Abia State Government in collaboration with the Office of the Wife of the Governor and the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation has commemorated the 2024 Day Against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) at the Trademore Event Centre in Umuahia today, with the theme ” Her voice, Her future: Investing in survivor-led movement to end female genital mutilation”. Addressing women and girls at the event, the wife of the Governor, Mrs. Priscilla Otti said that FGM is a total violation of the rights of women and the girl child and called for global action to end the practice.
Mrs. Otti, represented by the wife of the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adaeze Emetu said that it is time to take the bull by the horns in other to end this long-aged barbaric practice, which has brought nothing else but pain to our women and the girl child.
She explained that FGM is a total violation of the rights of women and the girl child adding that Abia state can no longer uphold this harmful practice in the name of culture and tradition.
According to her, “The statistics are alarming, and the stories are heart-wrenching. In Abia alone based on the data available from UNICEF, over 20.3 per cent of women and girls aged 15-49 have undergone FGM”
“But today, we gather under the banner of zero tolerance to declare that enough is enough.
We cannot stand idly by while the physical and emotional well-being of our daughters, sisters, and mothers is being compromised”, she said.
Earlier in her speech, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Ngozi Felix said that the fight against FGM cannot ignore a more in-depth understanding of the entire cultural context surrounding it. She said that in many cases, there are religious and social constraints that hinder the eradication of FGM. However, Mrs. Felix said that ending FGM within this generation is possible only when we accelerate our progress in advocacies faster.
In a lecture series, Mrs. Chizaram Onwusogh, Department of Nursing Science, Abia State University Uturu, expressed that female genital mutilation is an irreparable damage done to female reproductive organ which can lead to death, she called for a collective action to end the harmful practices.
Her counterpart, Barrister Chidinma Alozie, from the Abia State Ministry of Justice explained that Abia state government has passed the Child right acts. According to her, ” while section 2, of Abia Child Rights acts prohibits female genital mutilation, it remain to be domesticated and enforced to prevent this aged long harmful practices.
