Increasing teenage pregnancy causes alarming in A’Ibom State

Firstclass newsline learnt that a group, The Excellence Community
Education Welfare Scheme, has expressed worry over the rising
incidence of teenage pregnancy in Akwa Ibom, describing it as
disturbing.
The Chief Executive Officer of the group, Mr. Andy Eyo, said recent
Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey had put the rate of child
pregnancy in the state at 17 per cent.
Eyo told Southern City News it was unimaginable that there were still
young ladies in the state having sex without condoms.
He described the figure as quite high, noting that the development
indicated that schoolchildren in the state indulged in sex as a form
of recreation.
Eyo said, "We all know that the non-use of condom is the reason, even
across villages, where young children in schools regard sex as a form
of recreation, and this unfortunately results in high teenage
pregnancies in the state."
He added, "The issue of intergenerational sex, where the older men
continue to court younger children who do not have any access to
information and how to negotiate for safe sex, is deplorable," he
said.
Eyo, who on Saturday during a three-day training programme for public
and private health workers in Akwa Ibom State on how to integrate
family planning with HIV programme through the use of condoms, said
the training would help health workers to control the rate of teenage
pregnancy, HIV infection and unwanted pregnancies.
The programme tagged 'Awareness and Condom Programming Training', was
sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund.
Eyo expressed confidence that a situation where family planning was
integrated with HIV/AIDS-related services would help create increased
awareness on the use of condoms.
"If people should go to health centres where family service is
provided, they should be able to provide condoms in the context of HIV
and other sexually transmitted diseases beyond just the context of
family planning," he said.
He also stated that health centres should provide relevant messages to
young people and commercial sex workers on the use of condom.
"Every young person should be able to know by the tip of their fingers
how to negotiate for safer sex. Young ladies, who are most vulnerable,
should be able to have access to information through this exercise.
Such young ladies should be able to negotiate for safer sex and not be
indulging in casual sex without the use of condoms," he said.
Firstclassnewsline.net