Osun First Lady Advocates Awareness On Dangers Of Open Defecation, Female Genital Mutilation

By Grace Adeyemo & Damilola Olawuyi

Wife of Osun State Governor, Mrs Kafayat Oyetola has urged market men and women in the state to join hands together and preach against the act of open defecation in the market places and other open spaces in the State.

Oyetola made the appeal in Owena Ijesha, Oriade Local Government Area of the state, during another round of her advocacy campaign against female genital mutilation and practice of open defecation in the state.

She said Open defecation could cause outbreak of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and other related water and air borne diseases in the society.

The Osun First lady also charged all nursing mothers in the state to ensure that they practise exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of post delivery period to make the new baby more healthy.

The president, IleriOluwa Development Initiative also used the opportunity to educate parents on the need for them to desist from the barbaric act of female genital mutilation which she said is very dangerous to their health.

Oyetola stressed that, female genital mutilation is an abuse against the girl child and women, hence the need for its eradication in the state.

She further said there is no advantage attached to the practice than being harmful to the girl child, hence the need for all and sundry to rise against the act and condemn the age long practice.

She appreciated residents of Oriade Local Government for their unflinching support during last governorship and general elections in Osun.

She identified the significant roles being played by the residents of the area whom she said had deemed it fit to come out massively to cast their vote for Governor Gboyega Oyetola during the gubernatorial election.

Osun First Lady however, empowered not less than 100 petty traders in the local government area just as she said that her NGO (IleriOluwa Development Initiative) had concluded plans to pertner with the State government to begin massive empowerment Programme across the state.

Earlier, the Olowena of Owena Ijesha, Oba Oladonibo Gbedawolu, had appreciated the wife of the Governor for her kind humanitarian gestures for the people of the state.

The First Lady was accompanied to the advocacy programme by the wives of top government functionaries and female politicians in the state.