Oyo State House of Assembly has called on relevant Ministries, Departments and Parastatals to begin the enforcement and implementation of the state’s Child Rights Law, 2006, to ensure safe sexual and reproductive health practices among teenagers.
The call was contained in a motion by the lawmaker representing Ogbomoso North state constituency, Olawumi Oladeji, during the plenary on Tuesday.
The lawmaker urged parents and other stakeholders to provide support and help for teenagers, who were victims of unsafe sexual and reproductive health practice, 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”, Oladeji said unsafe sexual and reproductive health practices in Oyo State and Nigeria as a whole had negated goals 3 and 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals as proposed by the United Nations’ General Assembly in 2015.
She said the provisions 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.
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She called for deliberate and conscious efforts towards engendering healthy, safe sexual and reproductive health practices among teenagers and young adults by local, national and international agencies.
Oladeji, the chairman, Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, said the alarming rate of unsafe sexual and reproductive health practices among teenagers in Oyo State was not only increasing teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, it had also led to 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.
Oladeji called for progressive health information, communication and education programmes to sensitise teenagers on safe sexual and reproductive health practices.
Passing the resolutions, the Speaker, Adebo Ogundoyin and the House urged the executive arm of the 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 teenagers on safe sexual and reproductive health practices.