Ekiti govt canvasses collective fight against FGM

Ekiti govt canvasses collective fight against FGM

The Ekiti State Government has urged its citizens and residents to be
united and cooperate with it in the war it is waging against Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM) scorge in the society.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social
Development, Mrs Foluke Adeyemo, who gave the charge in Ado-Ekiti
during a sensitization walk to commemorate the International Day of
Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation described the harmful
traditional practice as barbaric. She called for complete eradication
of the harmful practice because of numerous dangers associated with
it.

Adeyemo, who lauded the efforts of government, particularly the
logistics so far put in place to eradicate the evil practice listed
the areas of government concentration to include awareness ,
sensitization, Girl-child education, and community-Led actions
enlightenment programmes, amongst others.

In her own remarks, Mrs Tayo Olatilu, a member of the State Technical
Committee (STC) representing the Ministry of Women Affairs explained
that the Committee, set up primarily to eradicate Female Genital
Mutilation in Ekiti State comprises representatives/stakeholders from
Ministries of Justice, Women Affairs, Health & Education, Science and
Technology, Police Force, National Orientation Agency (NOA),
Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA), National Council of Women Society
(NCWS), Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) and some
other NGOs.

Mrs Olatilu described FGM as the direct cutting of genitalia
(clitories) for no medical reasons except for traditional beliefs and
culture.

Olatilu, who disclosed that about 200million African, Asian and
Nigerian living girls and women have had their clitoris cut named
Nigeria as a country having the largest number of FGM worldwide.

The Ekiti State Ministry of Women Affairs representative also
mentioned promoters of this harmful traditional practice to include
mothers, mothers-in-law, grandmothers, opinion leaders and men. She
listed the FGM practitioners to include traditional/local, health
professionals and midwives.

Mrs. Olatilu, therefore encouraged citizens to key in and embrace
zero tolerance to FGM in the society by propagating the message to
make it a thing of the past like the killing of twins of old.

Also speaking, another STC member, Mrs Kemi Adeleye, a
representative of the State Ministry of Health listed some of the
numerous dangers of FGM to include over bleeding, severe pains,
infertility, prolonged labour, urinary retention, keloid, frigidity
amongst others.

Female Genital Mutilation, also known as female genital cutting

and female circumcision is the ritual cutting or removal of some or
all of the external female genitalia is recognized internationally as
a violation of the human rights of girls and women. It is mostly
carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15.