FGM: TRAUMATIC AS VICTIM NARRATES HER UGLY EXPERIENCE IN IMO COMMUNITY

REPORTER: UGONNA AGU

Some stakeholders in the fight against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) want government at all levels and law enforcement agencies to ensure stringent punishment are metted on perpetrators of FGM.

They also called on government to provide free and adequate health care for survivors of FGM, who are suffering from one ailment or another due to the practice.

They made the call while speaking with Radio Nigeria on this year’s International Day for Zero tolerance to Female Genital mutilation.

Female Genital Mutilation is an age long practice in some culture, which involves the partially cutting or entirely removing the external female genitalia, and any other harm or injury caused to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

The practice was mostly carried out by traditional practitioners, but of recent, there is greater involvement of health care providers due to the belief that the procedure is safer when medicalized.

The UN General Assembly designated February 6th as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, with the aim to amplify and direct the efforts on the elimination of this practice.

This year’s Theme: “Her Voice. Her Future,” aims to invest in Survivors-Led Movements to End Female Genital Mutilation.

It is a call for survivors to come out to tell their story by themselves, and also for government to provide capacity for the survivors, to motivate them to do so, to help end the practice.

A survivor, 23-year-old miss Chidinma Offor from Umunoha in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State said she underwent FGM four times due to reoccurring vaginal cyst, which kept taking her back to the hospital for repeated surgeries in her genitals.

“I did it four times, 4 years, 11 years, 18 years and 20 years. The thing developed like egg in my virginity area. The pain was very much and blood was coming out. Thank God I didn’t give up. It normally itches me,” she said.

Miss Offor who noted that she is now free from the complications after her fourth surgery, promised to lend her voice in the fight to end female genital mutilation, by sharing her story.

An FGM advocate, Mr. Felxfame Enisare, said that the practice is mostly done because of some cultural myths and misconceptions to reduce promiscuity among the femalefolk and to uphold the age long culture.

He expressed regret that most of the consequences of the practice occur in the later years of the victims, and most times could not be traced back to it.

“FGM is classified into four types, Clitoridectomy, Excision, Infibulation, type four is unclassified. It is is very common, they use vaseline to massage the clitoris of the child,” he explained.

Mr. Enisare called on government at all levels to provide health care facilities for victims and also a favorable platform for them to share their story without being ridiculed.

Another advocate, Ms Milicent Onyewuchi, called on women to come all out and lend their voices to the fight to end the barbaric culture, noting that they were the ones who suffered the consequences.

“The cut can form keloids, can lead to urinary tract infection, and reduction of their sexual libido,” she said.

Miss Onyweuchi maintained that government should ensure comprehensive implementation of the Violence Against Person (VAP) law and other laws against FGM, and also ensure that perpetrators were made to face stringent punishment, to help deter others from indulging in the practice.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU