It is the stark reality. Anal sex is on the rise in Nigeria. JOKE KUJENYA, just back from a two-week interaction with a handful of people engaged in the act reports.
In beauty, Anna Young (not real names), is an absolute bombshell. A real knockout. At 38, the lady who hails from Akwa Ibom, Uyo State, looks flawless and attractive with no wrinkles, bags or blemishes. “Sorry, don’t be deceived by my looks”, was her first comments to the reporter who, smiling, started the discourse by commending her beauty.
“People tell me I am pretty, I look like an 18 year-old damsel; but I’m the ugliest woman on the inside if only it can be opened.”
At a meeting which took place between the facilitator, the reporter and Anna, said to be battling with her tumultuous emotions said: “It is often better not to start something you don’t know where it is tilting or where it is going to end. Right now, I am in a war. And sadly, the war is having the upper hand. I was 27 when I first met the man (name withheld), who is now my husband. I attended a College of Education because my single-mother parent could not afford a university fee. And I was in my final year when we met. He told me upfront that I was the kind of wife material he had always wanted. At that time I was a virgin because my mother was very strict warning us her children that if any of us got pregnant out of wedlock, she would disown us. This fact, I therefore kept stressing to my fiancé, who after months into our relationship kept pestering me for sex. I even begged him to wait till we marry, since ours was meant for the altar. Then one day, he told me he had a way we could be enjoying sex without fear of pregnancy. I asked him which way and he said, he could only ‘show’ and not just tell me. So we began having anal sex and I was able to evade the scrutiny of the protestant church I attend because the result showed I was still a virgin.
“That was the genesis of my eleven years of nightmarish marital and sexual life. After marriage, he wanted to continue, but I insisted that since we are legally married, our collective families would be looking forward to our having children of our own. He agreed and that is how we have had only one child till today. Even for me to get pregnant, he would interchangeably have regular and anal sex with me. And I have been begging my husband since then to quit the habit. Understandably, I was not able to call any of our families to come to our rescue, but he kept telling me that he enjoyed anal sex more than regular sex. In fact, each time during our ‘irregular intercourse,’ my husband acts like someone in ‘Cloud 9’. That is the way he describes it. But on my part, I am tired. I am always sad but pretend to be happy and that all is well, when I’m with people. And my husband is a terrible actor. He acts the best gentleman on the outside. But the worst part is, he does all these so that I would not be tempted to open up to anyone and to coerce me to be afraid of him. The wife of his friend is also in a similar ordeal as mine.”
Seated in a corner and sobbing silently is a young teenager, Joanne, 18, who said: “I am afraid of losing my boyfriend. He said the only reason he would allow our relationship to continue is for me to agree to his ‘order’ that I have anal sex with him.”
On the reverse however is Quenette, 35, who said, “I have been begging my husband to have anal sex with me and he has vehemently refused saying it is Sodomy. We are not your serious, serious Christian type. We go to church, yes, but so? She asked carelessly. I love my husband and he loves me, but yet, this is pulling us apart. I love anal sex. I used to have it with a boy back in high school, but he died some years after we left school. Now, my husband is not cooperating, saying he hates it and will never do it with me. Yet, I have very many friends who tell me how their husbands beg them to have anal sex, whereas it is they, the women who hate it. Even at that, it is different strokes for different folks, I am still hopeful that my husband would come to his senses and see that there is nothing wrong or odd in my request, especially when he too makes me do blowjobs on him to satisfy his sexual pleasure. Isn’t that one of the reasons we are a couple?” He asked the reporter.
As far back as year 2011, Dr. Morenike T. Ukpong, Director, New Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS), a Lagos-based NGO, raised the awareness that not less than 12 percent of public secondary school students in Nigeria practice anal sex. She also alerted that about 12.1 percent of university students do same, while another 15.2 percent adolescents in northern Nigeria engage in the act.
However, that information didn’t seem to register well in the psyche of Nigerians at the time. Ukpong noted that evidences show that about 14 percent of men and 10 percent of women in the general populace practised anal sex, and so, they avoid the use of condom due to erroneous belief that anal sex was safer than vagina sex. To those who engage in this act, the role of anal sex in driving the HIV epidemic away from Nigeria could no longer be ignored.”
