Lawmaker seeks end to female genital mutilation
The lawmaker representing Yenagoa Constituency 2 in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly Ebiuwou Koku- Obiyai has condemned the barbaric practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) otherwise known as female circumcision.
Speaking to New Telegraph in Yenagoa, Koku-Obiyai condemned the procedure which she said poses serious physical and psychological harm to the wellbeing of affected women. The House Committee Chairman on Health however maintained that the practice injures the genitalia of women.
While calling for an end to the practice, she stressed that female circumcision constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women and girls and directly violates their rights to health, security, and physical integrity. The lawmaker who is incidentally a professional nurse wondered why women should be subjected to such life-threatening dehumanization and called on government at all levels to voice their concern and place the right statutes for total eradication of the practice.
She explained that the practice has no health benefits and often lead to longterm medical complications including severe pain, prolonged bleeding, infection and even death. Hear her,”Women who have undergone the cut experience complications during child birth including post- partum hemorrhage, stillbirths and early neonatal death in addition to its physical risks”. It will be recalled that FGM still goes on some communities. Ignorantly, the reason was to curtail a woman’s promiscuity, she said.
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