The Oyo State House of Assembly has ordered the relevant Ministries, Departments, and Parastatals to start enforcing and implementing the State’s Child Rights Law 2006, to ensure sexual and reproductive health practices among teenagers.
The call was included in a motion made during the plenary on Tuesday by the lawmaker who represents the State Constituency of Ogbomoso North, Hon Bimbo Olawumi Oladeji.
The lawmaker also called on parents and other stakeholders to provide necessary support and help for teenagers who are victims of unsafe sexual and reproductive health practices to improve their health and general well-being.
Presenting the motion on “Stemming the Tide of Teenage Sexual And Reproductive Health Challenge Through Health Information Education Communication”, Hon Oladeji stated that unsafe sexual and reproductive health practices in Oyo State and Nigeria as a whole have negated goals 3 and 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals as proposed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, focused on ensuring good health and well being as well as promoting life-long learning opportunities for all and achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls respectively.
She, therefore, called for deliberate and conscious efforts towards engendering healthy and safe sexual and reproductive health practices among teenagers and young adults by local, national and international agencies.
Hon Oladeji, who is the Chairman, Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, disclosed that the alarming rate of unsafe sexual and reproductive health practices among teenagers in Oyo State is not only increasing teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, it has also led to an increase in the rate of school dropouts.
She identified inadequate access to health information, lack of adequate education on sexual and reproductive health practices among others as major factors responsible for the practice.
Hon Oladeji, therefore, called for progressive health information, communication and education programmes to sensitise teenagers in the state on safe sexual and reproductive health practices.
While passing the resolutions, Speaker, Hon Adebo Ogundoyin and the House, urged the Executive Arm of Government through the Ministries of Education, Science and Technology, Youth and Sports and Health to embark on progressive health information communication and education programme aimed at informing and educating the teenagers in the state on safe sexual and reproductive health practices.
Ogundoyin also ordered them to establish Health Information and Communication Centers with qualified and relevant personnel and resources to provide appropriate support and counselling for teenagers who need support, prioritise integrating sex education into the school curriculum to ensure that teenagers are adequately informed about sexual and reproductive issues, and collaborate with international organisations working in the field of sexual and reproductive health.
