A homophobic ex-presidential aide in Nigeria has insisted that his recently out gay son is actually just acting as “an instrument of God” for the LGBT+ community.

Doyin Okupe was senior special assistant on public affairs to Goodluck Jonathan, the former president of Nigeria, and in January his son Bolu Okupe came out as gay.

Bolu, who now lives in Paris, France, posted a photo on Instagram of himself victoriously holding a Pride flag while wearing tight rainbow shorts, and wrote: “Yes, I’m gay AF.”

Doyin insisted that he remained “vehemently opposed to homosexuality”. According to the Nigerian newspaper Premium Times, Doyin believes that his son came out as gay to do the Lord’s work.

He said: “He is on a sojourn in the LGBT+ community in order to be an instrument of God to them.

“By the grace of God, that is what is going to happen.”

He also claimed that the reason his son questions his fundamentalist religious views is that he spent his formative years in Europe.

“Unfortunately for me, his mother took him abroad very early, he did a major part of his secondary school in the UK,” he said.

“So, Bolu thinks and lives European. He is my son but his mind is European.

“I also know that Bolu is very easily influenced by his environment, I know that for a fact because he came one time for a holiday and he is somebody who was questioning the Bible and saying all sorts of things… He is a little bit of fickle person, depending on his environment.

“The moment I let him go and stay in France was the worst thing ever possible because that is an extremely liberal society.”

In Nigeria, which is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for LGBT+ people, being gay is punished with up to 14 years in prison, and in some states, the death penalty.