By ‘Sola Fagorusi
Today marks Worlds AIDS Day; though Nigeria’s HIV prevalence rate among 15-49 years adults being at about 3.4% – one of the highest in the world. Many parents do not like to discuss sex with their children. It is not a subject they readily warm up to. In most cases, young people get information about their sexuality from friends who are most cases also nearly as ignorant as themselves. For a very religious and cultural society like Nigeria, it is a hard task getting adults to talk to young people about their reproductive health and use words like – penis, vagina, breast, sex et cetera in such conversation. They dribble round the subject, throwing phrases like – private part in the mix and possibly even leave young adults more confused. Allowing this to continue portends great danger for the current generation in a time when information (good, bad and misleading ones) is readily available for consumption. Of Nigeria’s 177 million citizens, 56.6 million are young people according to the National Population Census. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) similarly posits that young people aged 10–24 years constitute 31% of Nigeria’s 167 million populations. Access to sexual and reproductive health information and services is limited for young people in Nigeria thus resulting in poor health outcomes such as unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS.
The ideas parents have of their children are most times far from reality. Times were, when locking a teenager at home was some form of solution to them engaging in risky sexual behaviour. Not anymore. There are terabytes of content online and on digital satellite television on other mobile devices that can help them connect and access information that parents would wish they never knew exist. Terminal examinations organised by bodies like JAMB and WAEC are not complete without some online activities by students, thereby honing their digital literacy skills. UNFPA further submits that “by the age of 18, about 52% of girls and 26% of boys have had sex. Only 22% of the boys and 11% of girls (aged 15-24) used condoms on their first sexual experience. Teenage pregnancy rate is 23% while HIV prevalence is 3% among 15-19 years old and 4.6% among 20-24 years old. Though awareness of HIV/AIDS is high, only 22% of young girls and 32% of young boys have a comprehensive knowledge of the virus. The most commonly used methods among sexually active unmarried girls aged 15-24 are male condoms (73.9%), pills (8.8%) and injectable (3.3%). What this means is that young girls are more vulnerable to reproductive health problems than boys. Sexual debut is earlier for girls (17.8 years) than boys (20.6 years). Globally, young women are 1.6 times more likely to be living with HIV than young men and in Nigeria women account for 58% of people living with HIV. Similarly, HIV prevalence is higher among unmarried women (5.6%) than married women (4.9%). Early pregnancies and childbirths are leading causes of complications (such as fistula), abortion and death among young women. In Nigeria, 28% of girls aged 15-19 are married while 23% of them are mothers. 55% of abortion cases are among girls below age 25. Adolescent girls also are more likely to engage in high risk sex with multiple sex partners than older women.
These overwhelming statistics lends credence to the need to make information more available through outlets that most young people subscribe to with attention given to the preference of rural and urban youths; knowing well that the latter prefers 2go and Facebook. Young people are getting engaged in risky sexual behaviour more given the curtain that social media provides for them. A hitherto shy young person can discuss all there is about his sexuality with a total stranger since he or she is not making contact physically. With several myths and misinformation provided what follows is usually undesirable. Human Immunodeficiency Virus, STIs, early pregnancy and a bleak future, especially for the girls are some of the main consequences of poorly informed sexual decisions.
The need to make quality and correct information freely available online is central for adolescent reproductive health programming for today’s young people. #NoHoodieNoHoney, a five minutes 3-D animation video fills this need in part. Produced by UNFPA Nigeria, No Hoodie No Honey targets young people with correct information on safer sex to enable them make informed choices about their sexual health and relationships. Issues addressed in the two-part video include sexual debut, unwanted pregnancies, STIs/HIV and condom use. Clearly targeted at the girls, in part one of the animation, Ene (a virgin) in pidgin English complains about Wole, a friend she was dating who she ‘Facebooked’ only to find out that he was married and thereafter deleted him from her Blackberry contact. Toju in the same video then counsels Ene on the need to abstain from initiating sex and if she ever has to she must use a condom. She further counsels on the appropriateness of ladies also carrying condoms in their bags to prevent unplanned babies and other STIs even when the guy thinks otherwise. The two videos are straight responses to meeting the sexuality needs of young women in a deeply patriarchal society where ladies’ inability to negotiate condom use or access age appropriate reproductive health information and services can lead to a drabber future.
No Hoodie, No Honey social media campaign which was first driven through twitter engagement was initiated as an innovative approach to provide young girls aged 15-24 with accurate information about safer sex practices. It is hoped the video which is available on Youtube.com will create a behaviour change where girls are encouraged and empowered to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and STIs/HIV. It is a rational attempt at addressing the challenges of a demography that should be harnessed. Additional videos and contents need to be created for young people so they understand that there is more to dating than sex. Nigeria with its largest internet population on the continent and with evidence showing young people being unenthusiastic to seek sexual health information from traditional sources for reasons including stigma, lack of services, cost amongst others need to have its sexual and reproductive health professionals find more creative ways of using the online community young people love to influence their offline activities. More videos, more songs, more pictures and more episodes of #NoHoodieNoHoney that addresses the spectrum of the sexuality of young people through mobile platforms are ways to ensure Nigeria’s youth bulge becomes a blessing and not a curse.
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‘Sola Fagorusi is a social entrepreneur and a prized freelance writer with a bias for youth and rural development. He started off as a youth staff with Action Health Incorporated in 2001. The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife alumnus currently manages the programmes of OneLife Initiative, Nigeria. ‘Sola is a DESPLAY Africa (Africa’s foremost and most consistent annual youth democracy academy) fellow and has been on its faculty since 2011. Keenly interested in governance and pan-Africanism, he volunteers as online editor of YouthHub Africa; a cyber-community for young Africans involved in social change. He believes in the efficacy of oratory and writing as tools to drive developmental engagements. As a freelance writer, he spares time to pen thoughts on contemporary societal issues and is a weekly columnist with Nigeria’s most read daily ? Punch Newspaper. His training and capacity cuts across democracy and governance, leadership, micro-enterprise, ICT4D, SRH, value chains, development communication and policy issues. He tweets @SolaFagro and blogs at www.kadunaboy.com