She added that amongst Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs), “Request for anal sex by clients of female sex workers rose with men paying higher to have anal sex for many reasons.”
However, Ukpong cautioned back then that anal sex has 14 times higher risk form of sexual transmission of HIV infection when compared to penile-vagina sex. She said: “The probability of HIV infection transmission in penetrative anal sex is about 1.4 percent per sexual act, both in heterosexual and homosexual relationships. For women, the risk is highest as they will always be the receptor in either vagina or anal sex.”
She then urged that there was the need to discuss more openly, the risk of anal sex in a way that talks around sex must become broader to encourage public understanding of the multiple forms of sexual practices vis-à-vis vagina, oral or anal, as well as the risk of HIV infection associated with all the forms of sex.
Between 2011 and now, researcher say anal sex in the Nigerian population has blown up exponentially, yet, with no solid statistics to quote from.
A leading non-governmental organisation expert, not willing to be quoted told this reporter that, “Top politicians practice it with young school girls; while some of their wives cry to us. It is also done among career people in corporate organisations, not to talk of universities, secondary schools and even among young people in primary schools. It is just that due to the ethics of our job, we cannot disclose their identities.”
In a research conducted by NHVMAS, which Dr. Ukpong titled: Re-evaluating Values of Sexual Practices to Protect Rights on Minority Groups, it was revealed, among others, that “In Nigeria of today, anal sex has become acceptable among many people, for many reasons based on the individual choices people make. In addition, the data gathered shows that anal sex occur in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships, in adolescents, youths and adults; as well as becoming prominent in both rural and urban Nigeria.
The research further shows that anal sex is practiced by heterosexuals and homosexuals alike; by gay men, multiple-sex-partners (MSM) and lesbians. It is practiced for pleasure and to prevention conception. And this is so because those doing it, especially the men believe that it is tighter, makes them to ejaculate faster while others see it as a route to prevent Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Some on the other hand, see it as cleaner, as they assume that fewer people engage with this ‘hole’.
The agency said their findings also revealed that not all gay men in Nigeria practice anal sex, especially as a study conducted in 2014 showed that about 97.2 percent of MSM practice anal sex. Yet, many lesbians in the country also practice anal sex. Additionally, NHVMAS said they also found that in public schools, still, 12percent of the students, another 12.1percent of university students and about 15.2percent in-school adolescents in Northern Nigeria practice anal sex a situation the group described as scary. The research result also stated that about 19.7percent of women in Lagos State who are in stable heterosexual relationships equally engage in anal sex.
“These days,” said Williams, 31, a young man who called himself a Commercial Sex Worker (CSW), “sex has become an open industry. Now, you hear and see people talk about sex boldly. They jest about it. Even musicians sing about it in their records and people dance to it with no need to feel ashamed. In fact, walking along a street, you will even see people, mostly men selling sex calendars or posters. I am sure you have also been to people’s homes and seen pasted on their wall, large sex posters. Now, my point is, we have been in denial for too long. But now, we better admit the stark reality. Most of my clients, most of them married and high class women, prefer me blow them and then do the ‘hole’ with them. They could go on for hours yelling their lives out.”
Asked about the health implications, he said, “So far, we haven’t heard any serious health problems about this. But I can tell you that it helps massage our backs.”
Omotola, 37, is also a sex worker. She said she went into it when life became too unbearable to cope with. “However, in my years in this job, I can tell you that most Nigerians enjoy high rate of infidelity. For them, infidelity is as old as polygamy; just like women are accused of the age-old trade of prostitution. But we love to pretend a lot. That is why we have lots of deception in our society, in which men that are not satisfied with their wives on the bed come to us for that wild sex they lack at home, while women go in search of their own gigolos. For most of us in this trade, we see a lot from time-to-time. And you’re talking about people regarded as high class in the society. However, the new rave amongst us is anal sex because we have been persuaded that it is safer than regular sex.”
Ms Paulina, a health commentator, speaking on a national TV magazine show said: “Anal sex is not only a disgrace to the Nigerian society; it is also injurious to our African cultural values and norms. It should be totally discouraged in every way. And parents must take special caution to guard their children against such evil taboo.”
