Abstract

British colonial research put the number of ethnic groups in Nigeria at 200 in 1914-1934; Otite Onigu identified 374 ethnic groups in 1980s while M. Onwuejeogwu listed over 480 ethnic groups in 1990s. This makes Nigeria to be the most culturally diverse nation in the world. This diversity produces various shades of inter-ethnic conflicts and challenge of programmatic interventions to counter culturally specific unwholesome practices. This paper focuses on the influence of cultural and ethnic diversities in producing diverse HIV epidemic rates across the nation. Findings show a clear higher HIV prevalence rate in zones and states with significant higher levels of ethnic based violence especially in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Benue, Niger, Adamawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Cross River States. North East and west have the most conglomerations of ethnic groups and also the highest HIV prevalence rates. But beyond data observation, there is no significant causal relationship between ethnic concentration producing violence and HIV prevalence but rather the conceptually known routes of sexuality, condom use are more predictive of HIV prevalence. The conclusion is that since sexuality issues is still very important in predicting HIV risk, Nigeria will do the best by prioritizing HIV prevention through the BC strategy especially targeting the 15 years and above population.

Key words:  Ethnic group, sexuality, condom, ABC strategy.