Rivers State Gov's Wife Eberechi Suzzette Wike Creates Awareness On Effects Of Female Genital Mutilation In A Special Address.[Read Through].

The International day of zero tolerance to female genital mutilation (FGM) is a United Nations sponsored awareness day that takes place on the 6th of February every year. 

The aim is to foster awareness on the devastating effects of female genital mutilation and to continuously promote the call for its total eradication. According to the World Health Organizations (WHO), over 125 million women and girls in 29 Middle Eastern and African countries live with the effect of this evil act of willful injury to victims based on superstition, tradition and custom.
Female genital mutilation as defined by WHO/UNICEF is the partial or total removal of the external female genital organs for non-medical reasons. There are four major types of female genital mutilation as identified by WHO and they are as follows:

1) Clictoridectomy: The partial or total removal of the clitoris. 

2) Excision: The act of removing part or all of the clitoris and the inner labia. 

3) Infibulation: The act of narrowing of the vaginal opening by creating a seal formed by cutting and repositioning the labia. 

4) All other harmful procedures like picking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing of the female genital area.
This mutilation that is highly predominant in African countries including Nigeria is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15. In some communities in Nigeria, at the point of marriage a woman who has not been circumcised or rather mutilated, must pass through the ordeal before she can go to her husband's house. 

The mundane reason behind this practice has been traced back to the cultural, religious beliefs that the mutilation is a necessary part of properly bringing up a girl by reducing her libido to ensure pre-marital and marital virginity based on the assuption that uncircumcised women are prone to be promiscuous, unclean, physically undesirable thereby posing potential risk to themselves and their children. 

Data culled from WHO Nigeria shows that type 1and 2 are mostly prevalent in the South-South and South-East regions (Rivers State inclusive). The practice of female genital mutilation has no benefits in any form, but have been proven to cause psychological and emotional trauma due to the severe shock and pain on the victim. It also exposes them to bladder and urinary track infections, cysts, tetanus, open sores in the genital region, infertility amongst others. 

In addition, this mutilation violates the girl/woman’s right to health, security and physical integrity, as well as infringes on their right to freedom from torture, cruelty, inhuman and degrading treatment and loss of life (when the procedure results to death). Yes sometimes this crude and unhygienic practice leads to death! 

The landmark efforts of our legislators in prohibiting the practice of female genital mutilation and criminalising same has been highly applauded. The bill prohibiting the female genital mutilation amongst others was passed into law in May 2015 as the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015. In Rivers State, we have in place the Female Circumcision (Abolition) Law 2001 which came into force on the 1st of May, 2001. It imposes a fine of =N20,000.00 or imprisonment for 5 years for offenders bin Section 2(1) thereof. 

However, despite the fact that this major step of passing bills into laws has a significant weight towards ending this barbaric traditional practice in our society, it is sad to state that the implementation of this law is very poor. We should not hesitate to report any community or health worker that still practice this illegality (also known as female circumcision) to the law enforcement agencies. The Law Enforcement Agencies should also be trained on and exposed to information on the evils of this practice and the rudiments of the new Law that criminalises same. 

Finally, it should be noted that there is very low awareness on the part of the general public, on the existence of these laws. There should therefore be mass sensitization drives by the Government at all levels, NGO'S and like minded private organizations to enlighten everyone about the ills of this practice and the relief provided by the enabling laws. 

Journalists and advocacy groups should investigate communities that still indulge in this illegality and publish reports exposing such communities. Individually, we should also alert our families and friends of the risks of going to jail for this so-called customary practice. It is no longer business as usual as women are encouraged to not only stop aiding the perpetuation of this act, but be in the front burner in putting a stop to this evil practice. 

We can never deny the painful fact that female genital mutilation reflects a deep rooted and extreme form of discrimination and torture to our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. Time has come for us to lend our voices and say NO MORE to all these wicked traditional practices against our women and the girl-child. It is time to say NO to female genital mutilation and preserve the dignity and good health of our womenfolk as I enjoin you all to strive to make a difference going forward. 

Dearest friends, let me please apologise upfront for this lengthy post, but kindly read it through to the end as this is a very important subject.
Thank you for your attention and in anticipation of adding your voice against FGM. God bless and keep you and your families as you enjoy a lovely weekend.