In the words of Mrs Bukola Afolabi-Ogunyeye, Founder, Morna International Children’s Foundation (MICF), a non-governmental organisation, “As regards adults, I don’t know how rampant it is. But I can tell you affirmatively that anal sex is now more rampant among teenagers. We found, in the course of our recent sex education talks in secondary schools, that some of the teens we talked with have been asking us if it is safe in order to avoid pregnancy. We kept telling them no, but they seem unsatisfied with our answer. And to blow your mind, teenage boys told us they now prefer it because for them, it is safer. That is the horrible questions we have been faced with. And for this reason, we are currently working on an event for street children under the ‘International Day for Street Children,’ to hold on April 12th to sensitise them on child abuse awareness month among others.”
However, speaking through a representative, NHVMAS, Dr. Toyin Ukpong, said, people working with this special group are not permitted to be judgmental in regards to their chosen way of life. “We cannot commend or condemn them. It is a matter of individual choice. However, “based on a study we conducted, we found that among 15 to 24 years’ of age resident young persons in Nigeria, 1.9percent of them reported anal sex mainly by males all in heterosexual relationships.
“What this means is that there is need for more public dialogue about anal sex, so we can collectively break the taboo. There is a strong need to break the stereotype about anal sex, especially as the practice seems to have been limited to MSM sexual practices. As such, more public discussions should be hosted to arrest, if possible, the growing trend.”
According to Ukpong, this is being advocated because facts about anal sex show that many people engage in it without condom due to the erroneous impression that it is safe. And this is borne out of erroneous media impression that discusses unsafe sex within the context of vaginal sex only.
“So, there is need for sex to be discussed within the right context of practice, such as sex could be vaginal, anal or oral. A lot of people need the knowledge that any act of unprotected anal intercourse is 10 to 20 times more likely to lead to HIV transmission; that it has the highest risk for HIV transmission as research shows that about 91.1percent of anal sexual interaction in heterosexual relationships are unprotected; and as such could result in HIV transmission, compared to an act of unprotected vaginal intercourse. In fact, how many know that unprotected anal sex has other STIs like gonorrhoea, chlamydia, candidiasis, anal wart and the likes that can all be transmitted through the ‘hole’.
“So, we are into all these because we need to discuss about anal sex, anal health and safe anal sex practices now, before we have an epidemic of multi-linked infections that may not be easy to combat.
The NGO, which also disclosed that it has been actively engaged with its partners, International Rectal Microbide Advocates (IRMA, Nigeria, IRMA international), AVAC and Heartland Alliance, to increase awareness about anal sex, sex and sexuality issues with healthcare workers, CSO and policy makers, said while advocacy continues to provide change of focus help for these people, there is no need to deny what is already a growing practice in Nigeria and one that is already cutting across every facet of the society. Parents also need to be aware of what their children do at every point in time.”
In beauty, Anna Young (not real names), is an absolute bombshell. A real knockout. At 38, the lady who hails from Akwa Ibom, Uyo State, looks flawless and attractive with no wrinkles, bags or blemishes. “Sorry, don’t be deceived by my looks”, was her first comments to the reporter who, smiling, started the discourse by commending her beauty.
“People tell me I am pretty, I look like an 18 year-old damsel; but I’m the ugliest woman on the inside if only it can be opened.”
At a meeting which took place between the facilitator, the reporter and Anna, said to be battling with her tumultuous emotions said: “It is often better not to start something you don’t know where it is tilting or where it is going to end. Right now, I am in a war. And sadly, the war is having the upper hand. I was 27 when I first met the man (name withheld), who is now my husband. I attended a College of Education because my single-mother parent could not afford a university fee. And I was in my final year when we met. He told me upfront that I was the kind of wife material he had always wanted. At that time I was a virgin because my mother was very strict warning us her children that if any of us got pregnant out of wedlock, she would disown us. This fact, I therefore kept stressing to my fiancé, who after months into our relationship kept pestering me for sex. I even begged him to wait till we marry, since ours was meant for the altar. Then one day, he told me he had a way we could be enjoying sex without fear of pregnancy. I asked him which way and he said, he could only ‘show’ and not just tell me. So we began having anal sex and I was able to evade the scrutiny of the protestant church I attend because the result showed I was still a virgin.
