Photo: Sohair al-Bata’a, one of the girls who have died in recent years in Egypt from FGM – Women’s Center for Guidance and Legal Awareness

Following the arrest last week of a father and nurse for carrying out Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on a 15-year-old girl, attention has returned to a previous case in which a 12-year-old girl died after being subjected to the barbaric procedure.

Nada Hassan Abdel-Maqsoud bled to death last year following the procedure, which was forced upon her by her family. A doctor who carried out the act is reported to not have used any anaesthetic and had no qualifications as a surgeon.

The girl’s parents, uncle and aunt are all thought to have taken the girl for the procedure which is widespread within Egypt. It is estimated that 90% of the women over the age of 15 in Egypt have been subjected to FGM. Within the society, it is seen as a way in which to maintain sexual purity. Besides the obvious damage to a woman’s sexual health, the procedure can also cause huge damage to their physical health and their mental well-being.

FGM has been banned in Egypt since 2008, and the girl’s parents and the doctor involved were all arrested by Egyptian authorities. Since 2016, anyone involved in the procedure, including parents and family members, can also be prosecuted for facilitating FGM. Those that are caught carrying out the act face as much as 15 years in prison.

The case of Nada Hassan Abdel-Maqsoud is sadly just one of many. In 2013 13-year-old Sohair al-Bata’a also died as a result of FGM. The doctor that was involved in her FGM was later arrested and became the first person convicted under the new laws. He only spent 3-months behind bars.

Reda El Danbouki, a lawyer and campaigner against FGM, told reporters that he believed that while the new laws were a positive sign, FGM remained embedded in Egyptian culture and not enough people were speaking out against it. He said:

“FGM continues to occur because there is no desire from the political leadership to stop it. The state is tolerant of female genital mutilation despite the presence of law, and despite receiving funds and grants from abroad [to combat it]. The police and the officials carrying out investigations don’t care about domestic and sexual violence, including FGM.”

Despite these reservations, a large-scale anti-FGM publicity campaign is now underway and more resources are being pushed forward in order to arrest and punish those involved in the practice. It is estimated that worldwide today, there are 200 million women who have had FGM inflicted upon them. The problem exists almost exclusively within the African continent, particularly within sub-Saharan Africa and disproportionately affects those girls and women with fewer economic resources.

By Bolaji Akinyemi

Arguably, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the most creative Nigeria politician living today. A man of no mean political entrepreneurship and acumen whose profit in political investment doesn’t come to him in “Ghana must go” bags, but driven in bullion vans.

This business cum professional politician has deliberately built the control system in such a way that nothing happens without his knowledge. Particularly in the South West, hirelings he has everywhere in place of Shepherd’s. Dents to his image are so easily panel beaten because of this control system. The media is awash with his men and women, gatekeepers who filter news to ensure what we hear are never to the detriment of their paymaster.

When the article, “Bola Ahmed Tinubu: The Fall Of An Emperor At Lekki Toll Gate” written by me and published by Sahara Reporters, one of his men, Steve Ayorinde (Phd), was the one to whom duty called. He began his assignment by letting us know he read my article in the company of his principal and that midway into their reading they discovered that the article wasn’t written by Bolaji Akinyemi, the respected professor of International Relations, the former and one of the best to have supervised the Nigerian Ministry of External Affairs. The dou of master and servant were so enraged by the article they couldn’t conclude reading before a call was put across to the Prof, who probably informed them he was not the writer. What a relief! Steve took a swipe at the messenger without addressing any of the issues raised by the message.

Ayorinde revealed his frustration at searching for an unknown Bolaji Akinyemi, a search that ended with a farmer with little or no education but had wit enough to write an article which himself, a Phd holder and his season political grandmaster mistook for something from the pen of an erudite scholar, until their call asaauged their worries.

There were calls from different quarters on the need for me to do a rejoinder on the emptiness of his writing if only to defend his claim that I have little or no education. Can you beat that! Those who filled the media space to defend Muhammadu Buhari’s lack of certificate and concluded that the constitution only required the ability to read and write for the President, are asking for my Phd thesis, to substantiate my audacity for expressing my views. The honour done me by institutions who appreciate our content was called to question by  these confused individuals whose lack of priority and greed for filthy lucre is the reason they have brought our Nation to its knees in the hands of an incompetent leader.

