₦airaland Forum

The Ekiti State Government is taking steps to ban the compulsory HIV/AIDS test demanded by churches and mosques before prospective couples are joined together in wedlock.

A bill to that effect is already before the State House of Assembly to enact a law to make the policy an offence in the state.

The bill, The Nation gathered, may soon be passed into law.

The Project Coordinator of the State Agency for the Control of AIDS (SACA), Dr. Charles Doherty, disclosed this in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on Thursday during the commemoration of the World AIDS Day.

The high point of the event was an HIV/AIDS Awareness Walk round the major streets of Ado-Ekiti which was led by the wife of the governor, Mrs. Feyisetan Fayose.

Mrs. Fayose canvassed for increased support in terms of medication and awareness against stigmatization of the people living with HIV/AIDS

Dr. Doherty said: “The bill is already in the state House of Assembly to be passed into law. It proposes to ban places of worship for demanding HIV test from prospective couples.

The SACA project manager noted that it was illegal for priests or other religious leaders to mandate prospective couples to go for HIV/AIDs test before marriage.

‘It is illegal for any individual or organization especially religious bodies to mandate people to go for HIV/AIDs screening exercise.

‘The results should be given to the individual concern and married couple should be treated individually.”

Source: The Nationon January 22, 2015.

Many religious organisations, especially churches, have what is called Marriage Committees saddled with the responsibility of assisting intending couples through the courtship stage before marriage proper, among other things. They have helped many intending couples avert potential social and health disasters by helping to bring such issues to the fore and helping them make informed decisions, which in turn produce more stable marriages.

I hoped to read in this report a justification for the ban, but there's obviously none. So, on the background above, I am bothered, is the impending ban not a disaster waiting to happen?

Its illegal to force people to undergo HIV test all over the world in any guise or disguise and It is also illegal to test someone without consent.

yang:
Its illegal to force people to undergo HIV test all over the world in any guise or disguise and It is also illegal to test someone without consent.

As it is being done, nobody is tested 'without consent', and they are encouraged to do the tests, not 'forced', because it is held that it is their lives, they are only being offered an assistance as responsible organisations. But have U forgotten than every standard organisation requires a medical report at the point of employment, and U can't enter other countries without a verifiable medical report giving U a clean bill of health?

Fayose is totally wrong in this. He should not try it at all.