First ladies lead campaign against female genital mutilation

Worried by the prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation/
Cutting, FGMC in Nigeria especially in the Southwest,
stakeholders last week at two different workshops in
Osogbo and Ilupeju met to discuss the situation. The issue
of female circumcision which has been an age long
tradition has for sometimes been a serious concern to the
government and health practitioners but took a centre
stage in the administration of President Goodluck
Jonathan.
Jonathan had
signed into law
the stoppage of
the traditional
practice. The
wife of Osun
State governor
and the initiator
of Sherif Care
Foundation,
SCARF, Mrs
Sherifat
Aregbesola
gathered some
state governors’
wives and Unicef
representatives in Osogbo where the matter was
thoroughly discussed.
While the workshop in Osogbo was going on, journalists
from Ekiti, Osun and Oyo states were at Ilupeju in Ekiti
State for training on how to end the practice through
public sensitisation and enlightenment against FGMC. The
United Nations International Children’s Fund UNICEF,
health experts and media practitioners at the workshop
appealed to Nigerians to desist from the practice, saying it
is harmful and deadly.
A representative of UNICEF, Mrs. Roseleen Akinroye, said
the practice should be stopped because it leads to life
threatening experience for women during childbirth. She
condemned some medical professionals who engage in
the practice, saying it is unacceptable. Akinroye, who is a
Child Protection Specialist, said: “This harmful practice is
unacceptable and should not be encouraged by anybody
under any guise. Total abandonment of the practice
should be preached by all.”
The Osun State Coordinator of Inter African Committee on
Harmful Traditional Practices, Mrs. Aduke Obelawo, said it
was worrisome that some medical workers engaged in
female circumcision. A Consultant on Reproductive and
Family Health, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Prof.
Dupe Onadeko, also charged parents to desist from the
act.
The health expert said the practice was found to be an
ineffective means of preventing promiscuity among
ladies. She said the harmful practice had been found to be
highly ineffective to curb promiscuity and should be
stopped because of its numerous adverse effects on
health. She stated that the prevalence of FGMC is very
high in Osun, Ekiti and Oyo States, stressing that this
practice should be discarded because it does not prevent
the vice which many taught it prevents.
Onadeko said, “99 per cent of prostitutes are circumcised.
This is from a survey carried out among prostitutes. So,
the belief that this practice curbs prostitution is
erroneous. “We need First Ladies to be at the fore front of
the campaign to curb FGMC. They are influential persons
who many look up to. I think they should be the
champions in the campaign against this harmful practice.”
Onadeko lauded Ekiti and Osun States for putting up
legislation to stop the practice while urging Oyo to speed
up the process of legislating against it. Participants at the
seminar also appealed to parents and guardians not to be
swayed by the mythical beliefs of local circumcisers.
Aregbesola commends Jonathan
At the Osogbo workshop, the Governor of Osun State,
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbeýsola commended former President
Jonathan for prohibiting female genital mutilation in
Nigeria. He said, “If I have been saying that the former
President has not done any good for the country like most
people have been saying, I want to use this opportunity to
commend the former President for just one good thing he
has done on the female genital mutilation law.
“Former President Goodluck Jonathan did one good thing
against Female Genital Mutilation, which makes it a crime
for anybody to mutilate the genital organ, there is a law
signed by him on the 5th of May this year. “Everybody
must work hard to ensure that the practise is done away
with, besides the damage it has done to women; it has
created health challenges like acute urinary retention.
“We have not established any scientific advantage let
alone any religion supporting the practice. It is just a
human design to suppress the other sex. We must all tell
our society that an end must be put to Female Genital
Mutilation in our society and Nigeria”.
Earlier, the wife of the of the governor, Mrs Sherifat
Aregbesola in her welcome address described female
genital mutilation as primitive. Mrs. Aregbesola stated that
it is disturbing that the primitive practice is prevalent in
Osun, saying all hands will be on deck at ensuring that the
practice is eradicated in a no long distant time.
Genitalmutilation
She chided the procedure of female genital mutilation
which involves partial or total removal of the external
female genitalia, noting that the procedures intentionally
alter and cause injury to the female genital organ. “Our
meeting here today will be the first in the series of high
level collective efforts initiated by the UNFPA to eradicate
female genital mutilation. Female genital cutting is very
disturbing”. She told the gathering.
Speaking also, the country representative of the UNFPA,
Ms. Ratidzai Ndhlovu, charged Osun State to work and
ensure the eradication of the practice. She stressed that
Osun has the highest prevalence rate of 7.6percent
followed by Oyo state with 7.2percent rate.