NIGERIA. Abuja: Nigeria accounts for around 115 million of the 130 million women and girls worldwide who have had their genitalia mutilated.
Dame Pauline Tallen, Minister of Women Affairs, announced this during the Abuja inauguration of ‘The Movement to End Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)’.
A project aims to bring together about five million Nigerians to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM) across the country.
Allen went on to say that the South-South zone has the greatest percentage at 77 percent, followed by the South-East at 67 percent, the South-West at 65 percent, and the Northern region at 65 percent.
Tallen went on to say that FGM is one of the essential tasks of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which involve examining educational standards, gender equality, and economic development, among other things.
“FGM has, in numerous ways, prevented girls and women from accessing quality education, hand, and health, and their sexual reproductivity is at stake,” Tallen said.
Tallen frowned at the rate at which FGM is done in Nigeria. He said that it has no significant health-wise benefit on the lives of those affected. “FGM subjects the victim to severe pains that could lead to haemorrhage, infections, such as acute urinary retention like trauma, and the destruction of the urethra and anus,” he added.
Matthias Schmale, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, stated that a survey revealed a substantial disparity in the northern portions of Nigeria, such as Yobe, Jigawa, Bauchi, and Kaduna and that it is only common among girls aged zero to 14 years.
Schmale went on to say that despite having less than ten years till the target year, Nigeria’s goal of achieving 0% FGM by 2030 was yet to be met.
“However, to achieve a society free of gender violence and equal rights, there is no need for a significant commitment from political office holders, the option of preventive and responsive and profound lasting solutions for the survivors,” Schmale said.
For non-medical reasons, FGM is the partial or complete removal of external female genitalia or another harm to the female genital organs.
It is regarded as a violation of girls and women’s human rights worldwide.
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