They would stop at nothing to keep their business running! Prof. was compelled to do a video dissociating himself from the write-up informing Nigerians that he is Akinwande Bolaji Akinyemi and that anything from him will be signed off as Akinwande B. Akinyemi. What an honour, leaving me with the name Bolaji O. Akinyemi! Do you see how God works? There is one Dr Bolaji O. Akinyemi in the public space and that is me. The other will like to be known as AKINWANDE B. (Bolaji) AKINYEMI, a Professor who has been one since my Secondary School days. And my intellectual idol was made to drop the name he so earned, a name a little known uneducated farmer like me had cherished to share with him over the years.

That digression was needful. It was meant to be a bouncing castle of another gatekeeper kept at the Presidency, who like many toddlers need to excite himself of how “tall” and visible he can be when propelled up into the air. But failed to realise the castle is a deception that throws one into the air but can’t hold one up in the air. “Won ti gbagbe pe lala won to re oke ile lo bo”. Forgetting that whatever goes up must come down.

This time, Femi Ojudu is the one to whom duty beckons to rise to the occasion and, the occasion is a thug serving the interest of PDP. That is the narrative he is possibly paid to fix so that there can be a reengineering of public opinion to their advantage.

In his article titled; “Sunday Igboho You Didn’t Know”, Ojodu tried frantically to let us see Sunday Igboho as they would want us to see him, but forgetting; the Yoruba adage that says, “tori were ita la se ni were ile” meaning,  it’s because of the mad man on the streets another mad man is needed at home to ward of possible attack from the one from the streets.

Ojudu began his story by telling us “it was in 2009. The Appeal Court sitting in Ilorin ordered a rerun in a number of polling units in the election between Segun Oni of PDP and Kayode Fayemi of ACN.

Oni had in the main election and the election petition tribunal that followed been declared winner of the gubernatorial contest. Our party, ACN contested this, hence the declaration of a rerun.

The election which came three months after the Appeal Court judgement was like war. The PDP ruling at the Federal level did not want to lose Ekiti while the opposition ACN led and financed by Bola Ahmed Tinubu wanted to take Ekiti by all means”.

Did you read between the lines like I did? “The opposition ACN led and FINANCED by Tinubu wanted to take Ekiti BY ALL MEANS? Ojodu didn’t tell us about, “gburu to fa Igbo ti Kotu fi pase ki won tun ibo di”, meaning he was silent about, the, “by all means” that ordered the rerun for which the by all means must supervise in favour of Asiwaju Political Company.

Ojudu went further in his attempt to keep us seated in the moonlight. “A few days to the election, we got an intelligence report that the PDP big wigs had perfected a plan to unleash thugs recruited from across Yoruba land on Ekiti. The plan was to kill and maim as many as possible, snatch ballot boxes and win by any means possible.

Tinubu summoned me to Lagos and said Femi, ‘I have conducted a scientific opinion poll. You people can win this election. The only snag however is they are deploying state security as well as thugs against you. State security men we can handle (and he did creatively handled them) but how do you handle thugs?’

“I then suggested we dissuade them by engagement and inducements. After all they are in the business only for the money and not for ideological reasons.”

“We reached out to both Ade Basket in Akure and Fada Geri in Ondo. Both were dreaded in political circles. We had a series of meetings with them and were able to squeeze an agreement with them that they would not make themselves available to PDP for hire. I got them to even sign documents for me that they were going to stay off Ekiti elections”.

If you still have any honour left for men so dishonourable, as we progress towards 2023 then you are on your own.

Ojudu didn’t stop without making a confession; “The biggest headache for us then was Sunday Igboho who we learnt has been hired and paid by a Senator from Osun to come and cause mayhem in Ekiti. Tinubu instructed we must get him at all cost.”

