Nigeria’s Forgotten Young People

The many sexual and reproductive health problems in developing countries have been well documented, but less known is the plight of adolescents living on military bases. Young people who live on such military “cantonments” are especially vulnerable for risk for promiscuity and sexual abuse. They are surrounded by poorly paid soldiers who move frequently and often spread sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Ololade Dosunmu, MD, an MPH student at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, shared findings at the Abuja conference from her study of the Ikeja Military Cantonment. Dosunmu and her colleagues interviewed more than 250 adolescents at the Ikeja Military Cantonment. The second largest such base in West Africa, Ikeja is located outside of Lagos, Nigeria.

Dosunmu found a high level of promiscuity, poor hygiene and sanitation, and a lack of health services infrastructure.

“We found 67 percent of respondents admitted to being sex active,” said Dosunmu. “We also found the median age of first intercourse was 14.” While 72 percent of the youths surveyed knew of at least one method of contraception, use of condoms during sexual intercourse was only 56 percent. About 35 percent admit having an STI that was confirmed and treated in the hospital, but 48 percent had suspected they had an STI but did nothing or treated it by themselves. “Sadly, sexual abuse was reported by 35 percent of the respondents with most of the victims being females,” Dosunmu. “A majority of whom knew their abusers. Five percent of the participants reported being raped (10 cases involved females and 2 cases involved males). “I think even one case of rape is too much,” said Dosunmu.

The study showed that adolescents in the military cantonment is a vulnerable population that is often unintentionally left out of the country’s reproductive health services. “The adolescents have little or no guardianship, and many of them spend their time having unprotected sex for pleasure or money,” Dosunmu said, urging that more attention be paid to this population by targeted reproductive health services and an increased preventive health program.

Brian W. Simpson, editor of Johns Hopkins Public Health magazine.