Adolescent health in Nigeria presents a complex array of challenges and opportunities, reflecting broader issues in the country’s healthcare system. Adolescents, who make up a significant portion of Nigeria’s population, face multiple health risks that require urgent and comprehensive interventions.
- Sexual and Reproductive Health: One of the most pressing issues is sexual and reproductive health. Nigerian adolescents face high rates of teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, and inadequate access to contraceptives and sexual health education. Cultural taboos and lack of comprehensive sex education contribute to this problem, leading to misinformation and risky behaviors among youths.
- Mental Health: Mental health is another critical area of concern. Nigerian adolescents often experience stress related to academic pressure, unemployment, and societal expectations. However, mental health services are scarce, and the stigma surrounding mental health issues discourages many from seeking help. Addressing mental health requires not only increasing access to services but also fostering an environment where mental well-being is openly discussed and supported.
- Substance Abuse: Substance abuse is an emerging concern among Nigerian youths. The misuse of substances like alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs is increasing, driven by factors such as peer pressure, unemployment, and lack of recreational activities. Effective interventions include community-based programs, education, and stricter enforcement of laws regulating substance use.
- Access to Healthcare: Overall access to health-care services remains a significant barrier. Many adolescents, especially in rural and undeserved urban areas, lack access to quality health services. Strengthening health-care infrastructure, ensuring affordable healthcare, and training health professionals to address adolescent-specific health issues are essential steps.
Addressing adolescent health in Nigeria requires a multifaceted approach, involving government policies, community engagement, and international support. By focusing on education, improving health-care access, and tackling cultural stigmas, Nigeria can significantly improve the health and well-being of its adolescent population, ensuring a healthier future for the nation.
Menstrual Health & Dignity
Many girls also cannot afford sanitary products: in rural Nigeria, a package of pads costs 500 Naira which is roughly the cost of a meal for a poor family. With this cost, most male-dominated households will forgo providing necessary products for the women and girls in the family. In these circumstances, rural women and girls make do with what they can find: old rags, magazines, leaves and even feathers.
Mismanagement of menstruation costs girls in every aspect of their lives. Girls in my country miss an average 24% of school year due to lack of sustainable menstrual health solution, and many drop out of school because of poor performance after so many absences.
How then can we achieve gender equality? Girls using leaves or rags during menstruation are far more susceptible to infections and possibly infertility in the future. And being ostracized for a normal, healthy bodily function each month imbues young girls with a sense of worthlessness and low self-esteem.
The best place to make an impact in improving lives for women and girls is in education and health. About 52% of the female population in Nigeria is of reproductive age and menstruating. Majority of them have no access to safe sanitary products and for cultural and religious reasons, menstruation is invisible and silent. Women and girls are subjected to restrictions in their daily lives simply because they are menstruating. Besides the health problems associated with poor hygiene during menstruation, the lack and unavailability of menstrual products push menstruating girls out of school having a negative impact on their right to education.
Consequently, in most parts of these communities, a girl who attains menarche is seen as mature and ready for marriage and thus married off early leading to child early forced marriage and its attendant consequences.
Poor menstrual health may also increase susceptibility to infection and possible infertility. Furthermore, the odor of menstrual blood also puts girls at risk of being stigmatized and discriminated upon and where female genital cutting is practiced, it further increases their health risks.
A study carried out by HAFAI in two rural community secondary schools in Abuja revealed that absence rates went from 24% before kits distribution to 8% after kit distribution in 3months proving that girls miss days from school due to lack of access to reliable sanitary protection. The teachers also mentioned that often times they see girls leave class with stains on their uniforms and most times girls are less involved in class activities. Also 72% of the girls interviewed said they did not have knowledge about menstruation before onset of menarche. Some of them thought menstruation was a kind of curse or an illness.
Oral interview with some girls also revealed that they sometimes exchange sex for money to attend to their menstrual health needs. Thus, providing menstrual health solutions has the potential to greatly decrease the risk of sexual and gender-based violence among Nigerian school girls. Talking to girls about menstruation also opens a window to talk to them about sexual rights, gender inequality, rape, sexual violence, HIV/AIDS, child early forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