“Six days to the election we began our search for him. Eventually we met someone who had his number. I put a call through to him and he agreed to meet with me in Ibadan. We scheduled an appointment and had a meeting at a small hotel not far from Premier Hotel.

Tinubu, I told him, has sent me to him that he will like to have a meeting with him. He said he will love to meet him as he has heard a lot of good things  about him too. The problem he said is he is PDP and not ACN. I said that precisely is the reason why he wanted to meet with him. He asked if I could keep this a secret, I said why not. Papa Adedibu , and our Osun Senator, he said must not learn about his meeting with Tinubu. I told him there is no way they will know except it leaks from his side”.

Igboho was their headache, it was treated then, but came back now a migraine. What Ojodu made Igboho to sign for and he promised to keep a secret he is right in the open vomiting like a glutton who ate above the capacity of his stomach.

We know, that the interest of President Muhammadu Buhari’s people, the Fulani herdsmen, are far more important to both Tinubu and Ojudu looking forward to 2023. This has been proven times without numbe. Do I need to reflect our minds on how the Fulani herdsmen were exonerated by Tinubu over the killing of the prominent daughter of Oodua who apparently was the daughter of our leader without allowing investigation to commence. Tinubu concluded the killer were not Fulani and even threw a conspiracy theory at the Nigerian police to make them look for the killers from Evan’s the kidnappers tribe. How cruel!

Ojudu was not done with the brush of his pen. Painting Igboho with water paint is a task that must be accomplished. But unfortunately in the torrential rain that Fulani hostility has become to their hosts in the South West Yoruba nation, who are by now desperate to have a place to hide.

He said further. “He agreed to a meeting on Thursday preceding the election. I reported back to Tinubu who then relocated from his base in Lagos to Sunview Hotel in Akure. Igboho drove down alone at about 10.00 pm. I and Tinubu had a dialogue with him.

“Igboho,”! Tinubu said, “I have heard a lot about your bravery. The Ekiti people have suffered too long under the rule of PDP. They are looking for change. I learnt you have been hired to make this impossible. I have invited you to plead with you to allow the poll to be conducted peacefully. If after that the PDP wins fine. If the ACN wins, all well and good”.

Tinubu went on and on lecturing him on the beauty of democracy and unencumbered electoral process. By the time Tinubu finished with him, he became sober and contrite. “Baba”, he said, “I have heard you and I am pleased with what you have said. Whatever you want me to do I will do even though I have collected money from the other side”.

“This was the extent Tinubu went to secure Ekiti for his party, ACN. Most of this the candidate, Fayemi, himself was not even aware of.”

“Tinubu then beckoned me to follow him to the bedroom of the suit he occupied in the hotel.“

‘Femi this guy appears sincere. It does appear we have dissuaded him.’

Even in his insincerity, Tinubu affirmed the sincerity of Igboho, “he does appear we have dissuaded him”. That is their stock in trade, using subject of interest to Yoruba nation at deceiving us.

The Yoruba nation has been at war since we were all “dissuaded” in 2015 to follow their greed for power under the deception of calling for change.

“Asiwaju Ogun ko gbodo kehin ogun” he that should be at the frontline of the battle must not be at back of it. But our own Asiwaju has gone hidden when the battle of the herdsmen were fierce against our people. The Jephtah so named by Pastor Tunde Bakare in the Citadel couldn’t be found when duty called. But then, God stepped on the scene and from no where appointed His on Jephtah for the Yoruba nation and the situation conferred on the one that defended the Yoruba against Fulani supremacy, to which Femi Adesina once advised us to make a choice between our ancestral land and our lives, the Asiwaju of the Yoruba nation.

Ojudu would want us to know of their characteristics golden handshakes; their magic wand against a people so impoverished to maintain the control, but the table has turned. There is a new Asiwaju whose sincerity Bola Tinubu confirmed will lead the Yoruba nation as a tribe to the Table of national discourse on the way towards 2023. And if the discussion goes beyond stand up and sit down, I volunteer myself to be Sunday Adeyemo’s interpreter but never again shall sincere men be traded for the not sincere. Not for money nor for education or certificate.

