Era of not teaching kids about their body parts is over – Abuja monarch

The Etsu Kwali in the FCT, Alhaji Shaaban Audu Nizazo, has warned parents that the era of not teaching their wards about their body parts from the primary school is over. The monarch spoke at a sensitisation lecture organised by the FCT Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) to commemorate the 2022 World Menstrual […]

The Etsu Kwali in the FCT, Alhaji Shaaban Audu Nizazo, has warned parents that the era of not teaching their wards about their body parts from the primary school is over.

The monarch spoke at a sensitisation lecture organised by the FCT Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) to commemorate the 2022 World Menstrual Hygiene Day, which holds every May 28. 

Alhaji Shaaban insisted that the children should be taught in great detail about the human body in their formative years so as to make them less susceptible to criminality and less vulnerable to wrong counsel from those who might want to exploit their ignorance.

The monarch reminded the parents that menstruation was a normal, physiological process in the body of females which started at menarche and ended at menopause.

He said, “In the past, children were only taught how to draw and label the human body, and that was all they knew. The strategic educational plan in the FCT has helped to change that narrative.

“When the body and how it functions, particularly, the reproductive and hormonal system, is kept a secret from children, it predisposes them to criminality as we have witnessed in our country of recent.

‘’There should be criminalisation of menstrual waste for fetish and rituals of initiating recruits, usually youths, into several cults and confraternities.”

He added that, “Many are coerced into eating menstrual waste with the promise that it brings wealth, fertility, fortification against bullets and blades.” 

He advised the menfolk to avoid stigmatising the girl child and women during their monthly periods.

The Executive Director of RUWASSA in the FCT, Dr Mohammed Ali Dan-Hassan, represented by Head of Admin, Hajia Zainab Dahiru, in his welcome address, said this year’s theme emphasised the need for enlightening the womenfolk on making menstruation a normal part of life by 2030, and at the same time admonish them on safe disposal of menstrual waste.