A Child Rights Advocate, Mrs Aderonke Oyelake, has urged parents to teach their adolescent girls about sexual reproductive health to prevent pre-marital pregnancies and sexual abuse.
Oyelake, the State Coordinator of Child Protection Network, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on Tuesday in Lagos.
She said that teaching adolescent girls about reproductive health and sexuality did not make them to be promiscuous.
The advocate said that, rather, such education would prepare and provide them with adequate knowledge on the inherent dangers in pre-marital sex.
Oyeleke added that educating adolescent girls on the implications of menstrual cycle and how to effectively manage it, saying that the presence of menstrual period is an indication that a girl or woman is ready for pregnancy.
She noted that parents needed to start educating their children and wards on sex and related issues from age 12 to 15, saying that they were part of parenting responsibilities.
“Prevention is better than cure; when we teach adolescent girls about pre-marital sex, we are trying to give them information about sexual and reproductive health issues so that they will not fall into the wrong hands
“It is likely that most parents did not grow up with their parents listening to them, so, they shun their children when they ask about sexual and reproductive health issues which is not supposed to be so,” she said.
Moral Conscience
Oyelake decried that some parents in Nigeria saw sex education as an attempt to damage the moral conscience of a child.
According to her, pre-marital pregnancy in Nigeria is the highest in sub-Sahara Africa, attributing it to lack of parental early sex education.
“It is important that parents teach the adolescent girls about their sexual rights to prevent unwanted pregnancies, rape and other Gender -based Violence (GBV).
“As a parent, if you fail to teach your children what they ought to know at home, certainly they will be taught outside, which can even be late,” she said.
Oyelake, however, said that pre-marital pregnancy among school-age girls and teenagers had been blamed largely on the prevalent poverty in the country.
She said that the level of poverty in Nigeria would have been reduced minimally if emphasis had been placed on sensitising the teenage girls on time.
“It is unfortunate that while parents, who are low income earners, can hardly meet up with the economic well-being of their children, their uninformed girls would compound the family’s woes through unwanted pregnancy.
“This vicious cycle will definitely revolve to the next generation because an uninformed mother will beget uninformed children,” she said.
She also urged teenage girls to always seek redress at the appropriate quarters anytime they were sexually harassed, saying that the Child Protection Network was readily available to assist.
Oyelake emphasised the need for collaborative efforts of all stakeholders – the government, teachers, parents, families, organisations, community, and religious leaders – to end GBV, particularly sexual abuse.
According to her, there is a need for more sensitisation on sexual abuse, saying that many are still unaware of the laws and penalties for child sexual abuse
NAN/ Shakirat Sadiq