In a working country, Ojudu by now should have been declared wanted for impersonating an AIG. But what do we have? Adeyemo is the enemy of Tinubu who is eyeing the Presidency at the expense of our collective interests as the Yoruba nation, is the one the IGP is after. The forces that did so much to gain control of Ekiti, should be asked how much more is being done to be President at all cost.

The Yoruba nation should ask Ojudu if the desire to have control of Ekiti that made them pay billions for all the Hotel in the State that brought INEC begging for where to stay is not playing out with the  arson on Adeyemo’s house on Monday the 25th of January 2021, when his house was burnt down in the middle of the night? Such measures can only be carried out by those who would want to prune down the popularity that Igboho is gaining. Do I need remind him and his cohorts of the the Yoruba adage that says, “ile Oba to jo, ewa lo bukun.” By this singular act the coronation of Adeyemo as the Asiwaju of Yoruba nation is finally sealed. An Emperor indeed fell at Lekki toll gate, never to rise again.

* Bolaji O. Akinyemi is a human right activist, an evangelist and President of PVC-Naija

Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Monday, ordered the police to produce the former governor of Imo, Ikedi Ohakim in court for arraignment.

Ohakim and Chinedu Okpareke were dragged to the Federal High Court by the police over allegations of threatening and harassing Mrs Chinyere Amuchienwa.

When the matter was called, the prosecuting counsel, Mr Stanley Nwodo, told the court that the matter was for arraignment but he was surprised at the absence of the defendants in court.

“The matter is slated for arraignment but to my greatest consternation, Ohakim and Okpareke were not in court.

“Ohakim has been on administrative bail since Nov. 11, 2020,” he said.

Counsel to Okpareke, Mr Emeka Etiaba, SAN, told the court that his client was not in court because he was not served with any hearing notice to appear in court.

Etiaba, however, undertook to ensure that his client was in court on the next adjourned date and asked the prosecutor to also inform Ohakim.

Delivering a ruling, Justice Taiwo who confirmed that there was no hearing notice in the court’s file, enjoined the prosecutor to ensure that the defendants were in court on the next adjourned date.

The judge said that it was his responsibility to ensure their attendance in court.

“The matter is brought before me for the first time for arraignment.

“The court will overlook the absence of the defendants in court today because it is the responsibility of the prosecutor to produce them in court or to ensure that they attend court.

“They must be produced in court at the next adjourned date for arraignment and possible commencement of trial.”

The judge asked parties to prepare themselves in case the court decides to commence trial.

He adjourned the matter until March 3 for arraignment and possible commencement of trial.

According to the charge number FHC/ABJ/CS/287/2020, Ohakim and Okpareke were alleged to have threatened to release a nude photograph of Amuchienwa, if she fails to drop charges of attempted kidnap against them.

In the five-count charge dated Nov. 25, 2020, the police alleged that Ohakim and Okpareke knowingly and intentionally transmitted communication through a computer system to harass and bully Amuchienwa.

According to the charge, the offence is punishable under Section 24(1)(a) of the Cybercrime Act 2015.

Some of the charges read, ”That you Chinendu Okpareke ‘m’ 49, and Ikedi Ohakim ‘m’ and others now at large on Aug. 13, 2020 within the jurisdiction of this court did conspire among yourselves by knowingly and intentionally sending messages by means of computer system or network in a grossly offensive, pornographic, nude of an indecent obscene and menacing character of one Chinyere Amuchienwa ‘f’ and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 27 (1)(a) of the Cybercrime Act 2015.

”That you Chinendu Okpareke ‘m’ 49, and Ikedi Ohakim ‘m’ and others now at large on Aug. 13, 2020 within the jurisdiction of this court did conspire among yourselves to cause annoyance and criminal intimidation to one Chinyere Amuchienwa ‘f’ and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 27 (1)(a) of the Cybercrime Act 2015.(NAN)

A former Deputy Chief Registrar of the Oyo State High Court, Mutiat Adio has been sent to prison for three years after she was convicted for issuing a dud cheque.

This was disclosed in a statement issued Monday by the spokesperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Wilson Uwajuren.

