THE Federal Government has been charged to, as a matter of urgency, ban Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Nigeria due to its harmful effects.
Harmful effects, according to Side By Side Movement for Gender Justice in Nigeria, include acute infection and bleeding of adjacent organs.
In a press briefing jointly addressed by Co-Chairs of the movement, Reverend Israel Akanji and Professor Mustapha Ismail, on Wednesday in Abuja, the group said the fundamental goal of human society is the preservation of human rights, and it is the movement’s responsibility to safeguard human sustainability, saying research had shown that woman, who has undergone FGM were scientifically more likely to have complication during caesarean section and during childbirth.
According to them, the female genital mutilation has immediate and later complications, the immediate of which are haemorrhage, acute infection, bleeding of adjacent organs, violent pain resulting in serious shock while later complications include vicious scars, chronic infection, hematic complications and obstetric complications among others.
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“In the case of clitoridectomy, the principal and most obvious medical consequences are the elimination of the woman’s organ of sexual pleasure, which is the basis upon which the United Nations and most societies classify it as a human-rights violation.
“FGM is a violation of rights; let us give our girls and women equal right. Research shows that if practising communities themselves decide to abandon FGM, the practice can be eliminated very rapidly, it is your fight, it is our fight, united they said we stand but divided we fall, let us join hand and make FGM become a thing of the past.” They pleaded.
They also urged all religious and traditional leaders to make deliberate efforts to stop gender injustice in Nigeria female genital mutilation.
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