In Nigeria, despite global, regional, national laws, policies and programmes, women and girl-children are still being subjected to dehumanising traditions.

Traditions may not be easily changed as they are established practices and their adherence surpass generations. Across the globe, countless numbers of people have been subjected to dehumanising practices under the disguise of traditions or culture.

Some have been battered, injured tortured, wrecked and exploited mentally, socially, psychologically, and physiologically due to these age-long practices.

Multicultural society

Nigeria as a multicultural society has rich cultural values and heritage. However, one of the ways prevalent in violating peoples’ fundamental human rights, most especially children and women, is through harmful traditional practices.

It is against this background that the Minister of Women’s Affairs, Uju Kennedy Ohanenye, recently visited Pigba community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), a community that practices breast ironing, and tasked them to end the harmful practice as the act traumatises the victims and affects their general wellbeing as future mothers, thus negating the present administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda which is tailored, among others towards ensuring the well-being of all Nigerians including the girl-child.

Breast ironing

According to the African Health Organisation, breast ironing is the process whereby young pubescent girls’ breasts are ironed, massaged and/or pounded down through the use of hard or heated objects in order for them to disappear or delay their development.

Puberty refers to maturation of the reproductive organs. In girls it causes puberty symptoms like breast, pubic and underarm hair growth, and menstruation.

The United Nations (UN) states that breast ironing affects roughly 3.8 million women around the world and has been identified as one of the five under-reported crimes relating to gender-based violence.

The minister said: “We are here therefore to ensure that they stop maltreating the girls, as there is a law that addresses violence against women.

We are trying to put an end to this so that they can live a better life.” She said Nigeria has been having lots of issues and President Bola Tinubu wants to make sure that children are protected the

You speak to the donors, but they are not bringing the money. They are more comfortable in sponsoring meetings, events, programmes and travelling than helping us

way they ought to be. “These children whose breasts are ironed belong to the nation; that they were conceived and delivered from their biological parents doesn’t make them entirely theirs.

We are here to make sure that the children are not maltreated and there is a legal backing to this which is violence against women.

“A lot of Africans are ignorant and it’s a long standing tradition. Now, it’s time we let them know that there is no more room for harmful practices.

The government and governor’s forum are in support of mobile court so we are here to let them know that such harmful practice will no longer be accepted and the mobile court will arrest anyone that continues the practice.

“We have done community engagement and sensitised women on the danger associated with such harmful practice and we also empowered them with sewing machines and grinding machines because a hungry man is an angry man and when you want someone to stop doing something that is wrong, you show them love.

“We have empowered them sustainably and we have also signed a MoU with the community head that breast ironing should stop.”

Health problems

Kennedy-Ohanenye said breast ironing exposes girls to numerous health problems such as cancer, abscesses, itching, and discharge of milk, infection, dissymmetry of the breasts, cysts, breast infections, severe fever, tissue damage and even the complete disappearance of one or both breasts.

According to the minister, it was also contained in the MoU that offenders are liable to be arrested by the mobile court, prosecuted and if convicted eventually taken to jail.

She stressed that whistle blowers are on ground to monitor them and ensure that breast ironing is stopped. As the Minister of Women Affairs, Kennedy-Ohanenye pledged to focus on eradicating gender-based violence (GBV) and enhancing women’s economic empowerment (WEE) in Nigeria.

She also advocated for increased female representation in leadership roles and the implementation of the National Gender Policy “Majority of the money has been spent on frivolities, speaking English, going to meetings.

As much as $10 million could be spent on just meetings, advocacy, and travelling, and we see it, instead of focusing on the issues,” she said.

Ohanenye said women advocates now lobby to be included in delegations for summits and conferences. She claimed that those that have the opportunity to go on such trips are making money while women are suffering.

“I asked them in Addis Ababa, ‘What was the meeting for’? They asked me to come, I went there, but I did not come back with anything. They tell you that the intention is to get money but no money is gotten but you will spend money to go there.

I told them I was not coming. What is it that I am going to do? Nothing! “They called me in Abidjan. I told them I was not coming. What is it that I am coming there to do?

You speak to the donors, but they are not bringing the money. They are more comfortable in sponsoring meetings, events, programmes and travelling than helping us,” she lamented.

She said the government of President Tinubu wants what is best for Nigerian women in communities and wants to ensure that the right things are channelled to the people in rural communities as they truly need.

Project

“The project has been on for five years; it’s called Nigeria for Women Project where the World Bank lends the money to the federal and state governments.

“Coming in as the Minister of Women Affairs, I felt our women deserve better than what they were getting. It’s not like I am condemning what they were getting before but I just want them to get the best out of it by enhancing it.

“The President through his Renewed Hope Agenda intends to show a lot of love directly to Nigerians in communities to bring them out of poverty.

So, for that reason, we want to change the method by which the loan is being utilised. To curtail the expenses that we feel should be better channelled to things we feel the people in rural communities truly need.”