“That was the genesis of my eleven years of nightmarish marital and sexual life. After marriage, he wanted to continue, but I insisted that since we are legally married, our collective families would be looking forward to our having children of our own. He agreed and that is how we have had only one child till today. Even for me to get pregnant, he would interchangeably have regular and anal sex with me. And I have been begging my husband since then to quit the habit. Understandably, I was not able to call any of our families to come to our rescue, but he kept telling me that he enjoyed anal sex more than regular sex. In fact, each time during our ‘irregular intercourse,’ my husband acts like someone in ‘Cloud 9’. That is the way he describes it. But on my part, I am tired. I am always sad but pretend to be happy and that all is well, when I’m with people. And my husband is a terrible actor. He acts the best gentleman on the outside. But the worst part is, he does all these so that I would not be tempted to open up to anyone and to coerce me to be afraid of him. The wife of his friend is also in a similar ordeal as mine.”
Seated in a corner and sobbing silently is a young teenager, Joanne, 18, who said: “I am afraid of losing my boyfriend. He said the only reason he would allow our relationship to continue is for me to agree to his ‘order’ that I have anal sex with him.”
On the reverse however is Quenette, 35, who said, “I have been begging my husband to have anal sex with me and he has vehemently refused saying it is Sodomy. We are not your serious, serious Christian type. We go to church, yes, but so? She asked carelessly. I love my husband and he loves me, but yet, this is pulling us apart. I love anal sex. I used to have it with a boy back in high school, but he died some years after we left school. Now, my husband is not cooperating, saying he hates it and will never do it with me. Yet, I have very many friends who tell me how their husbands beg them to have anal sex, whereas it is they, the women who hate it. Even at that, it is different strokes for different folks, I am still hopeful that my husband would come to his senses and see that there is nothing wrong or odd in my request, especially when he too makes me do blowjobs on him to satisfy his sexual pleasure. Isn’t that one of the reasons we are a couple?” He asked the reporter.
As far back as year 2011, Dr. Morenike T. Ukpong, Director, New Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS), a Lagos-based NGO, raised the awareness that not less than 12 percent of public secondary school students in Nigeria practice anal sex. She also alerted that about 12.1 percent of university students do same, while another 15.2 percent adolescents in northern Nigeria engage in the act.
However, that information didn’t seem to register well in the psyche of Nigerians at the time. Ukpong noted that evidences show that about 14 percent of men and 10 percent of women in the general populace practised anal sex, and so, they avoid the use of condom due to erroneous belief that anal sex was safer than vagina sex. To those who engage in this act, the role of anal sex in driving the HIV epidemic away from Nigeria could no longer be ignored.”
She added that amongst Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs), “Request for anal sex by clients of female sex workers rose with men paying higher to have anal sex for many reasons.”
However, Ukpong cautioned back then that anal sex has 14 times higher risk form of sexual transmission of HIV infection when compared to penile-vagina sex. She said: “The probability of HIV infection transmission in penetrative anal sex is about 1.4 percent per sexual act, both in heterosexual and homosexual relationships. For women, the risk is highest as they will always be the receptor in either vagina or anal sex.”
She then urged that there was the need to discuss more openly, the risk of anal sex in a way that talks around sex must become broader to encourage public understanding of the multiple forms of sexual practices vis-à-vis vagina, oral or anal, as well as the risk of HIV infection associated with all the forms of sex.
Between 2011 and now, researcher say anal sex in the Nigerian population has blown up exponentially, yet, with no solid statistics to quote from.
A leading non-governmental organisation expert, not willing to be quoted told this reporter that, “Top politicians practice it with young school girls; while some of their wives cry to us. It is also done among career people in corporate organisations, not to talk of universities, secondary schools and even among young people in primary schools. It is just that due to the ethics of our job, we cannot disclose their identities.”
In a research conducted by NHVMAS, which Dr. Ukpong titled: Re-evaluating Values of Sexual Practices to Protect Rights on Minority Groups, it was revealed, among others, that “In Nigeria of today, anal sex has become acceptable among many people, for many reasons based on the individual choices people make. In addition, the data gathered shows that anal sex occur in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships, in adolescents, youths and adults; as well as becoming prominent in both rural and urban Nigeria.
