This was revealed by health, religious and media development experts, who also solicited the cooperation of media practitioners in the campaign to end Female Genital mutilation, FGM, in the country. The experts spoke in Enugu during a one-week workshop to sensitise electronics media practitioners on the gravity of FGM as a social and health challenge.
The workshop, organised by Global Media Campaign to End FGM, Onelife Initiative for Human Development and Human Dignity Foundation, was designed to train radio journalists on how to reach listeners in the rural and urban communities on the need to abandon FGM. The experts include Dr. Christopher Ugboko from the Federal Ministry of Health, Gashe Division, Abuja; Reverend Chinedu Nwoye, Senior Special Adviser to the Enugu State Governor; Sola Fagorusi, Programmes and Media Manager of Onelife Initiative for Human Development. Others were Dr. Wilberforce Oti, activist, clergy and lecturer at the Ebonyi State University; Professor Sunday Adeoye of the National Obstetric Fistula Centre, NOFIC, Ebonyi and Stephen Kwetey, multiple award-winning radio journalist from Joy FM, Ghana. They urged radio journalists in Nigeria to be vanguard of the campaign against FMG.
The World Health Organisation, WHO, describes female genital mutilation and comprising all procedures that involve altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons. The practice is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. In Nigeria and some other parts of the developing world, this practice has been described as reflecting deep-rooted inequality between the male and female sexes, and constituting an extreme form of discrimination against women and girls.
The practice also violates their rights to health, security and physical integrity, their right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and their right to life when the procedure results in death. Although the practice of FGM cannot be justified by medical reasons, in many countries it is being executed more and more often by medical professionals, which constitutes ones of the greatest threats to the abandonment of the practice.
A recent analysis of existing data shows that more than 18 percent of all girls and women who have been subjected to FGM have had the procedure performed by a health-care provider and in some countries this rate is as high as 74 percent.
The situation of FGM/C in Nigeria according to NDHA 2013 reveals that due to its large population, Nigeria has the third highest absolute number of women and girls 19.9 million and currently about 20million Nigerian females who had undergone FGM/C worldwide (after Egypt and Ethiopia). In it’s clinical description of FGM/C, the WHO describes it as comprising four types: Type1: Clitoridectomy: partial or total removal of the clitoris and, in very rare cases, only the prepuce (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoris). Type2: Excision: partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with or without excision of the labia; Type3: Infibulation: narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. Type IV (Unclassified): all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area. The National President, Inter-African Committee on FGM, Professor Modupe Onadeko, argues that the sensitisation against FGM/C is now in the nurses’ curriculum at the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, observes that we should not allow even one girl to be mutilated again. Onadeko who argues that female circumcision is not the equivalent of male circumcision, said globally it is a violation of the girl child and the woman and has drawn criticism because of the hazards of health and complications.
“Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting has been with us for a long time. It is an accepted practice in so many cultures, and it has been justified as to why it should go on, as the rites of the passage for preparing a girl to womanhood.
“I have researched and have not come across one good that comes out of FGM/C but there are numerous disadvantages.” Data from NDHS 2013, shows that 27 percent women 15-49 have been cut. It happens mainly before the 8th day or early teenage, during labour. An estimated 19.9 million Nigerian women have undergone FGM/C meaning that approximately 16 percent of the 125 million FGM/C survivors worldwide are Nigerians. Programme Officer, UNFPA Nigeria, Damilola Obinna, notes that there are three sorrowful milestones for the girl child—the day of circumcision, the wedding night (the fear of painful sexual intercourse) and the day she would be having her baby.
We need to stop this practice. Studies show that FGM/C is more prevalent in the southern zones than in the northern zones. States with the highest prevalence include Osun (77 percent), Ebonyi (74 percent) , Ekiti (72 percent ), Imo (68 percent ) and Oyo (66 percent). There is a Federal law outlawing the practice of FGM/C in Nigeria, the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP), 2015, the practice continues thereafter. Eight states of the Federation have laws prohibiting FGM/C viz: Lagos, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Edo, Cross River and Rivers.
The Child Rights Act (CRA) 2004 also prohibits FGM/C Reasons adduced for continuation of the practice range from tradition to preserving and continuing a set of values and rituals in a community, rite of passage from girlhood into womanhood, etc. Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF, Maryam Enyiazu, FGM/C says is performed in Nigeria for cultural aesthetic reasons. In some communities, normal female genitals are considered ugly, unclean and unattractive unless they are subjected to FGM.
She says in some communities, it is believed that the clitoris contains powers strong enough to damage a man’s penis or to kill a baby during childbirth. Solely focusing on the medical reasons has not helped. Medicalization leads to legitimisation of the practice. But with collective support, FGM/C can be abandoned in this generation. That is the message today and every day.
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