Doctor Warns Nigerian Men To Request For Paternity Tests

When statistics on paternity fraud shows up anywhere in the Nigerian cyberspace, there's always an uproar. Due to a paternity fraud he witnessed, this Doctor warns Nigerian men to request for paternity tests for their children.

In 2018 a representation showed up online as posted by a Twitter user. It showed that Jamaica has the highest paternity fraud in the world with 34.6%, followed by Nigeria with 30%. But the one that drew the most reactions was a survey by Duratex. The survey showed that the top two countries with the most cheating women are Nigeria and Thailand. This prompted some Nigerian men online to say that they are going to demand a paternity test.

So in essence, a lot of Nigerian men do not take biology lightly, unlike their western counterparts. And now a Nigerian doctor who identified himself as Adams Ayeni has chipped in with a word for Nigerian men. He has warned that Nigerian men who don't ask for a paternity test are at the risk of raising children who are not biologically theirs. 

In the same breath, the doctor maintained that there are a lot of similar cases in Nigeria, where men raise children that are not theirs without their knowledge. He went ahead to claim that three out of ten men in Nigeria are raising children that are not theirs. Also, he supported the claim that Nigeria is behind Jamaica in the countries with the highest paternity rate. 

Ayeni made this known after his experience with a patient. He told of how he met a patient who brought in a child with a PVC (packed cell volume) of 8% and they found out that the child was sickle cell. As was unusual, Ayeni called in the woman to ask her to come with her husband for a counselling session. But the woman had started to beg him, saying that her husband was AA.

Paternity fraud is a kind of collusion between a woman and her lover. They know about the true paternity but keep it to themselves, either for financial gain or otherwise. In the past few years, a few people and organisations have come up with statistics on paternity fraud. But according to Africa Check, there was no data on paternity fraud in Nigeria. Chris Olashunde, who is the Nigerian representative for UK-based DNA testing firm EasyDNA UK, told Africa Check that there wasn’t data on paternity fraud in Nigeria because it was “a personal thing”. 

Olashunde said, “Most of the paternity tests in Nigeria are done due to mistrust or to resolve conflict. But some do it simply for immigration purposes.”

“I cannot say whether or not it’s up to 30% because there is no data to prove that in Nigeria. The best you can find is the rate of failure of paternity tests at DNA testing centres.”

Another source supported Olashunde's claim. Speaking to Africa Check, Dr Isiaka Olarewaju, the director of household statistics at Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, said the data on paternity tests collected from testing centres cannot be used to represent the entire country. He explained: “For a ratio to apply to Nigeria, the sample has to be random and nationally representative. The people that go for the DNA test in many cases are educated and aware that such tests exist, and they can afford it. They cannot represent the whole country.”

Read more: 3 Out of 10 Nigerian Men Are Not Biological Fathers of Their Children