In a bombshell interview with a DNA Expert, it has been revealed that
three out of ten Nigerian men are not the biological fathers of their
children. www.naijagists.com
Interview excerpts below
Is paternity testing becoming an issue in Nigeria?We
have seen that there is serious need for it because in many homes
things are happening that are scary both to the lives of children and
their parents. And for the general statistics that is now available, it
is found that three out of every ten men are not the fathers of their
babies. Similarly, three out of every ten children are not fathered by
men they have seen as their biological fathers. What we have found out
is that, anytime we take ten men, at least three of them eventually
found that they are not the fathers of the children they call their own.
And these men would have taken care of the children for all their
lives.
Now, the global statistics is 100, 000 out of every 300,
000 men. But what we have found that is that the situation is higher in
Nigeria than other places. For example in our laboratory here, 50 per
cent of the cases comes out negative. And we also realised that majority
of the first-borns are affected. You only need to be here to see big
men cry like little kids and watch children weep in agony. It has been
that bad. And I dare say it is becoming something every home must do and
you may be quite surprised at the level of dastard revelation.
About
thirty per cent of fathers are unknowingly bringing up children who are
not biologically theirs. And it is suspected that this percentage may
be on the increase due to sexual recklessness. According to recent
trends in sexual health, especially in Nigeria, it was suggested that
unprotected sex and multiple partners are comparatively common
occurrences with a large proportion of conceptions still unplanned. So,
more than half, that is, 50 per cent of all paternity tests carried out
by our lab comes out negative and the most affected are first-borns,
except in a few cases.
Do these cases happen mostly in matrimonial settings or in casual relationships?In
both matrimony and casual affiliations! I tell you, we have had series
of married men come here and go back home devastated. In one instance, a
man came here with his wife. Out of the five children he thought were
his own, he discovered that only two belonged to him. And they are both
duly married, living together as husband and wife. You see, the major
problem we have in our country is that most of these cases are not duly
documented. So, people don’t know we have such issues among us. In fact,
some even don’t know where to go for the test to determine their child
or children’s paternity. And I tell you, if you go to ten homes as we
speak, you will be amazed to find that in almost all of them the
children there do not belong to the men. It is that rampant.
If it is that rampant, how would you describe the three years since you started testing men?Now,
the general statistics by the American Association of Blood Banks is
that globally, 100, 000 out of 300, 000 men are not the actual fathers
of their presumed children. And like I said earlier, the Nigerian
situation is even alarming. Also, Duess International, the condom
manufacturers, once noted that Nigeria has the most reckless sexual
life. So, you can then imagine what the outcome would be like if we say
okay, let’s start taking statistics one-by-one.
How many families do you attend to each week?We
test about 15 to 20 families. People come here as a result of various
types of controversies over the paternity of certain children. You know,
families have come to us with claims that a child neither takes after
the mother nor the father in looks and character. So, the man of the
house would be curious to ascertain facts. And when they come here with
such children, the fears of the fathers have often been affirmed.
Fathers usually have the doubts; maybe he has been hearing some rumours,
and you know, men are often the last to hear such things about
themselves. Until many of them come here to take the test, they have
nurtured other men’s children before realising it.
What does it take to do a paternity test?Technology
has made it so easy. It is just like any other deoxyribonucleic acid
(DNA) test. In less than two seconds, we take the sample from the man.
We use the Helix Swabs like a “big cotton buds” to extract some cells
from the man’s mouth. We rub the ‘Swab’ up-and-down the mouth to get
some epithelial cells from around the cheek bone. In the nucleus of
every cell, there is DNA. Once we collect that, we purify, extract and
then multiply it and get the genetic profile which we then send to DNA
laboratory abroad for testing.
What happens in situations where DNA samples do not match as we saw with some DANA victims?So
many reasons could be responsible for that. We have had a case in which
a boy went to an hospital to claim the body of his deceased dad and on
testing him, it was found that he was not fathered by the dead man. The
genetic profile of the boy does not match with that of the man he
claimed to be his father. And DNAs don’t lie. The medical experts
conducting these tests have nothing personal against the people that
come to them for testing. Every human being take half of the genetic
profile from either parent. Therefore, it is a matter of case closed if
the genetic profile of the living does not match with that of the dead
man. He is simply not that father. (credit: DailyPost Newspaper)
No comments:
Post a Comment