Some civil society stakeholders have decried the high rate of Female Genital Mutilation(FGM) practice and its implications on the victims in the family system.
They made the declaration on Wednesday at the FGM review meeting organised by the Trailblazer’s Initiative Nigeria(TBI), a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria, in Ibadan.
The Executive Director, TBI, Mr Dare Adaramoye, said that the statistics from the UNICEF sponsored field work and community sensitisation programmes shows that FGM still on high side in Oyo State.
According to Adaramoye, a UNICEF facilitator, Oyo State has truly witnessed a decline in FGM data, but the number still on high side, due to some cultural and religion believes.
He added that some local circumcisers also see the practice as means of raising money for their daily needs.
“It is far from truth that a female child will be promiscuous if not circumsized, what matters is moral education we give to our children. FGM is another form of gender based violence, “he said.
According to him, FGM brings complications such as intense pain, excessive bleeding, urinary inconvenience, difficulties during menstruation, clitoral neuroma, sexual intercourse, childbirth among others.
He noted that the laws that kicked against FGM in the state must be given more attention to discourage and punish anyone engaging in FGM.
Commenting, Mrs Airat Ogungbenro, an executive of Federation of Muslim Women’s Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), Ibadan, said that the campaign against FGM must be taken to the grassroots of the state.
Ogungbenro, a former deputy coordinator, Child Protection Network(CPN), Oyo state, urged the mothers under the family pressure to submit her child for FGM to always speak up for the law to defend them.
“We want victims of FGM with evidence to speak up. FGM violates a series of well established human rights principles, norms and standards such as right to freedom from torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment,” she said
