As part of measures to stop the harmful practice of female genital mutilation and the conditions associated with it, doctors and nurses who engage in the practice will now be sanctioned.
This was disclosed by Professor Modupe Onadeko, the National President of Inter-Africa Committee on Harmful/Violent Practices Against Women and Children, at a media parley in Osogbo, Osun State, with editors and health writers on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) jointly organised by the Advocacy Unit, Child Rights Information Bureau of the Ministry of Information and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The event was to mark the World Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting day.
According to Onadeko, who delivered a presentation on “The Practice and Experience of FGM/C in Nigeria”, it was now a punishable offence for any medical practitioner, whether a doctor or nurse, to engage in the practice, as there was no single benefit for it to the victim.
Onadeko also disclosed that the subject of FGM/C has now been introduced into the medical curriculum in the teaching of doctors and nurses by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) and the Nursing Council of Nigeria (NCN).
She said that the practice was prevalent in South West, South South and South East, but has now been adopted in the North East and other areas like Kano, Abuja and Nasarawa.
Also, she said that the practice had also been modernised to make it safer by involving medical practitioners.
However, she said the practice, in whatever form, must be stopped immediately.