By Emmanuel Nduka
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has informed that it will commence prosecution of health workers that involved in the medicalization of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
This was revealed on Monday by UNICEF’s Child Protection Specialist, Enugu Field Office, Victor Atuchukwu, at a three-day sensitisation on FGM organised in Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State.
The specialist decried the medicalization of FGM and warned medical personnel who engaged in the practice to desist immediately or risk prosecution.
While stating that the programme was targeted at healthcare providers in public and private clinics, he also informed that it was organised by UNICEF in partnership with the state’s Ministry of Gender Affairs and Vulnerable Groups.
Atuchukwu hinted that a Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) research in 2018, put the percentage of girls and women that underwent FGM at 20 percent for women aged 15-46 and 19.2 percent for girls aged 0-14 years.
The study, according to him, indicates that globally, an estimated 200 million girls and women are living with the consequences of FGM.
He further denounced the obnoxious practice, describing it as unethical, adding that it contradicted the stipulations of the World Medical Association, which require health professionals to swear an oath not to inflict any harm on their patients.
Going forward, Atuchukwu advised health workers to imbibe professionalism as a way of setting good examples for others to emulate.
“Health workers in Imo and elsewhere in Nigeria are forbidden from performing FGM.
“Although FGM performed by a medical professional in a clinic or a hospital may reduce some of the risks of the practice to an extent, it does not take into consideration the reason the girl is on the operating table in the first place.
“UNICEF will prosecute healthcare workers who indulge in the medicalisation of FGM as a way of preventing non-professionals from engaging in the obnoxious practice and reducing the spate of FGM,” he added.