The statement said that the Ibadan zonal office of the EFCC secured her conviction on Friday.

According to the statement, Adio was convicted after pleading guilty to a fresh charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretense and issuance of dishonored cheque contrary to sections 419 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap. 38, Laws of Oyo State, 2000 and Section 1 (1) (b) of the Dishonored Cheque (Offences) Act, Cap. D11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

Adio was said to have obtained a 2000 model Toyota Pathfinder SUV valued at N1.5 million from one Fabunmi Samuel of Fatai Olanrewaju Motors by pretending to him that it would be paid for once the cheque is presented to her bank.

The victim reportedly released the said vehicle to her but the cheque was dishonoured within three months of issuance for insufficient funds in the account.

The statement further disclosed that when she was arraigned on January 30, 2018, the convict initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but later changed her plea to ‘guilty’, after a plea bargain agreement leading to the amendment of the charge.

The trial judge, Justice Owolabi, in his judgment, pronounced the defendant guilty of the offence and sentenced her to three years in prison.

She was also ordered to restitute to her victim the sum of N500,000 in addition to the sum of N1m she had previously paid in restitution to the victim.

“With the latest development, Adio completes a hat-trick of convictions having previously been jailed twice for fraud On May 18, 2018, when she was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for obtaining N9.2m from one Abiodun Olonade, a Nigerian resident in Ireland, by false pretence.

“Also, on March 6, 2020, she was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for stealing a sum of N22.3m from Guaranty Bank Plc”, the statement read in part. (Theconclaveng)

In a significant tweet at exactly 3.29 pm (Nigerian time), Monday, February 15, 2021, the headquarters of the World Tade Organisation (WTO) announced the confirmation of Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as Director General of the global trade body, ending months of anxiety and high-wire international politics on the sensitive issue.

In the narrative that was a companion to the tweet, the WTO members, apparently thumped their chest in self-congratulations to have been part of the process that pushed through Okonjo-Iweala’s emergence.

According to the statement released, “WTO members made history today (15 February) when the General Council agreed by consensus to select Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria as the organization’s seventh Director-General.

“When she takes office on 1 March, Dr Okonjo-Iweala will become the first woman and the first African to be chosen as Director-General. Her term, renewable, will expire on 31 August 2025.

“This is a very significant moment for the WTO. On behalf of the General Council, I extend our warmest congratulations to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on her appointment as the WTO’s next Director-General and formally welcome her to this General Council meeting,” said General Council Chair David Walker of New Zealand who, together with co-facilitators Amb. Dacio Castillo (Honduras) and Amb. Harald Aspelund (Iceland) led the nine-month DG selection process.

“Dr Ngozi, on behalf of all members I wish to sincerely thank you for your graciousness in these exceptional months, and for your patience. We look forward to collaborating closely with you, Dr Ngozi, and I am certain that all members will work with you constructively during your tenure as Director-General to shape the future of this organization,” he added.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala said a key priority for her would be to work with members to quickly address the economic and health consequences brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am honoured to have been selected by WTO members as WTO Director-General,” said Dr Okonjo-Iweala. “A strong WTO is vital if we are to recover fully and rapidly from the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. I look forward to working with members to shape and implement the policy responses we need to get the global economy going again. Our organization faces a great many challenges but working together we can collectively make the WTO stronger, more agile and better adapted to the realities of today.”

The General Council decision follows months of uncertainty which arose when the United States initially refused to join the consensus around Dr Okonjo-Iweala and threw its support behind Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee of the Republic of Korea. But following Ms Yoo’s decision on 5 February to withdraw her candidacy, the administration of newly elected US President Joseph R. Biden Jr. dropped the US objection and announced instead that Washington extends its “strong support” to the candidacy of Dr Okonjo-Iweala.

Amb. Walker extended his thanks to all eight of the candidates who participated in the selection process and particularly to Ms Yoo “for her ongoing commitment to and support for the multilateral trading system and for the WTO”.

