A don, Prof. Musa Yakubu, on Wednesday said that about 97 per cent of marital issues in Nigeria were as a result of sexual dysfunction or bedroom inadequacies in men and women.
Yakubu said this in his paper at a seminar on reproductive inadequacies organised by the Department of Biochemistry, University of Ilorin.
He said that research had shown that sexual dysfunction in both male and female was quite high in Nigeria despite the various orthodox management options.
According to him, worldwide prevalence of sexual dysfunction for men is between 20 per cent and 30 per cent for men and 40 per cent and 45 per cent for women.
“Sexual dysfunction is any disturbance in normal functioning of the reproductive organs.
“Whenever there is reproductive dysfunction, the male and female reproductive system will not be able to perform their individual and collective roles.
“These roles are supposed to culminate into combining egg and sperm for development of life.
“The worldwide prevalence of reproductive dysfunction ranges from five per cent to 50 per cent in women and 15.8 per cent to 26.6 per cent in men,’’ he said.
Yakubu noted that bedroom inadequacies in both males and females could be caused by myriad of factors.
He said that these factors included but not limited to chronic medical conditions like diabetes, spinal cord injury and systemic diseases.
“Other issues such as hormonal changes, traumatic employment or marriage-related issues can lead to sexual dysfunctions,’’ the don said.
He suggested exploring complementary and alternative approaches, using indigenous medicinal plants, which are considered to be readily available with minimal side effects.
Yakubu said that current therapeutic approaches to curing sexual dysfunction could be categorised into traditional use of plants or zoo therapy, which is use of animals.
He also suggested other approaches such as the occult and non-traditional or orthodox practice.
The biochemist advocated the use of herbal medicine as complementary and alternative remedy for bedroom activities, saying they consisted of the use of seeds, berries, roots, leaves, barks and flowers.
Yakubu urged the Federal Government to develop the Nigerian traditional medical systems that could be appropriately tagged “Naija Traditional Medicine’’.