Former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has raised an alarm over the prevailing situation in the country, saying many young Nigerians are forced to sell their kidneys to survive.
Atiku raised the alarm in a statement on his social media platforms on Friday.
The Presidential candidate who accused the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of making Nigeria expensive, promised that he would make Nigeria affordable if elected.
“Tinubu made Nigeria expensive. I will make Nigeria affordable again.”
The opposition leader who had promised to reverse the present administration’s policy of subsidy removal, said, “I have heard disturbing stories about the extent to which young Nigerians are being driven simply to survive. Perhaps the most horrifying are the growing reports of young people selling parts of their bodies: kidneys in particular, in desperate attempts to raise money.”
He said young people should be selling “dreams, ideas and innovation, not their body organs.”
But however lamented that when the cost-of-living crisis becomes unbearable, “desperation begins to make the unthinkable appear like an option. That should offend the conscience of every Nigerian.
“In Tinubu’s Nigeria, almost everything required to live with dignity is becoming more expensive by the day: food, transport, rent, school fees, medicine and electricity. Yet young Nigerians are reportedly being driven to sell their kidneys for as little as ₦1.7 million.”
Atiku stressed that the situation should break the heart of a nation, “Young Nigerians should be building careers, starting businesses, raising families and pursuing their dreams, not calculating how much parts of their bodies can fetch simply to stay alive.
“When young Nigerians begin to see their kidneys as emergency savings, we are no longer talking about ordinary economic hardship.We are talking about desperation at its most frightening.”
The Presidential candidate said “Nigeria already has laws prohibiting commercial organ sales and organ trafficking. But laws alone cannot cure the poverty and desperation that make vulnerable young people easy prey for criminal networks.
“No government should celebrate “reforms” while young Nigerians are being reduced to selling parts of themselves to eat, pay rent, settle school fees or survive.
“Economic reform must have a human face. It must mean affordable food, cheaper transportation, accessible healthcare, decent jobs and renewed hope for the next generation.”
