Female Genital Mutilation with its harmful effects is still being practiced in Nigeria especially in the Southern part of the country.
Nigeria has the highest absolute number of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) worldwide.
Obstetric Gynaecologist, Dr. Vitalis Etim, made this disclosure recently in an exclusive interview with the Next Edition.
According to him, ¼ of the estimated 115 – 130 million circumcised women in the world are in Nigeria with a prevalence rate of about 41% among adult women.
Dr. Etim also disclosed that the highest prevalence rate is found in the South – South with 77%, South – East 68% and South – West with 65%.
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Condemning the practice in its entirety, Dr. Etim noted that it adds no value to the lives of the victims but rather has several harmful effects. “A woman who has been subjected to Female Genital Mutilation, throughout her life, is condemned to a life of pain and sorrow. Because the circumcision is done in a very crude way, it leads to infections and scarring of the perineum which poses a problem for the woman during sex, pregnancy and child bearing.”
As a way forward, the medical practitioner suggested that Female Genital Mutilation should be criminalised. According to him, if there is a legislation making the act of female circumcision a crime, people will think twice before getting involved in the act.
He also suggested that the health authorities should create awareness campaign programmes on the harmful effects of FGM and get them to the villages, hospitals, town hall meetings, village meetings, churches, mosques, social media and schools, as that will go a long way in convincing people to do away the practice.
Female Genital Mutilation is the act of removing a part of or the whole of the external female genital organ in an assumption that doing so would make the woman in future not be promiscuous. The parts removed either partially or in whole are the clitoris, labia minora (inner part of the vulva) and the labia majora (outer part of the vulva).
