Two weeks ago, the police in Lagos arrested two men, Olusola Opeyemi, 23, and Adeagbo Olatunji, 35, both patent medicine sellers in Agege area, Lagos. Messrs. Opeyemi and Olatunji were picked up in connection with a blood-for-cash racket involving some underaged pupils of Oyewole High School, Agege. According to newspaper reports, the suspects paid each of their pliable ‘donors’ between N1,000 and N1,500 per pint, which they promptly turned over to one Mr. Adetola Kayode for N7,000 per pint. Mr. Kayode was not the end of this macabre chain, as he himself further sold the blood thus illegally procured to two alleged doctors (also now under arrest) for a handsome profit. The fact that some of the students had sold their blood multiple times (up to 17 times, according to some) proves that the racket had been going on for some time, and members of the community and the Parent-Teachers Association of the affected school deserves commendation for promptly bringing the incident to the attention of the police. The incident is both alarming and depressing. It is alarming because of the grave danger that unscreened blood drawn by amateurs in clearly shabby circumstances from ‘donors’ who had not been tested for the presence of any communicable diseases, presents to an unsuspecting public. We live in a moment in human history when incidences of various communicable diseases, especially HIV/ AIDS, are at an all-time high, and we shudder to imagine the havoc that unscreened blood from these students might cause, given the probability that it has made its way into hospitals in the vicinity or beyond. As part of their ongoing investigations, it is critical that the police establish exactly when the racket started, the number and particulars of the students involved, how many pints of blood have been drawn, and most important, where the said blood has ended up. Given the danger previously highlighted, no effort must be spared in tracing and withdrawing the affected pints of blood from circulation. At the same time, all the students involved must be rounded up and tested to see if any of them carries any communicable disease which they may have contracted through contaminated syringes. Furthermore, the suspects should be prosecuted and, if found guilty, punished to the fullest extent of the law. The medical implications of the incident are alarming, but it is the social meaning that makes it particularly depressing. It is a grim reminder of the dangerous and dehumanising extent to which many Nigerians are now willing to go in order to survive the country’s relentlessly savage economic reality. In this regard, it is not unlikely that some of the parents of the affected students were aware of what their children were up to, but decided to turn a blind eye because of the instant cash that it brought in. A youngster who submits himself to an amateur’s needle 17 times for what is ultimately a pittance has to be in some serious need. Because of the determinedly precarious state of affairs in the country, millions of Nigerians, finding basic human dignity increasingly unaffordable, are having to degrade themselves in all sorts of ways. These praxes of self- degradation include, but are not necessarily limited to: undertaking perilous journeys across the Sahara desert in order to reach the southern part of Europe, queuing up for hours in front of various Western embassies, stowing away on trans atlantic planes, prostitution, selling off new babies to highest bidders, and last but not the least, selling off a kidney, or some other vital human organ. All these praxes involve, one way or another, the ‘sacrifice’ of the body for existential nourishment. As said earlier, the prosecution of the suspects must be doggedly pursued and, if guilt is established, punishment meted out in accordance with the law. In the long run however, government must tackle the social asperity that makes ordinary Nigerian citizens so vulnerable that they will do practically anything in order to survive.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 15:17:54 +0000
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