FGM: IMO COMMUNITIES STAND FIRM WITH UNICEF AND PARTNERS TO END THE OBNOXIOUS PRACTICE
REPORTER: CHINAZO ILECHUKWU
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in conjunction with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the Imo State Government have since 2015 embarked on sensitization of communities in nine local government areas in the state with high prevalence of female genital mutilation practice.
The campaign, which focused on the dangers of the practice and the need to allow the female genitalia the way nature made it, has significantly changed the perception of the people, especially in Ikeduru Local Government Area, where the practice was hitherto given a beautiful name known as “Icho nwanyi mma,” meaning: making a woman beautiful.
Following successful engagements with critical stakeholders on the need to abandon female genital mutilation by UNICEF and its partner agencies, the 29 autonomous communities that constitute Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo state gathered in December 2019 and made a public declaration to jettison the age-long obnoxious cultural practice.
Barely three years since the public declaration in Ikeduru, Radio Nigeria undertook an assessment visit to ascertain the level of compliance or otherwise recorded in the area with a view to finding ways of ensuring total elimination of the practice in the area.
The traditional ruler of Attah Ancient Kingdom, Eze Geo Anika, said female genital mutilation had become a thing of the past in his community.
According to him, the community has made bye-laws to punish anyone caught aiding or abetting the practice.
The royal father noted that a committee set up by the communiy was working with health facilities in the area to monitor any girl child that was born in the area to ensure the genitalia was not tampered with.
“In 2018 we came up with laws that prohibited female genital mutilation and with the law made by the state government, we stated that anyone caught will also be taken to the state for prosecution after facing the music in the community, he said.
Eze Anika, however, noted that while cutting of the female genitalia had stopped in the community, there were still pockets of cases in his kingdom where some women ignorantly engaged in the use of the thumb to press down the clitoris all in the name of beautifying the girl child.
An interaction with the Monarch of Umudim Autonomous Community, Eze Hyginus Ebirim, indicated that the people were now aware of the health and social implications of female genital mutilation.
He described as erroneous the insinuation that uncircumcised women lead promiscuous lives and added that anyone caught involved in female genital mutilation in his community would be made to pay fine of one hundred thousand naira among other sanctions.
He narrated his encounter with a 24–29 four year old traumatized circumcision, who he said had on hearing his telephone conversation with someone concerning female genital mutilation, confided in him that her genitalia was badly mutilated to the extent that she could barely pass urine.
“She has been experiencing psychological torture, she needs counseling, a lot of people are dying in silence, he said”
Eze Ebirim appealed to the government to find alternative means of livelihood for the rural women, who carry out this female genital mutilation in the communities, to end the practice.
A woman leader from Abazu Community, Mrs. Eucharia Ozuzu, said since the public declaration against female genital mutilation, they had been sensitizing their people, especially those of them in child bearing ages in all their social gatherings, noting that they longer engaged in the practice.
“We have gone to various communities, we have used our meetings and other gatherings to sensitize the people, there has been no identified case of FGM in our area. The people are afraid of going to prison,” she said.
The Palace Secretary in Akabo Ikeduru, High Chief George Opara, and the Woman Leader of Amambaa Village in Attah Ikeduru, Mrs. Esther Okorochukwu, in their separate statements described female genital mutilation as obnoxious, noting that the people no longer engaged in it due to sensitization by UNICEF and other partner agencies.
However, some women from Owubinubi, Inyishi, Uzoagba and Ugirike Autonomous Communities, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimization, told Radio Nigeria that much as they no longer cut the female genitalia due to dangers associated with it, many of them use lubricants to press the clitoris, arguing that the measure would help put the private part to better shape.
Although the message by UNICEF and other stakeholders in the fight against female genital mutilation had got to the people of Ikeduru, health analysts insisted that there was the need to sustain the sensitization as well as intensify campaign against the act of pressing the female genital, which many still considered necessary for cosmetics reasons.
