Mixed reactions have greeted the continued penalising of a family for disobeying the rules of cultural practices of female genital mutilation.
The innocent family of Mr. Lucky Enomwen Odeh has been faced with plethora of threats arising from his flagrant disobedience to the plans of his village elders to carry out circumcision activities on their two female children in line with the cultural and traditional practices even though the federal government has persistently kicked against the act thereby imposing stiffer sanctions against any perpetrators.
Recalled that Lucky Enomwen Odeh, wife, Mrs Oduwa Loveth Odeh and children had been faced with difficulties arising from their inability to allow female genital mutilation be carried out on their female children in consonant with the laid down cultural and traditional norms in the village since June 2021, after the elders, particularly the chief priest, had exhausted all means to forcefully circumcise their first daughter, Miss Flourish Enomwengho Odeh.
Meanwhile, the Christian family had been advocating the reformation of the traditional and cultural heritage in the village, a development which the elders feel very uncomfortable with hence they said that the practice was a long age culture in the entire Benin kingdom, despite modernity and the awareness on the risk associated with it.
Lucky Enomwen Odeh and immediate family were said to have been enmeshed in a trouble as soon as they had their first daughter and in exercise of their traditional and cultural functions, the elders sent series of messages to him on the need to produce his daughter to be circumcised, a demand he (Lucky Enomwen Odeh) defied, hence his action triggered anger on the elders, who threatened to either kill or banish him, his wife and the children.
More so, the extended family members of Lucky Enomwen Odeh, who were working in collaboration with the village elders to achieve their nefarious acts, sent some of their recruited assailants to invade the house of Lucky Enomwen Odeh and family with a view to forcefully taking their daughter for the circumcision purpose but he (Lucky Enomwen Odeh), who had hitherto got the wind of their invasion, told his wife to run away with their daughter to his friend’s house and when the assailants eventually got to the house and they demanded for the whereabout of his daughter and wife, but he told them they were not in the house at that particular point in time but the assailants who were disappointed, started to unleash attack on him and he was injured on his face and other part of the body while threatening to continually visiting to carry out their duties.
But during the trying moment for Lucky Enomwen Odeh and family, who are devoted Christians, they had their second daughter on 28th of April 2022 and the elder in collaboration with his extended family members, who also knew, renewed their determination of pressurising him to again produce his second daughter for circumcision but he and wife refused but their refusal did not augur well with them as the village elders and his extended family members started sending threatening messages to kill them with both physical and spiritual power, boasting that the government cannot not unravel the circumstances as it is practically a traditional and cultural matter and it was at that point, the innocent family escaped and even after years of their escape, the elders, who have resorted in forcefully imposing circumcision which also led to killing one Efosa Odeh’s daughter when they wanted to carry out the activities on her.
But recently the elders of the village renewed their threats to kill Lucky Enomwen Odeh and family, insisting his refusal was despising and that he does not have the effrontery to defy the tradition of the land, especially as it being a symbol of dignity and purity in preparation for marriage.
The villagers insisted that they have mapped out strategies to apprehend them to face the wrath of their disobedience to the tradition and culture of the village.
Interestingly, the federal government led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has reiterated it resolve to impose a stiffer sanctions against the practice of female genital mutilation even though it was a long old cultural practice, threatening to arrest and prosecute in the law court, whoever that is caught
The messages which were contained in a statement made by the first lady of Nigeria and wife of President Tinubu, Senator Mrs Remi Tinubu, during UNFPA-UNICEF joint programme on the elimination of female genital mutilation summit held in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory in 2023 with the theme ” The International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation” and about few months ago this year, when Senator Mrs Remi Tinubu declared female genital mutilation as a human rights violation, warning that Nigerian girls remain risked as the federal government urged both the state and local governments to take the matter serious, while ordering them to arrest and prosecute any person involves through a media report contained in a published on some recent news platforms; www.un.org, www UNICEF.org, https://OBGYN.onlinelibrary.wiley.com, www.who.int, www. unwomen.org, https://nigeria.unfpa.org and https://punching.com for ease of reference respectively.
The continued violation of the rights and privileges of Mr. Lucky Enomwen Odeh and family has elicited public debates as some said that the acts was to demean the innocent family of their rights while others felt it was in line with the tradition and culture which the family needs to abide by.
Due to the agony and anguish which befell them, the elders of Lucky Enomwen Odeh’s family, send delegation to his mother’s house to summon her over her resistance to not allowing her children to female circumcision which had remained traditional and cultural practices in the larger family and while she was dragging with them fell down and had a reduction in lumbar lordosis in January 2024.
Summarily, the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizens irrespective of status needs to be preserved and protected to avoid discouraging the younger generations even yet unborn.