The research further shows that anal sex is practiced by heterosexuals and homosexuals alike; by gay men, multiple-sex-partners (MSM) and lesbians. It is practiced for pleasure and to prevention conception. And this is so because those doing it, especially the men believe that it is tighter, makes them to ejaculate faster while others see it as a route to prevent Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Some on the other hand, see it as cleaner, as they assume that fewer people engage with this ‘hole’.
The agency said their findings also revealed that not all gay men in Nigeria practice anal sex, especially as a study conducted in 2014 showed that about 97.2 percent of MSM practice anal sex. Yet, many lesbians in the country also practice anal sex. Additionally, NHVMAS said they also found that in public schools, still, 12percent of the students, another 12.1percent of university students and about 15.2percent in-school adolescents in Northern Nigeria practice anal sex a situation the group described as scary. The research result also stated that about 19.7percent of women in Lagos State who are in stable heterosexual relationships equally engage in anal sex.
“These days,” said Williams, 31, a young man who called himself a Commercial Sex Worker (CSW), “sex has become an open industry. Now, you hear and see people talk about sex boldly. They jest about it. Even musicians sing about it in their records and people dance to it with no need to feel ashamed. In fact, walking along a street, you will even see people, mostly men selling sex calendars or posters. I am sure you have also been to people’s homes and seen pasted on their wall, large sex posters. Now, my point is, we have been in denial for too long. But now, we better admit the stark reality. Most of my clients, most of them married and high class women, prefer me blow them and then do the ‘hole’ with them. They could go on for hours yelling their lives out.”
Asked about the health implications, he said, “So far, we haven’t heard any serious health problems about this. But I can tell you that it helps massage our backs.”
Omotola, 37, is also a sex worker. She said she went into it when life became too unbearable to cope with. “However, in my years in this job, I can tell you that most Nigerians enjoy high rate of infidelity. For them, infidelity is as old as polygamy; just like women are accused of the age-old trade of prostitution. But we love to pretend a lot. That is why we have lots of deception in our society, in which men that are not satisfied with their wives on the bed come to us for that wild sex they lack at home, while women go in search of their own gigolos. For most of us in this trade, we see a lot from time-to-time. And you’re talking about people regarded as high class in the society. However, the new rave amongst us is anal sex because we have been persuaded that it is safer than regular sex.”
Ms Paulina, a health commentator, speaking on a national TV magazine show said: “Anal sex is not only a disgrace to the Nigerian society; it is also injurious to our African cultural values and norms. It should be totally discouraged in every way. And parents must take special caution to guard their children against such evil taboo.”
In the words of Mrs Bukola Afolabi-Ogunyeye, Founder, Morna International Children’s Foundation (MICF), a non-governmental organisation, “As regards adults, I don’t know how rampant it is. But I can tell you affirmatively that anal sex is now more rampant among teenagers. We found, in the course of our recent sex education talks in secondary schools, that some of the teens we talked with have been asking us if it is safe in order to avoid pregnancy. We kept telling them no, but they seem unsatisfied with our answer. And to blow your mind, teenage boys told us they now prefer it because for them, it is safer. That is the horrible questions we have been faced with. And for this reason, we are currently working on an event for street children under the ‘International Day for Street Children,’ to hold on April 12th to sensitise them on child abuse awareness month among others.”
However, speaking through a representative, NHVMAS, Dr. Toyin Ukpong, said, people working with this special group are not permitted to be judgmental in regards to their chosen way of life. “We cannot commend or condemn them. It is a matter of individual choice. However, “based on a study we conducted, we found that among 15 to 24 years’ of age resident young persons in Nigeria, 1.9percent of them reported anal sex mainly by males all in heterosexual relationships.
“What this means is that there is need for more public dialogue about anal sex, so we can collectively break the taboo. There is a strong need to break the stereotype about anal sex, especially as the practice seems to have been limited to MSM sexual practices. As such, more public discussions should be hosted to arrest, if possible, the growing trend.”
