It’s not quite rocket science how alcohol seems to loosen up guys’ tongues when they get together. The gist flows, tales of female conquests – with various degrees of embellishments are swapped and laughed over.

On this cool evening, as bottles of Guinness, Absolut and Kasapreko are being emptied faster than my Blackberry receives pings, the topics of discussion had invariably made the full cycle of politics, football, women and sex. It’s always a juicy topic. Don’t ask me why. We acquiesced and disagreed over preferences, traded anecdotes and tips; but the overriding feeling I got was that, generally speaking, we don’t seem to be afraid of unprotected sex. And it is indeed frightening.

My friends and I are well educated, graduates and reasonably well informed. One of us, Kung, is a veteran in coital matters by virtue of his daily romps. He avers that sex was created by God to be enjoyed au naturel, without the inconvenience of latex. Someone else claims to be a stickler for the rubber every single time.

Me, I offer that it’s okay to do without it sometimes – as long as you’re faithful to one partner. A guy I’ll call Shock, shocks me the most: to him, there’s no disease, sexual or otherwise, that his church, cannot cure with holy water.

Avert.org tells us that the HIV rate in Nigeria stands at 3.2%. Given our 173 million population, it means almost six million people live with the virus. That is about the entire population of New Zealand. That number excludes the many millions of unreported cases and untested individuals.

Remember back in the 90’s when you and I first learned what HIV/AIDS was? We were told that if you tested positive for it at a hospital, you would be detained and quarantined. Possibly forever. Well, that has changed now. There is more awareness that carrying the virus is not the end of the world. Which is nice. But at the same time, the morbid fear we had before now has sort of been allayed. There are drugs to help infected persons live normal lives. Add to that the numerous faith based organizations and herbal practitioners that claim to have the magic potion that cures all diseases – especially STDs; what we have is a literal hydra-headed monster.

That’s why it’s scary when an upwardly mobile guy will say AIDS isn’t really real. It would have been laughable if it weren’t so grave. Not only do we live dangerously, we do not get tested! For some strange reason we assume it can’t happen to us. Oh yes it can! And it will, unless we take precaution.

Now I’m not going to sit here and talk at you as if say na me holy pass; I’ll just enjoin us to pay attention to the old, cliché ABC’s of sex. Abstinence. Sex is not food. Lack of it won’t kill you. Honest. Or be faithful. And if you’re a randy bastard that needs two or three sexual partners, for goodness sake, use a frigging condom. Those people probably have sex with other people. When you think of it, the envisioned thrill of casual sex isn’t worth the risk.