Cross River State Governor, Senator Ben Ayade on Thursday advised youths to stop engaging in sex before marriage as it is the best way to avoid contracting HIV/AIDS virus.
The governor, who stated this in Calabar during the 2016 World Aids Day, said the best virtue any girl or woman would give to her husband is to get married as a virgin, a core value Africans are known for.
The governor described his wife, Dr. Linda Ayade, as one of such rare women who lived a virtuous lifestyle before she got married to him as a virgin.
"I am emphasizing on this core value because I married my wife as a virgin and she has remain faithful. So I charge all women to remain faithful to their spouses.Condom is not a guarantee to safe sexual life. It can fail one. There is no alternative to abstinence in sex life."
Ayade appealed to youths to see the dreaded HIV/ AIDS as real because it has destroyed many families, rendered many children orphans, many men and women widows and widowers respectively.
He noted that although poverty and some social pressure may have pushed many young girls into early exposure, there is need to teach our upcoming youths the true values of Africa which frowns at immorality which is now the order of the day.
The governor also advised Nigerians to be cautious of anything that can make them come in close contact with unsterilized kits used for barbing and hairdressing.
Source: Nigerian Tribune