About 86 percent of Nigerians is not in support of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and think the practice should end in the country considering the danger it poses for people who indulge in it and the health risk.
As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commensurate World FGM Day every February 6, the survey was made available by the NOI Poll from a large-scale representative survey showing the practice of FGM is still concentrated in some regions in Nigeria.
However, New Modelling reveals that the total cost of treating the health impacts of FGM would amount to $1.4 billion globally per year, if all resulting medical needs were addressed. For individual countries, these costs would near 10 percent of their entire yearly expenditure on health on average; in some countries, this figure rises to as much as 30 percent.
The interactive modelling tool that generated these data was launched on the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.
But the NOI Poll report states that with regards to prevalence, the findings reveal that majority of adult Nigerians (81%) state that FGM is not prevalent in Nigeria, noting that on the other hand, 19 percent of the respondents disclose that FGM is still prevalent in the country.
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), commonly referred to as ‘female circumcision,’ is a procedure performed on a woman or girl to alter or injure her genitalia for non-medical reasons; it often involves the partial or total removal of her external genitalia.
FGM/C has no health benefits and often leads to long-term medical complications, including severe pain, prolonged bleeding, infection, infertility and even death. It can also lead to increased risk of HIV transmission.
According to the survey, the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP) was passed into law in 2015 to criminalise FGM practice, difficulty in the enforcement of the VAPP Act is an issue given that it has not been domesticated in some Nigerian states.
The survey states that currently, 13 out of 36 states in Nigeria have their own individual state laws expressly prohibiting FGM/C. These states are Lagos, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Ogun, Delta, Ebonyi, Oyo, Imo, Edo, Cross-River and Rivers. However, the VAPP Act is actively enforced in only three out of the 36 states in Nigeria and the FCT, and the states are Abuja, Anambra, Oyo and Ebonyi.
“There is urgent need to carry out an aggressive public enlightenment campaign on the negative effects of FGM as recommended by 62 percent of Nigerians. Therefore, to promote the elimination of female genital mutilation, coordinated and systematic efforts are needed, and they must engage whole communities and focus on human rights, gender equality, sexual education and attention to the needs of women and girls who suffer from its consequences,” survey suggests.
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly designated this day as the international day of zero tolerance for FGM with the aim to amplify and direct the efforts on the elimination of the practice. The UN has realised that ending FGM in one decade will require support from all and sundry. Hence, it has decided to invest in young people who are indispensable and valuable in this all-important task of eradicating FGM. This is the main reason why the day focuses on mobilising youths around the world to join in the campaign of ending the practice.
Meanwhile, FGM exacts a crippling economic as well as the human cost, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“FGM is not only a catastrophic abuse of human rights that significantly harms the physical and mental health of millions of girls and women; it is also a drain on a country’s vital economic resources,” said Ian Askew, director of WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research. “More investment is urgently needed to stop FGM and end the suffering it inflicts.”
