Ekweremadu and a Father’s Burden

Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s UK travails revolve around the enduring father-daughter bond and contradictions that define the Nigeria state, Louis Achi writes

So far life flickers, there is hope. In people, as William Sloane Coffin accurately observes, “Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.” This is a key anchor of the human story and of mankind’s enduring humanity.

Although imperilled by kidney crisis, in the bosom of Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s daughter Sonia, life flickers. There is hope. According to Lao Tzu, “As long as we have hope, we have direction, the energy to move, and the map to move by.”

These compelling insights by Lao Tzu and William Sloane probe the core of humanity’s existential dilemma as well as its possibilities and offer an opportunity for uncommon introspection. These truths ought to nuance the reading of Ekweremadu’s travails.

They should also question the interpretation of last Friday’s verdict by a British court jailing Senator Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice and Dr. Obinna Obeta to various prison terms over charges of “child trafficking”, “organ harvesting”, and “modern slavery.”

During the televised sentence hearing, the judge, Justice Johnson, said he took into consideration “a 51-page document” pleading for leniency for Ekweremadu and highlighting how he is a person of upstanding character.

Ekweremadu was subsequently jailed for nine years and eight months; his wife Beatrice was sentenced to four years and six months imprisonment.

On his part, Obeta received a 10-year prison term.

Ekweremadu’s grief-stricken daughter Sonia, at the heart of the gripping human narrative and who has a serious kidney condition, wept as she was cleared of the same charge.

The case marked the first-time defendants have been convicted under UK’s Modern Slavery Act of an organ harvesting conspiracy. While it is lawful to donate a kidney, it becomes a crime in that jurisdiction if money or another material advantage is involved.

The prosecution claimed the donor was offered up to £7,000 along with the promise of a better life in the UK. The donor allegedly did not understand until his first appointment with a consultant at the hospital that he was there for a kidney transplant, the Old Bailey was told.

It could be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerian parliament, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, ECOWAS parliament, among others, had pleaded for leniency for the Ekweremadus.

The jailing of the Ekweremadus in UK, last week, understandably dominated the media space and inundated conversations across the country and beyond.

A synopsis of the core narrative is that on account of the long-drawn kidney crisis of Ekweremadu’s daughter Sonia, the former Deputy President of the Senate organised and funded a medical related trip to the UK involving 21-year old David Nwamini Ukpo, the proposed organ (kidney) donor.

But after conducting various medical tests, the Royal Free Hospital in London decided that David Nwamini Ukpo was a mismatch. Apparently on account of this unforeseen development, Nwamini was then required to return to Nigeria.

But according to Emeka Ugwuonye, when the 21-year old Nwamini, the proposed organ donor was at the hospital in London, they asked him if he knew he was to donate his kidney to Sonia but he replied that he did not know.

“That led the doctors to conclude that the procedure was not well-explained to David and that is the number one requirement by law. According to the law, you must explain to the organ donor the procedure and all the health risks associated with the procedure.

“It is only then that the donor is taken to have informedly consented. When the doctors found that David did not understand what he was about to get involved in, they declared him a mismatch.”

Ugwuonye further explains: “The term “mismatch” is a technical generic language to indicate that the proposed organ harvesting has not met all the requirements. Many in Nigeria have misunderstood the term “mismatch” in this case to mean that David’s kidney was not suitable for Sonia.

“No! There was nothing wrong with David’s Kidney. To donate an organ, the facts must match both the law and the science governing the procedure. While the kidney matched the scientific requirement, the facts did not match the legal requirement. So, it was declared a mismatch.”

It was actually when Ekweremadu and Obeta sought to return David to Nigeria on account of the “mismatch” that the problem started. David expected that he would be given a job in London. He ran away from the house where he was kept and reported himself to the police.

To win the immediate protection of the police, he lied about his age by telling them he was 15. It was when he was interviewed by the police that the information came out which established that a crime was committed under UK jurisdiction.

It was after apparently perceiving a promising new life in the UK, Nwamini opted to report himself to the London Metropolitan Police, claiming he is underage (15 years old) and a victim of human/organ trafficking. For that stern, law-governed English jurisdiction, he couldn’t have contrived a better plot or sold a better story.

It’s perhaps worth noting that across the UK, more than 1,000 people each year donate a kidney or part of their liver while they are still alive to a relative, friend or someone they do not know. The most commonly donated organ is the kidney. A healthy person can lead a normal life with only one functioning kidney and therefore they are able to donate the other to help someone in need of a kidney transplant.

Subsequently Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice were reportedly plucked by the Metropolitan Police from inside a Turkish Airline almost taking off to Istanbul, at Heathrow Airport and charged to court – the Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court, UK. Charges were preferred and the couple was denied bail. The rest is now history.

Back Story

But there is a backstory. Ekweremadu had in December 2021 written a letter to the British High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria, backing the visa application of a potential kidney donor to his daughter. He clarified the donor and his daughter “will be at the Royal Free Hospital London”, adding that he would “be providing the necessary funding”. But after an organ mismatch was established at the London hospital and the donor claimed to be underage, the Met Police moved in.

However so much happened quickly following the Ekweremadu’s dilemma in the UK. In a subsequent statement the Nigeria Immigration Service, (NIS) affirmed that due process was followed in the issuance of Nwamini’s passport.

The agency stated that Nwamini applied for the enhanced standard passport using the NIS portal after which he approached the Gwagwalada passport office in Abuja, on the 2nd November, 2021 for his interview. It also confirmed the applicant equally presented all the necessary documents required.

These included his National Population Commission, (NPC), issued birth certificate, showing October 12, 2000, as his date of birth; his National Identity Number (NIN) corroborating the date of birth on his birth certificate, issued by NIMC and a letter of introduction issued by Ebonyi State Government Liaison Office, situated at Maitama District Abuja, as well as a Guarantor’s form duly signed by one Mr Uchechukwu Chukwuma Ogbonno to support Nwamini’s application.

Besides the NIS position, reactions from the Ebonyi State government and even the “donor’s” younger brother from Ebonyi State confirmed Nwamini is not a minor by any stretch.

Nwamini nevertheless deserves some pity. His base temptation to bring down a family in crisis speaks to the nightmare which a country endowed with stupendous resources and all the promises of greatness has descended to with its youth migrating in droves.

Ekweremadu’s UK travails dramatises the fact that the bond between most fathers and their first daughter is very deep. Most fathers love their first daughter more than life. Clearly, this connection is metaphysical.

According to the English poet Joseph Addison, “Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters, there is something which there are no words to express.”

This is at the core of Ekweremadu’s paternal burden and may fathers never be tempted with what they love most!