Stop trying to use FGM as a tool to gain elusive power in Sierra Leone

By Kabs Kanu

The UN is very serious to enforce the ban on FGM and all the international stakeholders opposed to the tradition are not going to back down.

If we, Sierra Leoneans, fully knowing the objection by the UN , human rights organizations , powerful interest- groups, lobbyists and Western stakeholders towards FHM , do not tread circumspectly, we will endanger our country’s international interests , politically and economically. We are not an independent nation in the true sense of the world. We depend slavishly on international organizations and Western and Eastern powers to survive. Their aid, grants and technical assistance keep our pots boiling in Sierra Leone.

In 2012, SIerra Leone was a signatory to the UN resolution at the UN General Assembly banning FGM ( And I was right there at the General Assembly). We cannot approve and support the UN resolution to ban FGM and harmful childhood practices and then use FGM as a tool to gain and consolidate power in Sierra Leone. It will not augur well for our nation .

FGM was once also very prevalent in many African countries , like Sierra Leone. But after the ban on FGM in 2012, these countries complied by enacting national legislation explicitly prohibiting or heavily restricting FGM. These countries include:

Northern Africa: Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritania, and Sudan.

Eastern Africa: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Western Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo.

Central Africa: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo.

We cannot be different. We have to comply with universally – supported UN and international protocols and conventions, especially those our country has diplomatically helped to pass. We cannot exploit the ignorance and gullibility of our people to use banned harmful practices to seek power.

Thinking that we will gain power through the votes of innocent but ignorant women on the back of a practice that has harmed them is selfish and adventuristic.