Gbenro Adesina
A University of Ibadan (UI) based researcher, Dr Ayodele Alonge, has called on government to make public health intervention to reduce risky sexual behaviour among adolescents in Nigeria, in a bid to prevent rising cases of HIV among the Nigerian youth.
Alarmed that the two-third of the estimated three million HIV infected persons in Nigeria are adolescents, Alonge, a Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) graduate, maintained that public health intervention should be planned and implemented purposely to improve the poor sexual behaviour of the in-school adolescents.
Alonge stated this while presenting the findings of the research funded by CARTA at the dissemination meeting on the theme entitled, “The impact of Nollywood Movies on Awareness Creation about HIV and Risky Sexual Behaviours among in-School youths in Nigeria”.
The research, which was conducted in Lagos, Oyo and Osun states among secondary students between 12 and 16 years, investigated through the analysis of Nollywood Movies’ sex related contents, how sexual messages and scenes are communicated to viewers, impact of such messages on viewers’ sexual behaviour and how this affects the sexual behaviour of in-school youths in South Western Nigeria.
According to him, “Students’ sexual behaviour was poor as most of the students cannot insist on condom use when having sex and were enthusiastic to engage in sexual activities with someone not prepared to use condom”.
While noting that the students currently possess right perception of safe sexual behaviour and HIV, the researcher stated that this should be complemented through proper production of good public health intervention and proper monitoring by parents and guardians.
The study recommended that more public health intervention that teaches behaviour that could lead to curbing risky sex behaviour that leads to HIV should be promoted since such public health intervention would increase the students’ awareness to abstain from behaviours that could lead to risky sexual behaviour.
Public health intervention that would further teach students to possess more knowledge of sexual behaviour and HIV and AIDS should be produced more since the in-school adolescence currently possess average knowledge of sexual behaviour.
