Sexualisation Of Children: Matters Arising

Sonnie Ekwowusi argues that children should not be exposed to sex education

Last Wednesday I wrote on this page what I thought was a very innocent article incapable of rousing a sleeping rat. But somehow the article has been eliciting no small commentary from many readers from the different streams of the Nigerian society. That is why I feel obliged today to revisit the said article. The title of the aforesaid article was: Sexualisation of School Children. The article could be summarised as follows: primary and secondary school curricula in Nigeria have now been corrupted to include sex-related textbooks and English Literature books aimed at the sexualisation of the unsuspecting school pupils. I recalled in my said article how Ahmed Akanbi, a parent and a Lagos-based legal practitioner, was scandalised upon learning that his nine-year- old daughter who is in Primary Six is being systematically sexualised by the school where she is currently enrolled without the knowledge of Ahmed and his wife. I rounded off by stating that a society that gambles with the future of its children by exposing them to sexual promiscuity is heading for extinction.

As I said earlier, since the aforesaid article was published on this page last Wednesday it has been attracting many commentaries. Many readers have been calling and wondering why any sane society would go out of its way to corrupt its impressionable young ones all in the name of sex education. Due to constraint of space and time, I would simply mention the names and respective commentaries of a few respondents to the article. My friend Solomon called and said: “Sonnie, frankly speaking, I don’t know what this world is turning into. We are in end times.

How can a teacher who is supposed to be moulding the character of a child turn round to be sexualising the child? This is not the way I was brought up”. Mrs. Funke Adeyemi called from Abuja and was very upset. She said that rather than expose school children to sex education, the government should, as in the past, reintroduce moral instruction in schools in order to instil discipline and good virtues in the pupils. Mrs. Anene Odiyi wondered why things are getting very bad in Nigeria. Mrs. Chinelo Ujubuonu simply volunteered to lead the parents’ campaign against sex education in primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. Mrs. Rose Umeh cannot believe the tragedy that has befallen the Nigerian child. Mrs. Ebele Mbaso is proud to belong to the old generation of Nigerians that are still promoting family values.

In contrast, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, Mrs. Oby Nwankwo and others are seriously campaigning that Nigerian teenagers should be allowed to exercise their “sexual rights” as contained in the Comprehensive Sexuality Education. Mrs. Nwankwo, in particular, claims that comprehensive sexuality education is being taught in Nigerian schools but “unfortunately, people with warped ideas are blocking it from schools especially Christian schools and this is why we are losing our children to unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions”.

In fact, at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61), New York, March 13-24 2017, the African Group including Nigeria, rejected comprehensive sexuality education. But Mrs. Nwankwo staged a protest against the rejection. Then Princess Joan Jummai Idonije (the strong lady who coordinated the activities of the Nigerian delegation at the CSW61) and other women quickly reminded Mrs. Nwankwo that sexuality education promotes lesbianism and homosexuality. But Mrs. Nwankwo is undeterred. Presently, she is putting pressure on the National Assembly to pass the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill which also contains clauses that promotes lesbianism and homosexuality.

It is obvious that some Nigerians are receiving funding from abroad and conspiring with some Nigerian educational authorities to introduce an abrasive biological sex education in our schools to corrupt our children. This is completely unacceptable. A school sex education aimed at luring hapless school pupils into sexual promiscuity is not worth experimenting with. For example, the comprehensive sexuality education which Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, Mrs. Oby Nwankwo and others are promoting is very damaging to the character of children. It does not seek to pass ordinary sexuality education information to the kids to enable them make their respective choices. Rather it seeks to corrupt the kids and get them to become sexually active. For example, under the so-called comprehensive sexuality education, school pupils in open classroom are required to touch each other’s genital saying: “I like you”. The pupils are also expected to touch each other’s private parts and find out the differences in their respective private organs. As I write this, I have in front of me the youth peer sexuality education training guide/toolkit, funded by the United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) in collaboration with other United Nations agencies. This guide contains suggested lessons for youth to teach their peers about sexuality.

I gather that the guide is already being used in some Nigerian secondary schools. On page 59 of the guide, students are required to give to their peers a list of sexual terms, including words like “vagina,” “breasts,” “orgasm,” “pleasure,” and “masturbation.” On page 61 the youth facilitators are told to share with other youths with whom they feel more comfortable things like “Your sexual fantasies (fantasies), “Your feelings about oral sex (oral)”, “Whether you enjoy erotic material (X), “Whether you have fantasided about a homosexual relationship (gay-fan),” “Whether you have had a homosexual relationship (gay-exp)”. On page 75 there is a condom relay race activity involving boys and girls. It instructs the peer leader to “Ask two volunteers (participants or co-facilitators) to hold the two penis models” and then to invite two teams to race to put the condoms on the models.

These startling revelations clearly invite Nigerian parents to stand up and be counted. As I said here last Wednesday, no school has a right to sexualise your children for you. Teen “safe-sex” is abhorred in virtually all Nigerian cultures. Above all, promotion of teen “safe-sex” in schools is unconstitutional in Nigeria. Therefore no school equally has a right to corrupt the morals of your children under the guise of sex education.

Unfortunately the Nigerian crisis is also a crisis of passivity. We are too tolerant of evil in Nigeria. Evil thrives when the so-called good people sit back and do nothing. Therefore we can no longer remain passive in Nigeria. Happily, Ahmed Akanbi is dragging the school corrupting her nine-year- old daughter to court. You who is lamenting, what have you resolved to do beyond mere lamentation? Nigerian parents should come together and shoot down the corruptive comprehensive sexuality education imposed on schools in Nigeria. In many countries, a corruptive thing such as the sexuality education cannot be imposed on schools without parental consent. But unfortunately, everything goes in Nigeria. Schools do not seek parental consent before sexualising the unsuspecting pupils. We must put a stop to it.