A Konnect Africa Interview with Praise Fowowe: Nigeria’s Foremost Sex Crusader

Let’s talk about sex with Praise Fowowe. Author, columnist, sexuality education strategist and sex crusader, Praise has conquered the demons of his own sexual abuse and has devoted his life to preventing and rehabilitating victims of sexual abuse. Sex is a veritable minefield, but Praise has mastered the art of disabusing the mysteries and taboos concerning sex, homosexuality and sexual abuse especially amongst children. Get informed, get enlightened, get free!!!

KA: Praise Fowowe is?

Praise is simply an enigmatic solution provider who lives his life preserving the future by working with families on prevention of child sexual abuse as well as building the most desirable homes.

 KA: What is your ethnicity? What are your favorite memories of childhood? Who[m] do you call family?

A Yoruba man from Ondo state, my favorite memories of childhood was a drummer and choir leader who created a makeshift drum set for a church that never had any. Family while growing up was more of my parents, siblings, extended families and church folks.

KA: Education?

I studied Accounting and graduated from University of Ado-Ekiti – class of 99/2000.

KA: How did you fare in the job market?

I worked for two major organizations and my track records speak for themselves especially in the first organization I worked in after graduation where I recreated the entire system and turned a lose-lose situation to a profit making venture. I had always been a catalyst or what people call a trouble maker everywhere I worked but one thing they can’t deny is that there were always results.

KA: You can’t possibly talk about sex education in Nigeria with stumbling upon ‘Praise Fowowe’…how and why did you choose to become a ‘sex’ crusader? –so to speak-

I was a victim of child sexual abuse while growing up and was thoroughly messed up which ultimately translated into sex addiction and living on the fast lane until I decided to do something about it and fortunately for me the only person I could turn to was God and with Him I found help and solutions and so started helping families to prevent child sexual abuse through education. Even though it was tough while starting out but today we thank God for the awareness and how God has helped us implement basic sexuality education for schools and religious organizations.

KA: It’s in our faces, on our screens, roads, schools, even homes! Can children actually be protected from immoral sexual relationships?

Yes they can if we respect the child and we see them as the future but I am not sure we are ready to do that as a nation because by now we ought to have declared a state of emergency based on the reality on ground.

KA: You have programs geared towards promoting sex education etc…kindly tell us about them.

We have developed a curriculum and generated materials that can assist parents effectively teach sexuality education from 18 months -18 years.

We call it the Basic Sexuality Education Kit and in it you have 5modules:

–       My body and I – 18months -3 years

–       Curiosity and I – 4-5 years

–       Awareness and I – 4-8 years

–       Life is good – 9-12 years

–       Tasty and Chastity – 13-18 years

There are lessons to be taught from January to December, all year long.

 KA: How do you measure the impact of your crusade?

We have results that move us to tears especially testimonies from parents, schools and religious organizations of how well the implementation has helped their kids say ‘NO!’ to sex predators and report what advances which they consider suspicious.

KA: When is the right time to start teaching sex education and what are the right methods?

It starts fully from 2 years but sometimes we ask parents to start playing the songs for their kids from 18 months. The methodology differs from age to age for example while we use songs and games for the ages 18 months- 5years; we use role play and classroom style teaching for ages 6-12 while 13 and above consists of rubbing minds and generating superior solutions where you seek to know what they know before you teach what they need to know. And in all we create a confidential environment where they are free to share their deepest secrets.

KA: I presume you have taken this message to the schools?

Yes we are in a number of schools already where sexuality education is fully implemented and being offered as a subject.

KA: Does this occupy you full-time? Are you engaged otherwise?

This is what I do with my time and life but we go beyond sexuality education to cover other aspects of family like marital formation, creating a family culture and working with troubled marriages as well as working on the recovery process of the sexually challenged and sex addicts.

KA: I presume you have employees etc. and other monetary requirements. How do you foot these bills?

We run a full-fledged organization with full-time staff and loads of volunteer staff. We are blessed to have the most inspired sets of volunteers across the nation and we foot bills by charging for some of our services which includes implementation of basic sexuality education; creating a child sexual abuse/rape free society; Recovery sessions for sex addicts and people troubled by same sex relationships then we run seminars and trainings on various family life solutions.

KA: You are also on author: Do share your titles and tell us where they can be purchased.

I have written quite a number of books but the best selling materials I have are the Basic Sexuality Education Kit which covers a family for 18 years(there are 5 books, a workbook, dvds, vcds and cds in the kits) and we have the Superkidz guide to checkmating child sexual abuse which usually runs out of stock because it is a full color reader for kids.

You can order for the books on www.sexandfamilycenter.org/superkidz or visit www.konga.com as well as www.jumia.com.ng

KA: Your views on the anti-gay bill in Nigeria?

First let me say that I have no view on the matter because I represent God on earth and it is clear what my government has said about it but if you want me to speak as someone who has worked on the recovery sessions of several homosexuals I can tell you that many people don’t understand why people become gay and what it takes to break free. On one hand I applaud the Federal Government for taking a stand on the issue of homosexuality; however, the content of the law needs further research and evaluation because laws have never helped anyone. If we have laws without creating an atmosphere or system for recovery then it means we are living in denial. We can’t say ‘No’ to homosexuality without controlling the content of what young people see online and in movies. Every homosexual I have worked with was a victim of child sexual abuse so what are our plans for remedying that?

KA: 5 things your friends/colleagues would be surprised to learn about you?

–       That I love to stay at home fixing meals for my family and that includes going to the market to shop for them.

–       That I love to dance generally especially salsa.

–       That I sometimes weep in my closet when overwhelmed as a result of the problems my clients are facing.

–       That I am highly emotional (many people see the strong side of me.)

–       That I am highly introverted at home and I write a lot of songs and play a few musical instruments.

 KA: Inspire a young African in one sentence…

Never get involved in anything without fact-finding the origin of what you are about to do because what you met on ground could have been an error.