Teenage Pregnancies Among Female Students In Osun By Sodiq Yusuf

Pregnancy is something of joy especially when it comes when an adult woman who is just married. In the predominant African culture, it is the next in line after a young lady leaves his father’s house to form a new family with another man.

As beautiful and wonderful the experience of getting pregnant is in our society mostly when the carrier of the baby has spent so much years in marriage without the fruit of the womb; there is now the ugly trend that cuts across the nooks and crannies of the society.

With the world putting its varying occurrences to about 500,000 every year; Teenage pregnancy is a trend and abnormality that has found its way into the fabrics of the Nigerian society. The abnormality is now threading like a burning wildfire across the country especially in the South.

The trend is that schoolgirls of between 13 to 19 years of age are now found pregnant. It is actually predominant in the urban centres now. These girls are everywhere.

For the past few weeks, I have noticed in my neighbourhood of young girls that are below 20 getting pregnant. Such girls are the ones you see very early in the morning in the remote areas or new sites even possibly on the roads fetching water or doing other menial jobs to survive.

While some get the courage to carry these pregnancies from mostly irresponsible husbands or fuckboys, some hide it while some go for the last resort; abortion. With abortion taking its toll on the lives of young girls as many find it pretty difficult to have children later, many of them find it hard to feed those innocent children.

As unplanned parenting continues to have a strong effect on the behaviour, condition and future of the child, teenage pregnancies among young females of school age also hinders a greater number of them from progressing later in life.

In Osun, there is the prevalence of pregnancies in teenage girls. A survey as reported in the State Executive Council meeting brief of March 1, 2018 revealed that the situation is now worrisome in the state. According to the brief, the situation is alarming and needs to be checked.

With that, the state government according to the Chairman, Osun Education Quality Assurance and Morality Enforcement Agency, Dr Isiaka Owoade is putting together an inter-Ministerial committee of Health, Women and Children and Education together to sensitize the Youths especially girls the more on sex education.

As government prepares to swing into action, stakeholders most importantly parents should also wade-in, they should always give their children sex education right from childhood to adolescence and teenage life before they become full-fledged adults. Even some young adults need to be re-orientated.

Aside the fact that Teenage Pregnancies has a tendency of ending the career of those involved, it also wreaks havoc and brings to the fore tendencies that has  to do with a failed society.

Everyone Needs To Play His/Her Part!!!