by Adekanmbi Nofisat Omoyemi

Pre-marital sex is like lethargy; hence youths should deviate from it. 

They looked like guilty-stricken couple – maybe Adam and Eve, foreheads wrinkled like a lizard’s elbow, hands clenched into fists as they stared fixedly with eyes smouldered with tears and shame at the grasses on the assembly ground. Some moments earlier, the school principal denounced the two love birds as students of the school for indulging in pre-marital sex in an empty classroom the previous day after school hour.

Indulging in pre-marital sex is not the exception in our society, it is the trend. That premarital sex among Nigerian youths is at its peak can no longer be argued. The signs are all out for everyone to see.

Some centuries after the end of the era of our fore fathers, the dark cloud of unchastity settled over our society. Gone are the days when engaging in pre-marital sex is an abomination. Nowadays, youths are falling alarmingly into the sex trap due to the media, Negative peer pressure, Lack of fear of God, Corrupt environment, Lack of Personal principles/Will power, Fallen societal values to mention but a few.

In a study conducted by Tunde Segun titled “Training on Sexual Health Research”, it was discovered that over 25% of adolescents in Nigeria have had their first sexual intercourse by the age of fifteen and by the age of eighteen years, over 60% of adolescents have had sexual intercourse.

An Event Planner in Lagos Island, Miss Jumoke Tonade spoke on this societal menace saying “Every relationship depends on trust. If you trust yourself and your partner enough to the level of engaging in it with the belief that you will end up married to each other, you can go ahead but think twice; you can end up separating before you get married or even on your wedding eve as so many things in life are unpredictable”.                                                                                                                                               However, Taiwo Oluyinka, a 300level student of Lagos state university, Adebola Adegunwa School of Communication condemned it out rightly saying “Pre-marital sex is religiously and morally wrong. Youths should endeavor to make it a marriage affair”.

An expert who had studied youth sexual behavior over the past twenty years emphasized that “Although there is no average age for teenagers (youths) to engage in sexual activities and it is no longer unusual to find boys and girls starting out as twelve years of age, but the psychological effect is most is most devastating as they may grow into sex maniacs overtime”.

Pre-marital sex has contributed into the ongoing moral deterioration of our society. Some of its consequences include but not limited to Teenage or Unwanted pregnancy, High rate of abortion, Risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, Risk of future infertility due to untreated sexually transmitted diseases and risk of contracting incurable diseases such as the dreaded HIV / AIDS.

Pre-marital sex is like lethargy; hence youths should deviate from it. There is nothing trendy in indulging in an act that is morally, traditionally and religiously wrong. It leads to battered emotions, tarnished reputation, loss of self-respect, dignity and honour of the youth involved in it.

Indeed, virginity is one of the signs of dignity contrary to what a popular Nigerian Hip Hop Singer said that ‘Virginity is not dignity; it is lack of opportunity’. Youths should endeavor to tow the path of honour by abstaining from pre-marital sex.

It is about time Nigerians witnessed a society that is void of unchastity and all the negative outcomes of it by shunning pre-marital sex.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.