Nigeria has a high rate of heavy drinking among young people. One study found that 55.8% of teenagers between 15 and 19 years old had engaged in binge drinking in the past month.
The World Health Organization has shown that strictly limiting alcohol advertising and reducing alcohol availability are among the most effective measures to prevent heavy alcohol consumption. But Nigeria has few regulatory measures to govern brand advertising of alcohol. I am a medical and public health sociologist with many years’ experience of studying alcohol marketing and its effects on young males and females.
In a chapter from my recent book Reconfiguring Drinking Cultures, Gender, and Transgressive Selves , based on three years of research, I looked at how the alcohol industry in Nigeria practises reckless branding. Alcohol companies and their marketers have gone to extremes. They openly advertise their drinks as aphrodisiacs and sex-enhancers .
The various arms of government and regulatory agencies need to regulate alcohol branding through policies that are comprehensive and effectively implemented. ‘Being an elder’ Historical accounts in Nigeria have shown that young people were culturally restrained from drinking palm wine in many traditional communities because “ alcohol consumption was a sign of being an elder ”. Young people were considered too immature to handle alcohol and were expected to focus on self-development.
Even among adult men who usually consumed alcohol, drunken .