In the past few weeks, the former Deputy Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ike Ekweremadu hugged the global limelight for a personal nay family issue now turned legal matter. He is a lawyer and a sitting Senator, clocking 20 years in the Senate in few months.
The man is one of the few titled men of his era, not to be compared with the deadlock in Unoka, a full-blown man addressed as “woman” in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Only few men see the model in Unoka, they have chosen not to see the courage with which he parades his debts, including those terrible times when he had to sleep in the gutters after entering the trance of Dionysus, the first connoisseur of wines.
Ekweremadu and wife were nabbed on June 21, 2022 by the unsparing and trained fingers of the Metropolitan Police at the Hearthrow Airport, London. The controversial arrest was said to have been necessitated by the need to quickly check Ekweremadu, lest he proceeds to harvest from where he has not sown, or that he tampers a subset of the sacred set.
The big fish was caught for not just proceeding to trafficking a fingerling but also attempting to predate on its flesh by harvesting speedily, a kidney and life. This is not to say there is something wrong about the idea of getting from one to rescue the other. It is absolutely right to do this, to share life as if it were the last supper on the table. But it must be with an intent and in the spirit of a passionate disposition to consolidate on the sanctity of human life.
A research carried out in the United States revealed how not less than 21 people die everyday while expecting to be placed on a life support or rescued via a much needed organ. In fact, 107,380 men, women and children await the transplant of a life-saving organ. But the physicians saddled with this job will not just pick anybody, sweet-tongue him to submission. They have to run through some mental routines, inform the parents, family healthcare provider, lawyer and religious leader.
Ekweremadu and the wife were both arraigned before the Uxbridge Magistrate Court on the matter of their Sonia Ekweremadu, who is currently battling a kidney issue. They to this effect invited one 15-year-old Ukpo David, a destitute hustler, through another Okoro. Okoro reportedly approached this poor boy with the enticing picture of the white man’s land, asked him if he could work in the UK. As expected, Ukpo answered in the affirmative and signified interest in meeting the Ekweremadus. It was from here that the journey of traveling to the Queen’s land began. In all these, there are glaring vacuums, loopholes yet to be filled.
It is yet to be confirmed whether there was any engagement between the family of the homeless donor and that of the donee before he was issued with the passport on 4th November, 2021.
Whether the engagement eventually resulted in a legally binding agreement between both parties is still a subject of serious controversy. The agreement does not in any way tamper with the right of the donor to give consent. It is about building structures around the young boy, in other to aid his decision when he eventually beholds the shock.
Recently, different controversies have greeted his age. The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Isa Jere, said Ukpo is 21 and not 15, as he claimed. The age mentioned has been consolidated by his BVN details.
As much as I don’t want to dwell on the contentious age, I feel a 21-year-old is still a child who needs discretion. Neurology pinpointed that people in their early twenties have the same brain as teenaged minors. The mid twenties are the periods when the brain is fully developed, changes from adolescent to adult.
How sure are we that the guy was well furnished with the nitty-gritty of the action? Facts reveal how he had been having medical appointments as to the donation of organ since he traveled to the United Kingdom around February. He never protested until he was aware of what he came to do. Which is within his right to do.
Could Senator Ekweremadu have reached an agreement with only David and not the parents who gave birth to him, not even when his attaining the age of majority doesn’t translate to maturity?
Article sent by Tunde Akingbondere
Akure, Ondo State.
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