Expert Warns Students Against Premarital Sex

A health talk expert, Mr Greene Eleagu,  last Friday admonished students to shun any act or relationship that could lure them into early sex.

Eleagu was addressing over 1,000 students in public primary and secondary schools in Osisioma Local Government Area of Abia in a lecture on HIV and AIDS pandemic.

The lecture was organised by the state Ministry of Health in conjunction with the local government and an NGO, “Yellow-Wings Globals’’.

Speaking on the theme: “‘The Youth and HIV/AIDS: Education as a Tool,’’ Eleagu enjoined them not to engage in casual and unprotected sex in order to avoid the risk of contracting Sexually Transmitted Disease (STDs).

He explained that aside from contracting STDs, unprotected sex could also result in unwanted and early pregnancy that could ruin their future.

“This will make you to drop out of school and it is also capable of ruining your life and career,’’ he warned.

He advised them to delay their “‘first sex’’ until their adulthood, arguing that “‘once you start it, it becomes difficult to stop.’’

Eleagu said that there was the need to introduce sex education in the nation’s school curricula, adding, “we must use sex education to preach abstinence.’’

“You need to delay first sex, partner-number reduction, avoid rape and its causes and confidentiality in diagnoses and management of AIDS,’’ he said.

He explained that with sex education, the required awareness in the youths would be created.

“This will help them to ‘shine their eyes’ and avoid casual, unprotected sex and thus lay the foundation for an AIDS-free Abia of tomorrow,’’ Eleagu said.

The President of the NGO, Mr Philips Egwude, said that 11 schools participated in the lecture.

Egwude explained that the students were selected for the programme, which would cover the entire 17 local governments, “‘because they are the most vulnerable group’’.

The Osisioma Transition Committee Chairman, Mr Innocent Anucha, represented by his wife, Gladys, enjoined the children to concentrate on their studies and shun immoral relationships.

Anucha was conferred with the “Medal of Hope’’ award, while the chairman of the lecture, Chief Egesigh Eze-Azu, also received an award for supporting HIV/AIDS initiatives.

Eze-Azu, represented by an Aba-based businessman, Chief Kalu Agbai, enjoined the students to shun acts that would expose them to contract the virus.

The local government Education Secretary, Mrs Rose Onwunata, while commending the organisers, stressed the need for schools and parents to take sex education very seriously in the interest of the innocent children.