The General Council agreed on 31 July that there would be three stages of consultations held over a two-month period commencing 7 September. During these confidential consultations, the field of candidates was narrowed from eight to five and then two. On 28 October, General Council Chair David Walker of New Zealand had informed members that based on consultations with all delegations Dr Okonjo-Iweala was best poised to attain consensus of the 164 WTO members and that she had the deepest and the broadest support among the membership. At that meeting, the United States was the only WTO member which said it could not join the consensus.

The consultation process undertaken by the chair and facilitators was established through guidelines agreed by all WTO members in a 2002 General Council decision. These guidelines spelled out the key criteria in determining the candidate best positioned to gain consensus is the “breadth of support” each candidate receives from the members. During the DG selection processes of 2005 and 2013, breadth of support was defined as “the distribution of preferences across geographic regions and among the categories of members generally recognized in WTO provisions: that is (Least developed countries), developing countries and developed countries”.

This same process, agreed by all members in the General Council in 2020, was strictly followed by Chair Walker and his colleagues throughout the 2020-21 DG selection process.

The process for selecting a new Director-General was triggered on 14 May when former Director-General Mr Roberto Azevêdo informed WTO members he would be stepping down from his post one year before the expiry of his mandate. He subsequently left office on 31 August. (Theconclaveng)

Over the past few months, Nigerians have been engrossed with salacious paternity stories. After many years, men suddenly realize that children from their wives regarded from birth as their biological children were products from other men. It is not just a simple tale of unfaithfulness. Instead, it is a deadly combo of adultery, betrayal, shock, shattered dreams, regrets and turbulent future. This is the reality of paternity fraud!

Though these incidents became prominent recently, they are not new. In February 2017, a Nigerian man identified as Oscar found out that 32-year-old Valentine was not his biological son. The clip was from the Jeremy Kyle Show in the United Kingdom which later went viral.

The perception that paternity fraud is high in Nigeria is not unfounded. Not long ago, a DNA expert from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital claimed that 30% of the Nigerian men who went to paternity testing centres  were not the biological fathers of the children in their custody.

Reports have it that Nigeria has the 2nd highest rate of paternity fraud in the world after Jamaica . According to the American Association of Blood Banks, globally, a third of all men are not the actual fathers of their presumed children. Many men have been unknowingly raising children that are not theirs. And to curb the trend, there have been calls for the introduction of mandatory DNA testing at birth.

In most Nigerian traditional settings, a child’s paternity is commonly determined by acknowledgement, presumption, or proof. Acknowledgement is the most practised of these three modes of paternity. In most cases, it only needs a man to accept that he is responsible for a  pregnancy to be regarded legally as the biological father of a child. 

In most places, a man is presumed to be the child’s father once the child is born within wedlock. It does not matter who impregnated the woman, if she is married, the husband is presumed to be the child’s father. Questions of paternity do not arise unless the man has evidence to prove otherwise. There have been incidents where an unmarried woman with an ‘unwanted’ pregnancy gets married to a man before giving birth, and the new-born legally becomes the man’s child.

However, high paternity disputes occur in Africa because of the massive emphasis societies placed on biological children. Marriage is often viewed as incomplete if it does not produce any biological child.

In our patriarchal society, women are most times accused of being responsible when there are no children in the marriage . In some cases, the predominant view is that they must have engaged in excessive premarital sex, leading to infertility. Men are hardly under any comparable pressure from society like women.

In most societies in Nigeria, expanding the family unit is seen as a prerequisite for social acceptance. Therefore, in an instance where a woman suspects that her husband is infertile and fearing the societal repercussions, she may get pregnant elsewhere to protect herself, her husband’s reputation, and social standing irrespective of how reprehensible the act is. 

Some men have severe reproductive issues. A few years ago, research revealed that sperm counts of men in Africa had seen a decline over half a century now with Nigerian men taking the lead. 

The study also found that the possible major causes are sexually transmitted infections (STIs), hormonal abnormalities, excessive alcohol consumption, and tobacco smoking. Some 2% of men who visit clinics in Nigeria, according to a report, do not have sperm even though they have semen.

