Female Genital Mutilation: The hurt, the deprivation, the silence

THE NATION

It was International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation recently, as set aside by the United Nations. Nigeria was not left out, even though activities were remarkably low. Gboyega Alaka takes a look at the practice, the campaign to end it and the level of success so far.

TO get respondents to talk about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), to say the least, could be likened to the proverbial needle passing through the eye of a needle. First, this reporter based in Lagos, having rummaged through his base in Lagos without success, had to travel to Nasarawa State, and then off to Kaduna, before coming down Southwest to Osun State, and then off to Kaduna again. Lagos with its potpourri of women’s rights NGOs was a brick wall. Nsini Udonta, a Senior Programmes Officer with Project Alert confessed that women don’t like taking about FGM; while another, a pro-women journalist, Yetunde Oladeinde, said lack of sponsorship and denial has meant many of the NGOs diverting into other more lucrative areas.

The choice of Nasarawa, North Central Nigeria, as the first port of call outside Lagos, was not unconnected with the bizarre stories that had emanated from that state, courtesy of The Nation’s versatile correspondent, Linus Oota. Surely if there was any state such practice would be easily traceable, it would be Nasarawa and Oota was sure to be able to help. But Oota, surprisingly, declared there were no such practices in the state. While his words are not sacrosanct, it could only mean that the people of that state have been very discreet about it. He suggested Kaduna. It was in the Kaduna horizon that the first ray of hope broke. Abdulgafar Alabelewe, The Nation’s correspondent in that state knew an activist. But even that activist had to refer this writer to Osun State, before another reference took him back to Kaduna.

Thanks to the telephony technology, this reporter didn’t have to travel the states physically.

Jacqueline Adebija, a health presenter and Programmes Director at Invicta 98.9FM Radio based in Kaduna, also met this same brick wall years back when she first had to foray into the practice.

“We were commemorating the campaign against Female Genital Mutilation and I didn’t even know that someone who worked with me in the office had been through it. Until then, it was something I knew was happening  but which I still felt was far away from  me because I had never met anyone who admitted to having been through it. So, this lady, while we kept complaining about the fact that people weren’t talking about it and I was beginning to even doubt if it was taking place in a place like Kaduna, called me aside and said she wanted to confide in me and that she would appreciate if I didn’t share it with another person.

“I am talking of a young lady with two kids. She told me how she had been cut as an eight-year-old and how the thing was affecting her and had even ended her marriage. She’s actually from Delta State, though lived in Kaduna. She was the first girl in her family and four of them were cut. Only the last girl was spared…