The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) chief, Child Protection, Mr Ibrahim Sesay says 32 per cent of children between age 0 and 14 had undergone female genital mutilation in Oyo State, warning that currently there is an upsurge in cases of FGM in the state, especially in children that are below 1 year.
Mr Sesay at a state-level engagement with traditional rulers, religious leaders and other stakeholders on FGM by the Federal Ministry of Culture and Information, UNICEF and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said FGM cases in the state is no longer doing down, more especially among children that are below 1 year.
Sesay said 32 per cent of children between zero to 14 years experience genital mutilation in Oyo state as compared with the national average put as 31 per cent and declared that Oyo State is a critical location to Nigeria’s attainment of the sustainable development goal on ending harm or violence against women and girls in the country.
According to him, “We see that Oyo State is one of the critical locations we really need to focus on if we are to achieve the sustainable development goal by ensuring that we don’t have any harm or violence against women’s and girls in the state.”
“The trend is no longer going down. We have seen an upward surge especially among children that are below one especially when there are festivities. At times like this, is when we need to galvanise the support of traditional rulers, women’s organisations, religious leaders to see that we stop the cutting,” Sesay said.
Also, the UNICEF FGM Consultant, South West, Mrs Aderonke Olutayo lamented that despite the domestication of laws prohibiting FGM in the state, there has been no enforcement or prosecution of any offender.
Olutayo said “The bottleneck is that we are not able to work in all the local government areas in Oyo State because they are 33 and we are only working in eight local government areas. We brought all the stakeholders in all the local government areas together to ensure that they all denounce FGM in one voice and take the awareness to their various communities and localities.”
Executive Secretary, Oyo State Primary Health Care Board, Dr Muideen Olatunji said there has been series of activities, engagement, information dissemination, health education and awareness creation with the communities asking them to denounce to be able to stop FGM.
He added, “This has been yielding results as of 2018, the prevalence has come down to 31 per cent. So the correction of the harmful practice is working very soon it will be a thing of the past. The same way we achieved the milestone of five years reduction is how we will get it to zero levels. It is not just about the law and punishment but the conviction from the people to desist from the act.”
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