According to Ukpong, this is being advocated because facts about anal sex show that many people engage in it without condom due to the erroneous impression that it is safe. And this is borne out of erroneous media impression that discusses unsafe sex within the context of vaginal sex only.
“So, there is need for sex to be discussed within the right context of practice, such as sex could be vaginal, anal or oral. A lot of people need the knowledge that any act of unprotected anal intercourse is 10 to 20 times more likely to lead to HIV transmission; that it has the highest risk for HIV transmission as research shows that about 91.1percent of anal sexual interaction in heterosexual relationships are unprotected; and as such could result in HIV transmission, compared to an act of unprotected vaginal intercourse. In fact, how many know that unprotected anal sex has other STIs like gonorrhoea, chlamydia, candidiasis, anal wart and the likes that can all be transmitted through the ‘hole’.
“So, we are into all these because we need to discuss about anal sex, anal health and safe anal sex practices now, before we have an epidemic of multi-linked infections that may not be easy to combat.
The NGO, which also disclosed that it has been actively engaged with its partners, International Rectal Microbide Advocates (IRMA, Nigeria, IRMA international), AVAC and Heartland Alliance, to increase awareness about anal sex, sex and sexuality issues with healthcare workers, CSO and policy makers, said while advocacy continues to provide change of focus help for these people, there is no need to deny what is already a growing practice in Nigeria and one that is already cutting across every facet of the society. Parents also need to be aware of what their children do at every point in time.”
In beauty, Anna Young (not real names), is an absolute bombshell. A real knockout. At 38, the lady who hails from Akwa Ibom, Uyo State, looks flawless and attractive with no wrinkles, bags or blemishes. “Sorry, don’t be deceived by my looks”, was her first comments to the reporter who, smiling, started the discourse by commending her beauty.
“People tell me I am pretty, I look like an 18 year-old damsel; but I’m the ugliest woman on the inside if only it can be opened.”
At a meeting which took place between the facilitator, the reporter and Anna, said to be battling with her tumultuous emotions said: “It is often better not to start something you don’t know where it is tilting or where it is going to end. Right now, I am in a war. And sadly, the war is having the upper hand. I was 27 when I first met the man (name withheld), who is now my husband. I attended a College of Education because my single-mother parent could not afford a university fee. And I was in my final year when we met. He told me upfront that I was the kind of wife material he had always wanted. At that time I was a virgin because my mother was very strict warning us her children that if any of us got pregnant out of wedlock, she would disown us. This fact, I therefore kept stressing to my fiancé, who after months into our relationship kept pestering me for sex. I even begged him to wait till we marry, since ours was meant for the altar. Then one day, he told me he had a way we could be enjoying sex without fear of pregnancy. I asked him which way and he said, he could only ‘show’ and not just tell me. So we began having anal sex and I was able to evade the scrutiny of the protestant church I attend because the result showed I was still a virgin.
“That was the genesis of my eleven years of nightmarish marital and sexual life. After marriage, he wanted to continue, but I insisted that since we are legally married, our collective families would be looking forward to our having children of our own. He agreed and that is how we have had only one child till today. Even for me to get pregnant, he would interchangeably have regular and anal sex with me. And I have been begging my husband since then to quit the habit. Understandably, I was not able to call any of our families to come to our rescue, but he kept telling me that he enjoyed anal sex more than regular sex. In fact, each time during our ‘irregular intercourse,’ my husband acts like someone in ‘Cloud 9’. That is the way he describes it. But on my part, I am tired. I am always sad but pretend to be happy and that all is well, when I’m with people. And my husband is a terrible actor. He acts the best gentleman on the outside. But the worst part is, he does all these so that I would not be tempted to open up to anyone and to coerce me to be afraid of him. The wife of his friend is also in a similar ordeal as mine.”
Seated in a corner and sobbing silently is a young teenager, Joanne, 18, who said: “I am afraid of losing my boyfriend. He said the only reason he would allow our relationship to continue is for me to agree to his ‘order’ that I have anal sex with him.”
