BEYOND THE ABUJA KIDNEY MERCHANTS 

All stakeholders must do more to tackle the menace

The latest, and most heinous, dimension to human trafficking in Nigeria is that it has gone beyond sexual exploitation. The traffickers are now also harvesting human organs, a very lucrative enterprise. With so many people in need of kidney, liver and heart transplants, records reveal that these organs are in high demand, especially in developed countries. Out of desperation, many Nigerians also now sell their vital organs and, in the process, endanger their lives. That some of our medical personnel are incriminated in this affront against humanity is why the health authorities and critical stakeholders should be concerned.   

Reacting to a recent ‘Daily Trust’ newspaper report, ‘Inside Abuja’s Kidney ‘Market’ which exposed a shadow economy of illegal kidney merchandising in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Development, Ali Pate, has promised decisive actions will be taken to combat criminal activities in health practices. But this is an entrenched crime that cuts across the country. There have been stories of how some Nigerian women are usually administered drugs that cause ovarian hyper stimulation to extract their eggs afterwards. There have also been instances where female undergraduates of some Nigerian universities sell their eggs to willing buyers. Also, the ever growing need to feed the IVF ‘factories’ with embryos has engendered the exploitation of young women for their eggs. 

 

Since the trade in human organs and trafficking in human eggs and human embryos are multibillion dollar businesses, it is no surprise that some Nigerian traffickers are attracted to it. And given the level of economic deprivation in the country, it is also no surprise that there are many willing customers.  

There is another dimension to the problem. Some unscrupulous Nigerians now recruit young boys and girls from rural communities with the promise of securing them good jobs in the cities when the real intention is to harvest their organs for sale. Therefore, a demonstration of political will to diligently prosecute offenders would serve as deterrent to those engaged in the nefarious trade. That has been demonstrated in many countries where prominent people have been convicted for such crimes.  

For years, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has been raising the alarm over the increase in organ harvesting in the country. A former Director General, Julie Okah-Donli once revealed that some people were being allowed to get away with murder, following the rescue of a 10-month old baby whose eyeballs were being gouged out when the culprits were caught. The sheer magnitude and sophistication of this human merchandising indicate that for any meaningful breakthrough in the efforts to arrest it, collaborative attempts must be made by governments, non-governmental organisations, corporate bodies and the media. Critical stakeholders can no longer continue to watch from the sidelines while unscrupulous people classify fellow human beings as commodities and benefit from their ignorance, desperation and, sometimes, greed.  

All said, trafficking in human person and in human organs in Nigeria cannot be combated without the effective reform of the country’s criminal justice system. That explains why it is important for NAPTIP to partner with other organisations in tackling this threat. NAPTIP officials have always cited corruption and slow judicial process as the main obstacles in bringing offenders to justice. But beyond lamentation, all the critical stakeholders must pull resources together to effectively tackle the human trafficking scourge and its allied crime of organ trafficking.