SIR: To sympathise or to crucify Sen. Ike Ekweremadu – that is the question on the minds of those who have been following the story of the David Ukpo, the 21-year old so-called street hawker and Ike Ekweremadu, Nigeria’s former deputy senate president.
David was a young man in the street of Lagos whose parents had no wherewithal to help their son to have good education – an entitlement he truly deserved from the government which Ekweremadu belonged. But because of the failure of political leaders like Ekweremadu, David resorted to hawking phone accessories from a wheel barrow around the streets of Lagos.
Considering the wide gulf between the privileged and the underprivileged in Nigeria, no one would ever expect Sonia and David to meet, but nature, at times, is unpredictable – both met. They met because one must be exploited for the survival of the other.
David would donate one of his kidneys to a lady in the UK with a reward of some amounts. He would act as cousin to the lady, Sonia Ekweremadu – the ailing daughter of the big man since the UK embassy would not grant a visa to a donor that had no close relationship with the patient.
On getting to London for the kidney transplant, the Royal Free Hospital discovered that David was not properly informed about the risk he was about to take. Somehow, he was declared unfit to undergo the kidney transplant. And this was the beginning of the drama.
The Ekweremadus, on discovering that they could not convince the London hospital to go ahead with the organ harvest, had to turn to Turkey to find another donor. That meant sending David back to Nigeria, but the poor boy was afraid to go back to the streets of Lagos after he had already bidden the rough life in Nigeria farewell. He eventually turned himself to London police to which he reeled out and exposed what had transpired between him and the Ekweremadus.
In the end, Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and the doctor, Obinna Obeta, who helped to facilitate the criminal act, had to face the full wrath of law. They were found guilty because the court believed that the poor David was planned to be exploited for his kidney.
Now that the three are waiting for their sentencing, can we say that Senator Ekweremadu acted out of ignorance? Ekweremadu is a lawyer of repute. He’s a lawmaker, part of legislature that helped draw up Nigeria’s laws against organ trafficking. I don’t think he was unaware of what he embarked upon.
Shall we believe that Ekweremadu acted out of love to save his daughter’s life? Of course as a loving parent, no one will like to watch his/her child dying while he/she lives. But what I think is if truly Ekweremadu and his wife really wanted their daughter to live, why wouldn’t one of the two donate one of their kidneys to save their daughter? Why did they have to submit the life of a poor boy to an agony he might have had to battle with for the rest of his life?
What is really always on the mind of the Nigerian leaders to the poor masses they lead? What do they take us for? Is it true, like the UK court described, that we are seen as ‘disposable assets and spare parts’ in the eyes of our leaders?
This story between the Ekweremadus and David Ukpo is a reflection of the relationship between the Nigerian leaders and the people they lead.
I believe the Ekweremadu’s trial and conviction of exploiting the poor David will serve as a lesson to other leaders who still hold the idea that the common Nigerians are tools they can use for their selfish ends. It will also serve as an example to the Nigerian police and the judiciary. If this incident had happened in Nigeria, would David Ukpo, the underprivileged hawker, have gotten the deserved justice?
•Ademola ‘Bablow’ Babalola,
bbabalolaademola39@gmail.com