list of what is about to happen to them.
This makes it genuinely difficult for survivors to name what happened. Many people who have been through these experiences describe years of turning it over in their minds, trying to work out whether it was really as bad as it felt, whether the people involved really meant harm, whether what happened actually counts. The uncertainty is not a sign that the harm was minor. It is a direct result of the fact that the harm was never named at the time.
Naming it matters. It is the first thing that makes it possible to process what happened, to talk about it, and to push back against it.
What TIERs documented
In 2022, TIERs produced PREYED, a documentary film on conversion practices in Nigeria. The film draws on firsthand accounts from people who experienced these practices and documents what actually happened to them, in their own words.
It is not easy to watch, and it is not supposed to be. It is a record of real harm done to real people by institutions and individuals that were trusted to protect them.
You can watch PREYED at the link below. If you have experienced conversion practices and want to speak to someone, TIER’s psychosocial support services are also available here.
What needs to happen
Ending conversion practices in Nigeria requires more than one thing.
It requires:
1. Legal prohibition.
Several countries have enacted laws banning conversion practices, and Nigeria needs the same.
2. It requires the medical community to take a clear position.
Some already have, but more need to. No professional license should protect a practitioner who treats identity as a disorder.
3. It requires religious communities to grapple honestly with what some of their practices are doing to the people in their care. Faith is not a license to harm.
4. And it requires all of us to be able to name this clearly. It is not a theological debate. It is abuse. It’s a violation of human rights and, as such, something that should not be happening to anyone.
If you or someone you know has experienced conversion practices, TIERs offers support and documentation resources. You can submit a violation report via our WhatsApp on +234 813 435 7704.
