History was made in Uruala, headquarters of Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo, on Thursday, when traditional rulers, religious leaders, women and youth leaders from the 31 autonomous communities from the area made a public declaration to end female genital mutilation (FGM).
The declaration was put together by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in collaboration with UNICEF, the Imo State government and other partners.
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Despite legislation and policies prohibiting the practice, FGM still occurs in many communities and settings in Nigeria. At least, 20% of Nigerian women aged 15-49 have been circumcised.
Speaking during the event, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Chief in Enugu Office, Dr. Ibrahim Conteh, expressed regret that a recent survey ranked Imo as having the highest rate of prevalence of FGM in Nigeria at 61.7 per cent.
He said that the declaration is a call to action for everyone to quickly, as a matter of urgency, continue to work, collaborate with the communities and other stakeholders to enforce the law to reverse the ugly trend.
Conteh said that since 2015, UNICEF has been supporting the implementing partners to support social norms change through advocacy, dialogue, education, sensitisation, community mobilisation and consensus building to facilitate community commitments to enhance positive changes on gender and social norms and for the collective abandonment of FGM.
He said that Ideato North has joined the 155 autonomous communities in Ngor Okpalla, Ikeduru, Oguta, Owerri West, Ehime Mbano and Ihitte Uboma in Imo State to publicly declare an end to the harmful practice.
The UNICEF field officer urged the communities to set up surveillance teams to ensure that violators are prosecuted.
The NOA State Director, Mr. Virus Ekeocha, said that public declaration was a moment of broad social recognition, which shows that most people in the community support FGM abandonment and most likely will abandon the practice.
He said that this has been acknowledged as the most significant and decisive step in the campaign to end female genital mutilation.
The chairperson of the International Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA), Barr. Dame Chisara Egwim-Chima, reminded the communities that by the public declaration, they have signed to obey the law against FGM, stressing that a 14-year jail term or N250, 000 fine or both await defaulters.
Chairman of the traditional council of Ideato North, Eze K. N. Kalu, pledged, on behalf of the communities to abide by the spirit of the public declaration.
