NAWOJ Family Week: Lagos Commissioner, Ayorinde, Shekarau, Omowale, Lawal, others advocate early adoption of sex education to reduce rape, other vices against female child

Stakeholders in the women sector have called for early adoption of sex education to reduce cases of rape among children.

They spoke at the 2017 Family Week and Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign organized by the Lagos State Council of the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), which coincided with World breastfeeding day, held at the Combo Hall of Lagos Television (LTV8) Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos, on Thursday.

In her lectured titled, “Appropriateness of Sexuality Education in our Schools,’’ the guest lecturer at the event, who is the Country Director of IPAS Nigeria, Barrister Hauwa Shekarau, said that adolescents deserved adequate information, in order not to fall prey to various consequences of unprotected sex.

“Comprehensive sexuality education is not a taboo,’’ she said.

Shekarau, who came in from Abuja, noted that defilement made children grow up to become timid adults and therefore urged schools to carry parents along in the preparation of Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE).

She said, “Young people should be able to acquire sex education the appropriate way.

“If you don’t tell them the right things, they will get the information, whether right or wrong, elsewhere,’’ she said.

Shekarau questioned the old tradition where abstinence was preached, instead of providing the various options for prevention of rape and teenage pregnancy to adolescents.

“In this age, where paedophiles are lurking around, how would a child that is abused be able to report it?’’ She queried.

She said that parents would not be there when youths have to make decisions about having sex and as such, should be given appropriate education.

Shekarau’s position was supported by both National President and Lagos Chairperson of NAWOJ, Mrs Ifeyinwa Omowole, and Hajia Sekinah Lawal, respectively, who separately told The DEFENDER and other media present in a post-event interview that no amount of information was too much in sex education.

Omowole said that parents usually shied away from providing detailed information to help adolescents make appropriate choices, when confronted with the issue of sex.

“As a mother, it is not enough to say to a girl-child that she will get pregnant if a man touches her, without giving her accurate guidance,’’ she said.
Omowole also advised mothers to breastfeed their newborns well, to prevent cancer.

Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Steve Ayorinde, who was represented by Director of Press and Public Relations in the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Mrs Toro Oladpo, said “a breastfeeding mother must be immune from any domestic violence, supported financially, emotionally and should be well fed, so that the breast milk can flow well’’.

Ayorinde said that breastfeeding increased “the bond of understanding between children and their mothers’’.

On her own, Oladapo told The DEFENDER that there was no excuse for any woman not to breadfeed her child as breastfeeding, she said, has been proved to be far away from the fear of breasts sagging.

Mrs Sekinat Lawal, Lagos Council Chairperson of NAWOJ, recalled that in 2016, the association created awareness on domestic violence, but the scourge was still on and needed more attention.

“Just some weeks back, acid was poured on a lady in Isolo.

“There should be a law restricting the sale of acids in the country, to stem such reckless usage of it,’’ she said.