On the reverse however is Quenette, 35, who said, “I have been begging my husband to have anal sex with me and he has vehemently refused saying it is Sodomy. We are not your serious, serious Christian type. We go to church, yes, but so? She asked carelessly. I love my husband and he loves me, but yet, this is pulling us apart. I love anal sex. I used to have it with a boy back in high school, but he died some years after we left school. Now, my husband is not cooperating, saying he hates it and will never do it with me. Yet, I have very many friends who tell me how their husbands beg them to have anal sex, whereas it is they, the women who hate it. Even at that, it is different strokes for different folks, I am still hopeful that my husband would come to his senses and see that there is nothing wrong or odd in my request, especially when he too makes me do blowjobs on him to satisfy his sexual pleasure. Isn’t that one of the reasons we are a couple?” He asked the reporter.
As far back as year 2011, Dr. Morenike T. Ukpong, Director, New Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS), a Lagos-based NGO, raised the awareness that not less than 12 percent of public secondary school students in Nigeria practice anal sex. She also alerted that about 12.1 percent of university students do same, while another 15.2 percent adolescents in northern Nigeria engage in the act.
However, that information didn’t seem to register well in the psyche of Nigerians at the time. Ukpong noted that evidences show that about 14 percent of men and 10 percent of women in the general populace practised anal sex, and so, they avoid the use of condom due to erroneous belief that anal sex was safer than vagina sex. To those who engage in this act, the role of anal sex in driving the HIV epidemic away from Nigeria could no longer be ignored.”
She added that amongst Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs), “Request for anal sex by clients of female sex workers rose with men paying higher to have anal sex for many reasons.”
However, Ukpong cautioned back then that anal sex has 14 times higher risk form of sexual transmission of HIV infection when compared to penile-vagina sex. She said: “The probability of HIV infection transmission in penetrative anal sex is about 1.4 percent per sexual act, both in heterosexual and homosexual relationships. For women, the risk is highest as they will always be the receptor in either vagina or anal sex.”
She then urged that there was the need to discuss more openly, the risk of anal sex in a way that talks around sex must become broader to encourage public understanding of the multiple forms of sexual practices vis-à-vis vagina, oral or anal, as well as the risk of HIV infection associated with all the forms of sex.
Between 2011 and now, researcher say anal sex in the Nigerian population has blown up exponentially, yet, with no solid statistics to quote from.
A leading non-governmental organisation expert, not willing to be quoted told this reporter that, “Top politicians practice it with young school girls; while some of their wives cry to us. It is also done among career people in corporate organisations, not to talk of universities, secondary schools and even among young people in primary schools. It is just that due to the ethics of our job, we cannot disclose their identities.”
In a research conducted by NHVMAS, which Dr. Ukpong titled: Re-evaluating Values of Sexual Practices to Protect Rights on Minority Groups, it was revealed, among others, that “In Nigeria of today, anal sex has become acceptable among many people, for many reasons based on the individual choices people make. In addition, the data gathered shows that anal sex occur in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships, in adolescents, youths and adults; as well as becoming prominent in both rural and urban Nigeria.
The research further shows that anal sex is practiced by heterosexuals and homosexuals alike; by gay men, multiple-sex-partners (MSM) and lesbians. It is practiced for pleasure and to prevention conception. And this is so because those doing it, especially the men believe that it is tighter, makes them to ejaculate faster while others see it as a route to prevent Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Some on the other hand, see it as cleaner, as they assume that fewer people engage with this ‘hole’.
The agency said their findings also revealed that not all gay men in Nigeria practice anal sex, especially as a study conducted in 2014 showed that about 97.2 percent of MSM practice anal sex. Yet, many lesbians in the country also practice anal sex. Additionally, NHVMAS said they also found that in public schools, still, 12percent of the students, another 12.1percent of university students and about 15.2percent in-school adolescents in Northern Nigeria practice anal sex a situation the group described as scary. The research result also stated that about 19.7percent of women in Lagos State who are in stable heterosexual relationships equally engage in anal sex.
