Marital Practices Targeting Women and its Implication on HIV/ AIDS Preventive Campaigns in South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

In the fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, the incorporation of marital values andpractices tenet in the campaign programmes remain one of the major assets that hasremained untapped. This study was conducted towards understanding the positiveand negative marital values and practices in Nigeria and how they can improveHIV/AIDS preventive campaigns. In-depth interviews were conducted on marriedyoung people who reside in Abeokuta town in South West, Nigeria. The first and the second categories were HIV positive and HIV negative respectively. The findingsshow that there are some marital values and practices which promote risky sexual behaviour among men which leads to HIV/AIDS while some curtails sexual excess esparticularly among females. Some of the female informants indicated that somemarital values and practices were promoting social cohesion and unity while otherswere having negative influence on their physical and psychological health. Majorityof the informants testified that cultural values and practices gave married men the permissiveness to involve in extra marital affairs. The consequences of the above scenario make more women to be vulnerable to HIV/AIDS than their male counterparts. These findings show that inculcating marital virtues into HIV/AIDS preventive communication campaigns would reduce the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among married couple. This study concludes that there is a need to specifically design marital sensitive HIV/AIDS preventive campaigns specifically for marriedindividuals.