Ronald Kayanja, the director, UNIC Lagos, has said that more men die of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Nigeria, The Punch reports.
Kayanja stated this at the United Nations International Women’s Day celebration organised by a coalition of non-governmental organisations in Lagos.
He lamented the poor representation of women in the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration than in the past administrations.
While attributing the under-representation of women in governance to a huge campaign finance and traditional perception of women, he said economic and gender-based violence also increased the risk of young women contracting HIV.
He said, “In Nigeria today, women represent 58 per cent of all the people living with HIV. The power inequalities that underline gender-based violence, including physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence, expose young women to HIV.
“I hasten to add that even though women are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic, more men than women die of AIDS every year in Nigeria.
“Of particular concern to the UN is the political will to implement the Nigeria national gender policy, which commits to affirmative action and requires that women fill 35 per cent of appointed positions.
“Regrettably, we are far from the target presently. For instance, in the current National Assembly, women representation is at its lowest with only 5.6 per cent of the members of the House of Representatives and 6.5 per cent of the senators being women,” he said.
Meanwhile, WaterAid, an international charity agency, has said that improved access to water, sanitation and hand washing facilities in schools is essential to gender equality.
The agency stated that 1.2 billion women and girls still live without adequate sanitation and 330 million women and girls still live without access to clean drinking water.