“These days,” said Williams, 31, a young man who called himself a Commercial Sex Worker (CSW), “sex has become an open industry. Now, you hear and see people talk about sex boldly. They jest about it. Even musicians sing about it in their records and people dance to it with no need to feel ashamed. In fact, walking along a street, you will even see people, mostly men selling sex calendars or posters. I am sure you have also been to people’s homes and seen pasted on their wall, large sex posters. Now, my point is, we have been in denial for too long. But now, we better admit the stark reality. Most of my clients, most of them married and high class women, prefer me blow them and then do the ‘hole’ with them. They could go on for hours yelling their lives out.”
Asked about the health implications, he said, “So far, we haven’t heard any serious health problems about this. But I can tell you that it helps massage our backs.”
Omotola, 37, is also a sex worker. She said she went into it when life became too unbearable to cope with. “However, in my years in this job, I can tell you that most Nigerians enjoy high rate of infidelity. For them, infidelity is as old as polygamy; just like women are accused of the age-old trade of prostitution. But we love to pretend a lot. That is why we have lots of deception in our society, in which men that are not satisfied with their wives on the bed come to us for that wild sex they lack at home, while women go in search of their own gigolos. For most of us in this trade, we see a lot from time-to-time. And you’re talking about people regarded as high class in the society. However, the new rave amongst us is anal sex because we have been persuaded that it is safer than regular sex.”
Ms Paulina, a health commentator, speaking on a national TV magazine show said: “Anal sex is not only a disgrace to the Nigerian society; it is also injurious to our African cultural values and norms. It should be totally discouraged in every way. And parents must take special caution to guard their children against such evil taboo.”
In the words of Mrs Bukola Afolabi-Ogunyeye, Founder, Morna International Children’s Foundation (MICF), a non-governmental organisation, “As regards adults, I don’t know how rampant it is. But I can tell you affirmatively that anal sex is now more rampant among teenagers. We found, in the course of our recent sex education talks in secondary schools, that some of the teens we talked with have been asking us if it is safe in order to avoid pregnancy. We kept telling them no, but they seem unsatisfied with our answer. And to blow your mind, teenage boys told us they now prefer it because for them, it is safer. That is the horrible questions we have been faced with. And for this reason, we are currently working on an event for street children under the ‘International Day for Street Children,’ to hold on April 12th to sensitise them on child abuse awareness month among others.”
However, speaking through a representative, NHVMAS, Dr. Toyin Ukpong, said, people working with this special group are not permitted to be judgmental in regards to their chosen way of life. “We cannot commend or condemn them. It is a matter of individual choice. However, “based on a study we conducted, we found that among 15 to 24 years’ of age resident young persons in Nigeria, 1.9percent of them reported anal sex mainly by males all in heterosexual relationships.
“What this means is that there is need for more public dialogue about anal sex, so we can collectively break the taboo. There is a strong need to break the stereotype about anal sex, especially as the practice seems to have been limited to MSM sexual practices. As such, more public discussions should be hosted to arrest, if possible, the growing trend.”
According to Ukpong, this is being advocated because facts about anal sex show that many people engage in it without condom due to the erroneous impression that it is safe. And this is borne out of erroneous media impression that discusses unsafe sex within the context of vaginal sex only.
“So, there is need for sex to be discussed within the right context of practice, such as sex could be vaginal, anal or oral. A lot of people need the knowledge that any act of unprotected anal intercourse is 10 to 20 times more likely to lead to HIV transmission; that it has the highest risk for HIV transmission as research shows that about 91.1percent of anal sexual interaction in heterosexual relationships are unprotected; and as such could result in HIV transmission, compared to an act of unprotected vaginal intercourse. In fact, how many know that unprotected anal sex has other STIs like gonorrhoea, chlamydia, candidiasis, anal wart and the likes that can all be transmitted through the ‘hole’.
“So, we are into all these because we need to discuss about anal sex, anal health and safe anal sex practices now, before we have an epidemic of multi-linked infections that may not be easy to combat.
The NGO, which also disclosed that it has been actively engaged with its partners, International Rectal Microbide Advocates (IRMA, Nigeria, IRMA international), AVAC and Heartland Alliance, to increase awareness about anal sex, sex and sexuality issues with healthcare workers, CSO and policy makers, said while advocacy continues to provide change of focus help for these people, there is no need to deny what is already a growing practice in Nigeria and one that is already cutting across every facet of the society. Parents also need to be aware of what their children do at every point in time.”
