Group urges Nigerian government to ban female genital mutilation

The Inter-African Committee of Nigeria on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children has appealed to the Federal Government of Nigeria to ban female genital cutting. The National President of the committee, Prof. Modupe Onadeko, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan.

She said that the committee was making concerted effort to encourage people at the grassroots to stop female genital cutting.

“It should be banned entirely; therefore, laws need to be enacted and we need to see to the implementation of these laws so that anyone found doing it should be found culpable and should be punished.

“And we are moving into the grassroots, villages, talking to heads of villages, to the Baales, Obas, chieftains, so that they can help us to encourage their people to stop this practice.“

Onadeko described female genital cutting as all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organ for medical purposes.

She said that the term `female circumcision` had become offensive and had been the subject of ongoing debate among stakeholders.

“In an effort to become more culturally sensitive, the term `female genital cutting` or `FGC`, is being widely used among researchers as well as international development agencies.

The national president said that a number of communities engaged in genital cutting always claimed they did it in fulfilment of `sunna`, an Arabic word for `tradition` or `duty`.

She said that Nigeria was rated fourth among the 29 African countries with high prevalence rate of female genital cutting, adding that majority of girls had their genitals cut before the age of five years in at least 14 of the 29 countries.

“In the rest of the countries, most female genital cutting occurred between ages five and 14 years.

“In nearly all countries where FGM/C is concentrated, traditional practitioners performed most of the procedures,“ she added.

She stated that in most of the areas where the practice was prevalent, the reason given for the genital cutting was `social acceptance`.

Onadeko explained that female genital cutting could cause tetanus, anaemia, hepatitis-B, and HIV especially if the knives used were not sterilised.

Some Ibadan residents who spoke to NAN, said that female genital cutting should be stopped because it was “a violation of the child’s right“.

A 64-year-old retired teacher, Mr Mutiu Akano, who recounted how his younger sister’s genital was cut when she was 19 years, said the gory nature of the procedure made him refuse to allow it to be performed on his two daughters.

Mrs Titilade Onigbinde, a 42-year-old civil servant, said that she did not undergo the experience neither did her two daughters.

Risikat Moshood, a 26-year-old fish seller at the Oja’ba market in Ibadan, however, said that she could not condemn genital cutting because her mother-in-law was a practitioner.

She said that her two daughters were “circumcised“ by their grandmother when they were four years old, adding that what they experienced was unbearable.

Mrs Olanike Olawumi, an Assistant Director of Public Health at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, said that during ante-natal clinics, expectant mothers were always warned of the dangers of genital cutting.

“We tell these expectant mothers about the dangers of FGM/C, which include bleeding that might eventually lead to infant mortality.

“Women, who have had FGM/C done on them, usually have delayed labour because the hymen has been cut.

“When labour is prolonged, inter-uterine and maternal death may occur,“ she said. (NAN)