Anal Intercourse in Nigeria

via Nigerian Tribune, by Muda Oyeniran

Not less than 12 percent of public secondary school students in Nigeria practise anal sex while 12.1 per cent of university students and 15.2 per cent adolescents in northern Nigeria engage in the act.

Morenike Ukpong, the coordinator of the New Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society, a Lagos-based non-governmental organisation, who disclosed this to the Nigerian Tribune said the role of anal sex in driving the HIV epidemic away from Nigeria could no longer be ignored.

She further said there were evidences to show that about 10 per cent of women and 14 per cent of men in the general populace practised anal sex, adding that the use of condom during this sexual act was low because of the erroneous belief that anal sex was safer than vagina sex.

“Request for anal sex by clients of female sex workers is high with men paying higher to have anal sex for many reasons,” she stated.

According to Ukpong, anal sex is known to be the highest risk form of sexual transmission of HIV infection with approximately 14 times higher risk of HIV transmission when compared to penile-vagina sex.

Read the rest.


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

You oughta be in pictures ---- IRMA-Lagos is ready for their closeup

Kadiri Audu transmitted these photos from the recent HIV/AIDS advocacy event he and IRMA-Lagos participated in with the Otumara Concerned Barbers.

Read his post on the event.

You guys ROCK!

Taking IRMA and AIDS Advocacy to the Grassroots in Lagos

"The joy we derive is the fact
that we are touching lives
by giving life changing information to the
less privileged people in the society."

by Kadiri Audu
[pictured front center with IRMA members at the M2008 conference]

IRMA-Lagos has been doing a lot recently. On the 29 of May, Nigeria's Democracy Day, we partnered with a group of young barbers, Otumara Concerned Barbers (OCB), and Lagos Mainland Youth Forum to organise an HIV/AIDS awareness creation. The theme was TAKING HIV/AIDS INFORMATION TO THE GRASSROOTS.

Topics covered included - basic facts about HIV/AIDS, facts and current issues on microbicides and rectal microbicides, proper condom usage and stigmatization. Facilitators were drawn from the National Youth Network on HIV/AIDS, IRMA-Lagos, Lagos State AIDS Control Agency, and Other experts in the field of HIV/AIDS.

Also in attendance were the community head of Otumara village in Mainland LGA, the venue of the event, the youth reps from Mainland LGA and other invited dignitaries. It was an educative and interactive programme as many were satisfied with the information they got, this was evident from the various questions that were asked and satisfactory answers they received.

We are still working on the video editing, we will send the videos and pictures as soon as they are ready. The programme was a self-sponsored programme. Getting funding for such projects is really a challenge we are facing, we would have sent the videos and pictures if not for financial constraint. But we are not allowing that to affect our advocacy work because we have committed members who are always ready to contribute their money and time to the work we are doing, most of them don't work while the few of us that have a meager paying job still do our best to keep the work going.

The joy we derive is the fact that we are touching lives by giving life changing information to the less privileged people in the society, like the venue of our last event, it is a slum where people do not have access to adequate information, and you will agree with me that if one is not informed that fellow is deformed and can not perform, that is "IF YOU ARE NOT INFORMED YOU ARE DEFORMED AND YOU CAN NOT PERFORM" This was one of the messages on that day.

I will keep you informed of our activities as we go on.

Yours in service,

Kadiri Audu
IRMA-Lagos

Read more from Kadiri here.
Read his bio here, in IRMA's "Meet a Friendly Microbicide Advocate" section of our website.

[Delhi Dynamos] Kadiri Audu of Lagos, Nigeria

Correspondence from IRMA advocates
by way of India

M2008 memories and the path forward

Taking rectal microbicide advocacy
to the next level in Lagos

by Kadiri Audu, Lagos. Nigeria
[read Kadiri's bio]

First, I want to thank the organizers of Microbicides 2008, IRMA, AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the John Shaw Memorial Scholarship fund that gave me the opportunity to attend the M2008 in New Delhi.

New Delhi is beautiful and the weather was just alright. I do not know if there is any better place to have hosted the conference in India, the conference was exciting and wonderful. It was interesting to have met new advocates from other parts of the world, and it was also interesting to know that people from the developed world like the USA and Canada are actually leading the research on rectal microbicides. Also, the Advocates Corner was a splendid idea because it gave the John Shaw Scholarship recipients, new advocates, and other IRMA members the chance to meet one another and build networking links among ourselves. My favorite memory was the chance to meet other advocates and the dinner organized for the conference participants.

I have been sharing my experience of the conference with members of the various networks that I belong to in our meetings. In addition to sharing my experience, I also share some materials that I collected at the advocates corner, i.e. stickers, pens and posters carrying the message about the conference.

In taking rectal microbicide advocacy to the next level, we have already formed Lagos IRMA, the aim is to mobilize more advocates in line with IRMA research and activities. We have even started e-mailing in that regards - our email address is lagosirma@yahoo.com, myself and Abdullrahaman formed it. He is also a new advocate that attended the conference and we operate from the same city. As of today we have 21 new members from our community.

Presently we are looking at reaching out to more people and groups like the youth leaders, the artisan groups like the hair dressers association, barbers association, the auto mechanic association, etc within our locality.

I would also like to suggest that we have training opportunities for us and our new members so as to be able to carry on the work effectively.

Thanks once again.
Kadiri Audu E

[remember to visit www.rectalmicrobicides.org - IRMA's home on the web!]