The second primary reason for paternity dispute in Africa is an error in swapping a child in the hospital where a child is born, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Though this is rare, it usually comes from carelessness or in some cases acts of commission like the incident in Zambia where a nurse named Elizabeth Bwalya Mwewa confessed on her deathbed that she swapped over 5000 babies over 12 years to have fun.

The third reason is the preponderance of unwanted pregnancies. A 2018 global family planning report by International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) claims that Nigeria has recorded over 1.3 million unwanted pregnancies in 2017. Also, only 13.8% of Nigerian women use contraceptives in the year under review. So, in trying to avoid the social stigma of unwanted pregnancies and for some other selfish reasons, some women pin their pregnancies on a man who may not be the one that got them pregnant.

Other reasons such as stigmatisation of adoption, criminalisation of abortion, and our extreme cultural inclination towards reproduction and lineage longevity contribute to increased paternity fraud.

Besides, our traditional core moral values are fast eroding, and society is adopting a laissez-faire attitude to issues of morality. There are contending morality agenda within our community. We can broadly define these agenda into two dichotomous camps. One is the strict religious idea of morality that condemns sex before marriage and sex outside marriage. The second is the free secular idea of morality that allows for relativity and subjectivity of morality, where people choose their ‘brand of morality’. 

It is open to debate which agenda is gaining ascendancy. Although Nigeria is a vast religious society, it is evident that religious and traditional morality is waning, at least in practice. Westernisation and secularisation of our culture force a ‘new normal’ morality that is neither conventional nor western – a hyper hybrid morality that allows for anything and everything.

The sexualisation of our society is moving at a fast pace than ever before. A cursory look at our local movies and music videos indicates they are almost ‘soft porns’ and are consumed by children and adults without qualms. Many of our young men and women rebel against traditional and religious morality and are displaying crass debased morals. 

Therefore, adultery, sexual immorality and fluid sexuality are becoming the norm rather than the exception. We see many men and women of easy virtue transverse dark alleys and major streets in our big cities. It seems that having multiple sex partners is becoming the rule rather than the exception. Our sacred marriage institution has not been spared from the adverse effects of this social malaise.  

Some men of low moral value target married women as sex partners. They erroneously see married women as safer to date than single ladies. In their thinking, unwanted pregnancy may not be an issue, and sleeping with married women may reduce the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhoea, syphilis and HIV. Most of them also believe a married woman is not likely to want to cross the line with her partner’s marriage and that they also understand the issues at stake better than a single girl would. 

Some married women selfishly use men as puns for sexual gratification without minding the consequences of their actions. Others engage in extramarital affairs because of greed and the quest for money. Irrespective of the reason for having sex outside of marriage, the result is that when there is pregnancy, there is a chance that the husbands are not responsible for the pregnancy and consequently are likely to father another man’s child.

The argument continues to rage over whether DNA paternity testing is necessary. Some people question the usefulness of knowing a child’s paternity, a painful truth that causes so much anguish, and shatters relationships and destroys life. They argue that DNA testing is irrelevant because even if the child is not a man’s biological child, whatever the circumstances of birth are not the child’s fault and the child does not deserve suffering from such shattering revelation. Every child deserves to receive both parents’ love and affection. Unless absolutely necessary, they should not be subjected to the inhumane act of shattering their world with unfavourable DNA paternity test.

However, the reality of life is that whenever suspicion sets in, the human mind would not rest until the truth is uncovered. Most people become naturally apprehensive if there are credible allegations about the paternity of a presumed biological child. Some people have sleepless nights, lack of appetite and lack of focus until the allegation is cleared. They put the child under micro scrutiny, every word spoken by the child, every action, every strand of hair, every layer of skin suddenly comes under intense scrutiny to see if they confirm or disprove paternity. Only a conclusive DNA test will put these issues to rest.

There is also the desire to expose and shame the woman whose unconscionable infidelity led to the unfortunate situation. Such unfaithful women may be condemned into the abyss of marital ignominy, and they deserve all the opprobrium they get. There is no acceptable explanation as to why a man should be treated so wickedly, deceived by a ‘big lie’ that can destroy many lives at once and in some cases have led to the victims committing suicide. 

