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  • News - North Central - FCT
  • Updated: April 29, 2022

Minister Reiterates Need For FGM Elimination 

Minister Reiterates Need For FGM Elimination 

Pauline Tallen

The Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, has restated the need for the total eradication of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), maintaining that the procedure has no health benefit for girls and women but rather causes more problems for them.

Tallen stated this on Thursday while speaking at the launch of the 'movement for good to end FGM' in Abuja, stressing that for Nigeria to achieve a majority of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, it must address issues of FGM.

"Eliminating FGM is crucial to realizing many of the other Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs), including targets on health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth.  

"I will like to state firmly that the procedure of FGM has no health benefit for girls and women.  The resulting outcome of FGM are adverse pain and hemorrhage, infection, acute urinary retention following such trauma, damage to the urethra or anus," she explained. 

The Minister noted that the continuous practice of FGM denies girls and women the right to quality education and opportunities for decent work and their sexual and reproductive health is threatened.

She added that during the procedure, the victim would struggle through an experience that leads to chronic pelvic infection, dysmenorrhea, retention cysts, sexual difficulties, obstetric complications, bleeding, prolonged labour, leading to fistula formation, amongst others.

“The mental and psychological agony attached with FGM is deemed the most serious complication because the problem does not manifest outwardly for help to be offered.

"Available statistics show that Nigeria has the highest number of cases of FGM in the world accounting for about 115 million out of 130 million circumcised women worldwide. The Southsouth zone with 77% among adult women has the highest prevalence of the practice in Nigeria.  This is followed by the South-East zone with 68% and South-West zone with 65%.  The Northern part of Nigeria is also not free from this practice," she said.

"The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), Section 4 of the Constitution states 'No person shall be subjected to any form of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment. “The Child Rights Acts 2003 in section 11B states that “No child shall be subjected to any form of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment.  

"The Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act 2015 is indeed a viable weapon in this crusade. It recommends that a person who performs female circumcision or genital mutilation or engages another to carry out such, commits an offence punishable by 4 years imprisonment or to a fine of N200,000 or both," she added.

She, therefore, enjoined all stakeholders to scale up advocacy to ensure compliance and push for more convictions to serve as a deterrent to others, stressing also the need for full implementation and more budgetary commitment at all levels.

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