Frontline community health actors in Oyo State, including Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), Patent Medicine Vendors (PMVs), and Community Health Workers (CHWs), have pledged to end the medicalization of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and champion the fight against the harmful practice among girls and women.
The commitment was made during a one-day orientation and engagement meeting in Ibadan, organised by the Trailblazer Initiative Nigeria (TBI) with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Oyo State Government. Participants were drawn from Ido and Oluyole Local Government Areas.
In his remarks, the Executive Director of Trailblazer Initiative Nigeria, Dr. Dare Olagoke-Adaramoye, described the engagement as a significant step towards eliminating FGM through the strategic involvement of trusted community health actors.
“It is essential to reshape harmful practices and social norms through grassroots dialogue, mentorship, and strategic partnerships with frontline health workers, religious leaders, and traditional leaders.
You are trusted in your communities, use that trust to educate, inform, and protect. Every conversation counts; every girl saved is a future protected,” he said.
Programme Manager of Trailblazer Initiative, Mrs. Mojisola Omotoye, explained that the orientation aimed to strengthen community-based prevention strategies and address the rising trend of medicalized FGM, where health providers or informal health workers perform the act.
“Our goal is to equip TBAs, PMVs, and CHWs with the knowledge and skills to influence community behaviour, discourage the harmful practice, and strengthen referral pathways for FGM survivors. This is about saving lives, protecting rights, and promoting dignity,” she noted.
Speaking on the legal and health implications, Mrs. Popoola of the Oyo State Primary Healthcare Board highlighted the four globally recognized types of FGM and their devastating physical and psychological consequences.
She cited the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Law, which criminalizes the act, warning that both direct involvement and silence from health workers attract legal sanctions.
Medical Director of Bamise Medical Centre, Dr. Femi Fakiyesi, condemned medicalized FGM as “a betrayal of the medical ethics of ‘do no harm’,” stressing that no clinical setting or anesthesia can make the act safe.
“It legitimizes violence, causes trauma, and violates the law,” he said, urging health workers to act as watchdogs and report offenders,” he concluded
Participants expressed renewed determination to protect, not harm, the girls under their care, pledging never to participate in or support FGM.
