NIGERIA. Abuja: In Nigeria, around 3,700 girls have been saved from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Dr. Salma Kolo, director of family health, claims that the effort made in previous years to raise awareness about the repulsive behavior in the five states of Ebonyi, Imo, Oyo, Ekiti, and Osun was the reason for the success.
At a ministerial media briefing on the state of the health sector on Monday in Abuja, Kolo made this statement. A further two million Nigerians are at risk of FGM, and 200 million girls and women worldwide are FGM survivors.
730,000 males, including religious and traditional leaders, have been educated on the harmful effects of the act and the necessity of abstaining from it to stop the unpleasant situation.
“800 male children were also educated to save their sisters when such a scenario is about to happen in their environment,” Kolo said.
Kolo said that Nigeria remains committed to the provision of quality access to family planning commodities and services to women of reproductive age groups, adolescents, and girls, including men, to ensure that the nation has the right number of sizes for its families. So the campaign will also be extended to the northern part of Nigeria.
Jigawa and Kaduna states have already been identified for the campaign and awareness will continue to be created until we can eliminate female genital mutilation.
The FP 2030 commitment, however, was included in the actions that the Minister of Health spoke about during the ceremony.
The minister, in collaboration with commissioners from all the 36 states of the federation and all relevant partners, including the civil society organizations, developed a national commitment that is all-encompassing, adopting the bottom-up approach, Kolo noted.
The federal government’s participation in the program has several advantages, one of which is the dramatic increase in the availability of high-quality family planning products and services to Nigerians of reproductive age, both men and women, without an over-reliance on donors.
“With this, I believe Nigeria would gradually be self-sufficient in the provision of family planning services,” Kolo assured.
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