However, as in the example of the unconscionable Zambian nurse mentioned above, mismatched, or swapped babies muddle the whole issue. This kind of situation can lead to an innocent woman suffering because of the devilish medical officer’s crimes.

There is also the economic angle of paternity fraud. DNA paternity testing (sometimes called parentage testing) uses Deoxyribonucleic Acid, the biological basis of inheritance, to prove or disprove the relationship between a child and an alleged father, and it does not come cheap. On average, it costs about one hundred thousand naira to conduct one in Nigeria. So, we must spare some thought for men who have suspicions about their children’s paternity but do not have the resources to get DNA testing to confirm their suspicions or clear their doubts.

Nigerians seem to have newly discovered DNA testing, and it is about to wreak significant havoc on families. The uproar appears to arise from a moral preoccupation with marital fidelity – this is justifiable as fidelity is at the core of the entire marriage enterprise. However, publicity given to instances of doubtful paternity  rubs off negatively on the innocent offspring of reckless parent behaviour. Therefore, caution is required.

In conclusion, there are novel societal imperatives. Parentage is more than natural insemination. These days, in the nurture/nature dichotomy, the nurture should take precedence over nature in parenting matters. Therefore, I advocate for an increase in adoption by couples who feel a necessity to nurture children but cannot have theirs biologically.

The emphasis should be on responsible parentage leading to responsible citizens. People may undertake DNA tests to satisfy their moral curiosity. But they should not embarrass innocent children or disturb the rest of society with claims and counterclaims of parentage. (Sundiatapost)

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of being responsible for the inter-ethnic clashes in the country.

HURIWA said Buhari’s double standards are causing the crisis.

The group said Buhari has maintained the practice of always insisting on: “picking Hausa/Fulani Moslems to head security architectures of significance just as the Rights Advocacy group said it was incomprehensible that a tribe like the Igbo speaking nationality of South East of Nigeria has never had a service chief of any of the armed security forces since the assumption of office of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015”.

HURIWA spoke against the backdrop of the Hausa versus Yoruba Inter-ethnic conflict in Ibadan just as the group said Buhari has created the perception that: “members of his Hausa/Fulani Ethnicity can never be prosecuted for the offences of alleged invasions and destruction of farms and the slaughter of Citizens majority of whom are Christians”.

It said that the Police has also: “exacerbated the conflicts between different ethnicities because the Nigerian Police Force has been Ethnicised by President Muhammadu Buhari to appear more like a Hausa/Fulani brigade than a national police force with the dominance of Moslems of Hausa/Fulani ethnic stock being favoured in all the top flight promotions ever carried out under President Muhammadu Buhari since 2015 with the South East of Nigeria always kept in the fringes.

“When you make your administration appear like a village meeting of Hausa/Fulani and only promote your people in the security forces, you are only stoking up the embers of ETHNIC and RELIGIOUS hatred and conflicts like the type that flared up sadly in the biggest city in West Africa- Ibadan, Oyo state, South West of Nigeria”.

The group said the failure of the present administration to prosecute armed herdsmen responsible for the massive destructions of parts of Benue, Southern Kaduna, Plateau and Enugu States including the spate of killings and kidnapping in such places like Nasarawa, Benue, Kaduna, masterminded by mostly armed herdsmen is the fundamental cause of organised chasms and divisiveness dovetailing into conflagration and bloody conflicts such as the fight between traders of Hausa/Yoruba ethnicities in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.

HURIWA urged members of all ethnic groups to live in harmony.

According to a statement on Sunday by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA called on the government to stop Commissioners of Police and military commanders from showing open partiality and double standards whenever there are issues of alleged invasions of farmland as was recorded in Oyo and Abia State in which the: “Police Commissioners took sides with the suspected herdsmen who were accused of destroying farms of communities in the two States.

“Unless there is equality and equity in the enforcement of the laws, there will continue to be conflicts between the people who feel alienated and the favoured tribal and religious group that enjoy Presidential cover and one sided protection of armed security services in Nigeria”. (thenigerialawyer)