Some 953 communities in Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, Ebonyi and Imo states in South West and South East parts of Nigeria have renounced female genital mutilation, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The Fund’s child protection specialist, Nkiru Maduechesi, disclosed this at a training for law enforcers on implementation and enforcement of Anti-FGM laws.
The training organised by the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information in collaboration with UNICEF was aimed at strengthening the knowledge of law enforcement agents, judicial officers, End-FGM desk officers and other relevant government officials in Osun, Ekiti and Oyo states.
Maduechesi said FGM is one of the worst human rights violations and urged law enforcers in Nigeria to prosecute perpetrators in accordance to the laws prohibiting the practice to serve as deterrence to others so as to end FGM.
She noted that the rate of FGM practice in the five states reduced drastically between 2013 and 2018 according to Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey.
Maduechesi urged law enforcers to take laws that prohibited FGM practice very serious and bring FGM perpetrators to justice in order to eliminate the practice.
UNICEF Senior Programme Associate for Child Protection Section and Focal Point for the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) programme, Phydelia Abbas said more still need to be done to ensure total eradication of FGM practice in Nigeria.
Quoting the NDHS data, Abbas said the FGM prevalence rate of 72% in 2013 in Ekiti state reduced to 57.9% in 2018. She added that the prevalence rate of 78% in Osun state in 2013 reduced to 45.9% in 2018 and that Oyo state moved down from 66% in 2013 to 31.1 % as at 2018.
She said the prevalence rate in Imo state as at 2013 was 68 % and that it reduced to 61.7 % in 2018 while Ebonyi’s 74% prevalence came down to 53.2% as at 2018.
Abbas said efforts to end FGM would not stop until the practice becomes a thing of the past and no child is cut again.
