The President of the Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN), Rev. Dr David Onuoha, has urged the federal government to make legislation that will criminalise stigmatisation of people living with HIV/AIDs in the country.
Onuoha, who is the Anglican Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, said the council was deeply concerned about the number of young people living with HIV and the impact of stigma on their lives.
He spoke Wednesday and Thursday at three-day training held in Abuja in conjunction with the World Council of Churches (WCC) based in Switzerland on HIV self-stigma and life-building skills for vulnerable communities in Nigeria.
He lamented that Nigeria has one of the largest HIV epidemics in the world with over 1.9 million Nigerians living with the disease, especially young adults and children.
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The archbishop who said living with HIV/AIDS was not a divine sentence or judgment for sin, however, urged the federal government to do all that is possible to end stigma.
“We strongly advocate for the enactment of enabling laws that will make stigmatisation of people living with HIV/AIDS a punishable offence in Nigeria.
“There is, therefore, no basis for stigmatising our brothers and sisters who live with it because they are no less human, less able and capable of fulfilling their destiny in life,” he said.
The representative of the WCC, Gracia Ross, who said the programme was meant to tackle HIV/AIDS self-stigma among young people, said it was not as deadly a disease as people think.
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