The joint programme of the United Nations Population Fund and the Ebonyi State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development on elimination of Female Genital Mutilation has continued to advance with desired impact across communities in Ebonyi state.

The project aimed at delivering the global promise to end FGM is currently sweeping through the 7 autonomous communities in Abakaliki LGA, receiving the people’s voluntary endorsement and collective consent to totally abandon the practice which they have also come to understand to be of no health benefit to women and girls.

In the past decades, the Southeast Nigeria historically recorded high FGM rates, with Ebonyi state reaching over 74 to 82 percent in National rating. But recent data from health authorities such as the World Health Organisation has indicated that its overall prevalence in the state has significantly dropped down to about 20 percent.

In Abakaliki LGA of Ebonyi State, FGM prevalence rate has also historically been high principally because the practice is deeply rooted in tradition. However, due to intensified education and awareness, community engagements and mobilization as well as state legislation, there has been a steady decline in prevalence over the past few years in line with the general declining prevalence status of the State.

Within the months of July and August, the Ebonyi State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, with support from UNFPA has been engaged in series of activities: from advocacy visits to community dialogue and consensus building which cumulatively climaxed in public declaration of FGM abandonment across communities in the LGA in the past view weeks.

The UNFPA representative, Ms. Yewande Odusanya, who joined the state team to witness the declaration of abandonment in Amachi and Enyigba communities on the 19th and 20th August, commended the commitment of Ebonyi State government and her people towards eliminating the practice. She enjoined Abakaliki women to lead the fight, stressing that the burden of the practice rests principally on the women who she identified as both the victims and the major perpetrators.

Odusanya expressed UNFPA’s commitment to continue to partner with the state in various areas of health intervention, especially as concerns maternal and child health and welfare.

State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Barr. Felicia Nwamkpuma, represented in the events by the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Mrs Linda Aloh, identified some of the immediate negative consequences of FGM to include severe pain and hemorrhaging, with long-term risks involving chronic infections, scar tissue and severe obstetric complications during childbirth. She enjoined the communities to take a permanent stand against the practice.

In a goodwill message, Chukwuma Elom, director of the Better Health for Rural Women and Internally Displaced Foundation, BERWO, a humanitarian organisation founded by the wife of Ebonyi state governor, Mrs Uzoamaka Mary-Maudline Nwifuru, further cautioned the community members against the practice, stressing the illegality of FGM under the Nigerian federal law and the laws of Ebonyi state, particularly the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Law, aiming to penalise offenders.

Elom, together with others who delivered goodwill messages, including the UNFPA desk officer in the Ministry of Budget, planning and Monitoring, Chijioke Ogbodo, represented by Benjamin Nwankwegu, and the State Coordinator, Gender-Based Violence Taskforce, Barr. Faithvin Nwanchor, among others, commended UNFPA and the Ministry for the initiative which they described as highly impactful.

In her opening remarks, the HOD, Women Affairs and the joint project director in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Nwakaego Igboke, explained that the objective of the gathering was to drive open community declaration to totally abandon FGM practice, secure various stakeholders’ commitment towards sustaining the declaration as well as lay a plan for a surveillance team for further training.

The declaration which was community-driven witnessed huge turnout in all the communities with key stakeholders representing various social groups making public commitment. In Amachi community, the woman leader, Mrs Regina Oduma spoke for the women while the Community’s President-General, Dennis Nwifuru and the Ward Councillor, Fabian Emeka Mbam committed on behalf of the men and the youth respectively, to ensure that the practice is a thing of the past across the 27 villages in the community.

“We will ensure that we apprehend any found perpetrator and bring to our traditional ruler for further deterrent action”, Mbam assured, stressing: “It is not about you; it is about us, and we are going to save our future.”

The Community Monarchs: Eze Boniface Nkashi Nwokocha for Amachi and Michael Nwobashi for Enyigba communities, while appending their signatures on the Declaration Certificates as a seal to the people’s collective commitment, pronounced local sanctions including seizure of lands belonging to any family found perpetrating or encouraging FGM practice.

Eze Nwokocha declared: “We have received a lot of knowledge through various activities including workshops, advocacy visits and sensitization in our community, and we have long come to the realisation that FGM is a deadly practice.

“Today, and henceforth, we commit to put an end to this practice in our community.

“Any one found in the act or encouraging the practice in any way henceforth, the community will sieze the land within his compound, and we will ensure that he or she is sent to the government to face the law.”

In all the 7 communities of Abakaliki LGA, the messages and the commitments were the same: “FGM has no health benefit, we publicly declare its total abandonment.”

Highlights were issuance of certificates of declaration to the community via the traditional ruler, distribution of copies of the VAPP law and the handover of symbolic FGM Abandonment Signposts to be mounted strategically in the community as a memorial.

Cultural dances from women groups also added colour to the events.