Stakeholders call for abolition of Female genital mutilation

On May 19, 2023

Stakeholders, on Friday, called for abolition of female genital mutilation (FGM).

The stakeholders made the call during the launch of a book: ‘Ogorire: Our Blood, their Bond,’ written by a federal civil servant, Mr Kunle Awojemila, in Abuja.

One of the stakeholders and wife of former Gov. Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, Mrs Olukemi Mimiko, described FGM as an anomaly and urged that it be abolished outright.

“We must shout; we must scream; we must pass the message in our cars, homes, offices and villages that we should stop FGM, until there is no one female being subjected to this horrible treatment.

“There have been cases of women who had been rendered barren because of infection from the day they were mutilated.

“There have been stories of women, after marriage, who have to be sent back for surgeries to open them up again. Mind you, those are even the lucky ones who have the money, means and knowledge,” she said.

Mimiko, who was the mother of the day at the occasion, said that many women had been left to wallow in tears, nights without end, because they could not satisfy their husbands on bed.

“There have been stories of women who killed themselves because of the consequences of FGM,” she said. She said that the author of the book should be celebrated, as he had succeeded in passing cogent messages that should be spread across every corner of the communities until FGM was totally stopped.

A retired Director at the federal civil service, Mr Olowoofoyeku Olusoji, said that the book was going to add to the others earlier written on FGM. While urging everyone to spread the message in order to stop the practice, Olusoji commended the author on the sensitisation on the dangers of FGM through the book.

The Eleriti of Eriti-Akoko, Oba Amos Ogunleye, and the Olojo of Igashi-Akoko, Mrs Mojirade Ipinaye, commended the Federal Ministry of Environment for its support to the author, whom they described as a hospitable and resolute person.

Responding, the author, Mr Kunle Awojemila, said that the book was aimed at sensitising societal segments on the danger of FGM. Awojemila urged everyone to read and propagate what was in the book to every nook and cranny of the country for the barbaric act to be eradicated.

Newsmen report that “Ogorire” is a festival in Terengo-Orisa Akoko in Ondo State and also an initiation into womanhood through circumcision. Awojemila, who was born in 1971, is a staff member of the Federal Ministry of Environment.

NAN/S.S