Niger Delta Human Development Report - UNDP Nigeria - United ...

Migration and
overcrowded urban
centres encourage
risky sexual networks
to flourish.
An inadequate health
care system means
people don’t know their
HIV status
or cannot get help
when
they are ill. Many
turn to quacks.
This is a clear confirmation of earlier
findings from the 2003 NDHS, which
noted that 70.6 per cent of women and
94.5 per cent of men sampled from the
region revealed that they engaged in highrisk
sex in the 12 months preceding the
survey. Many men have sex with sex
workers, and sex at young ages is also
common. In the Niger Delta, while eight
per cent of women and 11.5 per cent of
men mentioned that they used condoms
for their first marriage, the region had
the highest proportion of women (7.2 per
cent) stating that they had had two or more
sexual partners within the preceding 12
months (NDHS 2003: 190-192).
Men’s vulnerability is exacerbated by the
type of work they engage in. Some jobs
entail a lot of mobility, such as being a
long-distance driver or oil worker. There
may be separate living arrangements for
spouses in different cities, and migration
for labour or military work (Orubuloye
1995). The work schedule of oil workers
makes them prone to the risk of HIV,
because most are forced to stay away
from their wives or regular sexual partners
for up to one month or sometimes longer
while engaged in exploratory and
production activities. Some workers on
this schedule reportedly engage in sexually
risky behaviour after the one-month
period of seclusion.
Because of their greater mobility, men
tend to migrate to urban centres and
places far from their families in search
of employment. Youths are also likely to
leave rural areas in search of
opportunities in the cities. Oil industry jobs
in particular have spurred migration within
the delta and attracted a mass influx of
people from outside. The industrial cities
of Port Harcourt and Warri and the
whole of Cross River State are heavy
receivers of migrants and tourists who
establish high-risk sexual networks.
Migration has spawned urban squalor and
overcrowding; child labour (Oloko 2002);
thriving commercial sex (Olusanya et al.
1986; Adedoyin et al. 1995; Omorodion
1994); the proliferation of sub-standard
health care facilities, including quacks
masquerading as health care agents; and
abject poverty. These factors encourage
risky sexual behaviour and lifestyles
contributing to the spread of HIV&AIDS.
In urban centres such as Port-Harcourt,
Warri and Benin City, overcrowded housing
units have become the breeding ground
for sexual activities among neighbours, and
between older men and the children/wards
of their neighbours. Girls and women who
hawk various items but suffer commercial
shortfalls readily become the victims of
predators or voluntarily resort to
commercial sex. There are reports of
widespread unprotected sexual intercourse
between older men and girl hawkers
(Erinosho 2004).
Participants in the focus group discussions
for this report acknowledged that sending
their children out to work and sell things
at the market or by the roadside may be
dangerous, but noted that it was necessary
due to poverty. One participant said:
“We are trying our best, but because of hardship,
we could not do anything to pay their fees and
look after them; that is why we send them to go
and sell; to go and help us to work. It makes it
look like it is child abuse, but it is because of
hardship.”
The migration of girls and women from
Edo State, in particular, to other parts of
the world for commercial sex work has
been documented by Onyeononu (2003).
Some of the girls, because of the need to
make money, often yield to the pressure
from clients to have unprotected sex. This
migratory pattern spreads HIV&AIDS not
only in Edo State, but in the whole of the
Niger Delta and beyond.
Economic Factors
Poverty and HIV&AIDS are closely linked.
Poverty prevents the establishment of
needed prevention, care, support and
treatment programmes. It also reduces
access to information, education and
services that could reduce the spread of
the virus (UNFPA 2002). For individuals
and households, income poverty can mean
that women, and sometimes men, end up
in risky sexual situations.
HIV&AIDS also generates poverty. As
those with the virus fall ill and die, a family
or community loses much needed human
capital or productive resources. In the
Niger Delta, poverty has been one of the
main propellants of the spread of
HIV&AIDS (Makinwa-Adebusoye 1991;
100 NIGER DELTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT