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

Many people don’t
have correct
information about
HIV&AIDS. Some
attribute it to God,
witchcraft or a
conspiracy by
developed countries.
It is evident that
knowledge about HIV
prevention is very low.
do more on monitoring and developing
capacities to respond to the epidemic.
Socio-cultural Factors
There are two kinds of socio-cultural
factors related to HIV&AIDS: those
embedded in the social structure (macrosociological)
and those that can be regarded
as the externalities or unintended
consequences of rapid modernization
following the discovery of oil and gas in
the region. The latter have become part
of the socio-cultural milieu (microsociological).
One readily apparent area of social change
is the decay in social values and the spread
of social instability. There is a moral
dimension to the pattern of social change
in the Niger Delta region that is not always
immediately visible, although there are
strong implications for human social
behaviour and the spread of HIV&AIDS.
The delta’s oil economy has generated
severe moral contradictions by creating a
class of rich exploiters who take advantage
of the endemic poverty to flaunt their
wealth, seduce impoverished adolescent
girls and generally gain access to an
extensive network of female sexual
partners.
Parental inability to meet the needs of
young persons has opened the door to
youth rebellion and further degeneration
of the sexual code. Adolescent females
engaged in transactional sex activitiesan
became an important mode for the
heterosexual transmission of HIV from
the mid-1980s onwards (see box 4.2). Social
instability resulting from skewed
development has meant high
unemployment rates for restive youth,
many of whom turn to violence.
Education systems have become
destabilized and employment patterns
more precarious, paving the way for
behaviour that transmits the virus.
Social beliefs affect understanding of the
causes and prevention of HIV&AIDS,
as well as practices to spread or stop the
virus. Most people of the Niger Delta
belong to two worlds: the European and
the African. They subscribe to both
scientific and magico-religious world
views. According to some focus group
participants, the disease is a ”punishment
from God and the handy work of
witchcraft.” In one discussion, people’s
perception of good health was erroneously
predicated on the size of the body. A fat
person was said to be healthy while a slim
one is sick. Although they recognized that
HIV&AIDS is a very serious disease, they
could easily be deceived into believing that
someone carrying the virus is healthy until
the final stages of AIDS, with ill health
evidenced by loss of weight.
Research shows that many people do not
have correct information about the
transmission and prevention of
HIV&AIDS, as well as the risks associated
with it. Data from the focus groups reveal
that women’s and men’s knowledge of
HIV&AIDS is grossly deficient in both
the urban and rural areas of the Niger
Delta. The modes of transmission known
and shared by all are unprotected sexual
intercourse with an infected person and
sharing of needles. But their knowledge
of other transmission routes as well as
Box 4.2: Increasing Prostitution in Oil-Producing
Communities
A social problem generating serious concern is the prevalence of
commercial sex workers patronized by oil company workers.
Informants lamented the increasing social decadence and decline
in traditional social values as prostitution is now very rampant in
nearby communities. The appeal for ‘easy money’ is a serious
temptation, not only to ladies who come from other areas, but also
to local young girls as well as their poverty-stricken families who
sometimes even send them out to make money for the family.
Sexually-transmitted diseases are now very common.
Source: EMRL field survey 2005.
102 NIGER DELTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT