Rape and Women’s Sexual Health in Nigeria: The Stark Realities of Being Female in a Patriarchal World

Historically, women have always been subjugated and oppressed by men in most cultures in Nigeria. This situation is due to the inequality in gender relations between men and women. Rape has always been with mankind throughout the world. However, in recent times, the incidence of rape has increased in Nigeria. The hegemonic patriarchal values and practices make it difficult for women who are raped to obtain justice. Perpetrators often go unpunished even if the victims have the courage to report the incident. The court acquits most of the rape offenders on account of the lack of evidence or because the victim has a ‘questionable’ character. Owing to this, rape victims suffer in silence due to the stigma and humiliation attached to the public acknowledgement of rape. This article examines how patriarchy interlocks with gender relations and inequality to deny justice to rape victims. The paper looks at the issues of gender and rape and their implications for the health of the victims. Feminist theory is used to explain rape, the societal reaction to it and the health outcomes for the victims. The paper concludes that many health problems suffered by women in Nigeria are as a result of rape. Public health practitioners should devise mechanisms of eliciting rape information from victims so as to effectively manage their health problems. The paper recommends the need for more practical ways of implementing laws on violence against women so that victims can obtain justice. Also, the role of women lawyers and other women’s organizations should be reassessed

Partnerships for Gender Equity in Nigerian Universities: The Case of the Gender Equity Project of Obafemi Awolowo University

The growing salience of gender in African political and intellectual landscapes has had impacts in the education sector. Education, identified as one most important single factor, for closing the wide gender gap, has been targeted to it political and socio-economic benefits. Higher education institutions, which experience the widest gender equity gaps in education programming have drawn grave attention and various responses being developed to mitigate the situation. This paper discusses the response of one institution, the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), to bridge gender equity gaps through a partnership with the Carnegie Corporation of New York. In the process, OAU – Carnegie Gender Equity Initiative was put in place to tackle the specific problem of the under-presentation of women in OAU. This paper examines the initiative for its impact on the University and constituent communities. Secondary data was collected from Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies and Planning and Budgeting Unit of the University. Analysis of various conceptual and empirical sources reveals that the Gender Equity Project has made tremendous impact on all spheres of the University. The Project, through its fellowships to women academics, specific junior faculty to complete their Ph. Ds, and strengthened the capacities of administrative staff. The extension of scholarships to women indigent undergraduate and postgraduate students helped in the retention of the awardees and the completion of their programmes and the University Community has become more gender sensitive. Moreover, OAU now operates a Gender Policy which is expected to help institutionalize gender issues into all facets of the University. In conclusion, OAU is making progress in institutionalizing gender into all aspects of the University life thus moving towards achieving gender equality and gender mainstreaming.KEYWORDS: Gender Equality, Institutional Partnerships, Gender Mainstreaming, Higher Education, Staff Development

