United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Monday, said Female Genital Mutilation, FGM has reduced significantly in Ebonyi State, southeast Nigeria.
The organization said, the State which used to rank 2nd in the southeast in the practice of the phenomenon, was now third and attributed it to the various public declaration by communities in the State against the practice.
It stated this in Ishielu local government area of the State during an Advocacy dialogue with Religious leaders to end FGM in 15 communities in the area.
The program was organized by the state National Orientation Agency (NOA) with support from UNICEF.
UNICEF which was represented by Emmanuel Abah the State Director of national orientation agency (NOA) said, the prevalence of FGM in Nigeria and Ebonyi State, according to the Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS 2013 and 2018 has dropped.
“Ebonyi State dropped from 74.2 percent (2013) to 53.2 percent (2018)- Third Highest in Nigeria,” Abah said.
He expressed hope that with the engagement of the religious leaders, Ebonyi will continue to drop in the practice of the obnoxious culture.
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He further advised parents to protect their children and wards from their grandmothers against FGM.
“Yes, today is a good day because all the churches, the religious leaders in Ishielu local government have come together to agree to end FGM in Ishielu and they have agreed to put it in all the platform existing in the churches to make sure this obnoxious practice is stopped.
“They have seen the harmful practices that are not good, they are not beneficial as they have said it and they have keyed into the campaign I think this will lead to final nail on the coffin of FGM in Ishielu.
On the prevalent rate of FGM in the State, Abah said, “this is ongoing. Remember we use to be second we have moved now to third, look at the percentage. The Imo that used to be third is now second so by the time we finish declaration, we are going to take Ivo, Ishielu now for declaration so the more declaration you make, the more your rating increases. FGM has gone down from about 70 percent to 50 percent of enomous work has been done.
“Parents must take care of this responsibility because they are the people who own these children and who Advocate for FGM. They have the people they will call in the community and say this thing we agreed to be doing let’s Abandon it. The parents should guard against grandmothers and in-laws from taking their children to go and cut them”.
In a communique, the religious leaders agreed to include the EndFGM campaign in the church activities, identify and protect girls at risk of FGM in Ishielu. They will also impose fine on any church member caught in the act.
