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In view of the need for information on which to base future interventions on sexual behaviour, this paper examines AIDS awareness and perception, as well as sexual practices among the metropolitan population of Lagos, Nigeria. There is a fairly high but recent level of awareness of AIDS and some scepticism about its incurability. Some high-risk premarital and extramarital sexual patterns are observed. These show the importance to the study of inter-spousal intimacy as well as two other contextually-relevant variables.

The increasing concern over the reported cases of AIDS in Nigeria demands a study of the pattern of sexual behaviour of its population, before or during the time when clearer information and education emerged on the AIDS epidemic and its vector, the human immunodeficiency virus. Such a study would help to ascertain the success or failure rate of interventionist programs introduced to discourage the epidemicity of AIDS. For West Africa as a whole, except in some potential epicentres, the levels of concern shown toward the epidemic were rather low right from the inception of the anti-AIDS campaigns. This may be ascribed to the relatively low level of AIDS diagnosis, especially when compared to regions within the East African axis, south of the Sahara. In recent times, however, the numbers of actual diagnoses, as well as the expressed apprehension by governments and public organizations over the state of the AIDS epidemic in Nigerian communities, are becoming a matter for concern. When this is combined with the government-professed knowledge of under-reporting of cases of infection, the reasons behind official …