Perception of HIV/AIDS among the Igbo of Anambra State, Nigeria

Perception is fundamental in the fight against stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). Perception generally influences discriminatory attitudes towards PLHIV which exacerbates their problems and quickens the degeneration of the disease from HIV to AIDS. This study examined the Anambra people’s perception and knowledge of HIV/AIDS with the goal of creating knowledge on these issues in order to design effective intervention programmes towards the reduction of social stigmatization associated with the pandemic. The study was carried out in Idemmili North and Oyi local government areas of Anambra State. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to elicit information from respondents who were adult males and females of 18 years and above. The research instruments were questionnaires and in-depth interview schedule. Questionnaires were administered on 1000 respondents while 13 people were interviewed in-depth. Analysis of quantitative data were conducted by using the Statistical package for Social Sciences. Univariate analysis in the form of frequencies were conducted which generated the distribution of respondents across the research variables. Furthermore, multivariate analysis were conducted to test the hypotheses and sought for relationships among variables. The qualitative data were reported in themes based on the research objectives and were analysed jointly with the quantitative data. The findings were that majority of the respondents viewed HIV/AIDS as a disease that afflict immoral people and as a punishment from God. Only a handful of them saw the disease as a disease that could afflict anybody. Also, many of the respondents said that AIDS is real but showed a low level of knowledge. It was further indicated that there were significant relationships between educational level, sex, occupation, income influence perception and peoples’ reactions to HIV positive status of a relative while there were no significant relationships between these variables and knowledge of HIV/AIDS. It was concluded that these negative perceptions were as a result of the people’s low level of knowledge and cultural belief systems, which see a strange illness as punishment from God for disobedience. Furthermore, the fact that most of the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents had significant relationship with perception and reaction to HIV was an indication that most people in the study area had a uniform perception. It was also an indication that government HIV/AIDS awareness programmes were not effective. It was recommended that strategies for effective HIV educational programme should be sought and carried out in the study area. Effective intervention programme have the power to change behaviours and would likely change the people’s negative perception and low level of knowledge of HIV/AIDS, thereby reducing stigmatization of people living with  HIV/AIDS.Keywords: perception, disease, epidemic, knowledge, PLHIV, HIV/AIDS and stigmatizatio

Anti-inflammatory activity of fatty extract of Vitalleria paradoxa Kernel (Shea butter) and pattern of its clinical use in arthritis in Enugu, South East Nigeria

Background: The fatty seed extract of Vitellaria paradoxa Kernel (Sapotaceae) commonly called “Shea butter”, is a popular remedy for arthritis in west Africa. This study investigated the knowledge, prevalence and pattern of use of Shea butter in clinically diagnosed arthritic patients as well as its effects on acute (topical and systemic) and chronic inflammation in rodents.Methods: Knowledge, prevalence and pattern of use were determined using pre-tested questionnaire in clinically diagnosed patients whereas the anti-inflammatory activity was studied using xylene-induced mouse ear edema, carrageenan-induced rat paw edema, formaldehyde-induced arthritis in rats and cotton pellet granuloma test in rats.Results: The results showed that of the 164 respondents, 94.1% know about Shea butter and 59.6% have used it mainly as a massage ointment once or twice daily. However, 73.7% of the users combine this remedy with analgesics to achieve relief. The pharmacological tests showed that topical application of Shea butter inhibited acute edema of the mouse ear. Systemic oral administration caused significant (p<0.05) suppression of the development of systemic acute edema of the rat paw in a non-dose related manner. Twice daily topical application of Shea butter significantly (p<0.05) inhibited the edematous response to formaldehyde arthritis whereas once daily administration was not effective. Shea butter also caused a significant (p<0.05) non-dose related inhibition of granuloma tissue formation on implanted cotton pellets.Conclusions: These findings provide a scientific rationale for the use of Shea butter in treatment of disorders of inflammation in traditional medicine

Socio-Economic and Cultural Factors in Maternal Mortality in Nigeria.

The issue of maternal mortality has been very topical due to recent focus on sustainable development and because of the fact that maternal mortality is very high in many developing countries. In Nigeria, maternal mortality is very high and one of the highest in the world. There are cultural and social factors that exacerbate the problem in Nigeria. This paper reviews the influence of poverty, lack of education, cultural food taboos and gender relations on maternal mortality in Nigeria. The review was done using existing literatures on the subject. It was found that many women are illiterates and this affects their level of knowledge and exposure and also their level of income and all these impinge on their nutritional status. This situation also affects their ability to exercise their rights as human beings. Moreover, the introduction of user charges in government hospitals made unafordable for many women and make them patronize faith clinics and traditional medical practitioners and in this way, many avoidable deaths occur. The gender relations was also found to be a very important factor in life chances and pregnancy outcomes of women and women‟s health generally. It was therefore concluded that the high maternal mortality in Nigeria is as a result of these socio cultural factors. These factors and issues should be addressed if Nigeria is truly sincere in curbing the menace of high maternal mortality. Key words: maternal mortality, poverty, education, culture, gender and employment