Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has raised concern over reports that young Nigerians are selling their kidneys for as little as N1.7 million, describing the development as a frightening consequence of the country’s cost-of-living crisis.
Atiku, the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, expressed the concern in a statement on Friday, saying economic hardship was forcing young Nigerians to consider desperate measures to survive.
“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.
Atiku blamed the rising costs of food, transportation, rent, school fees, medicine and electricity on the economic policies of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
“In President Tinubu’s Nigeria, almost everything required to live with dignity is becoming more expensive by the day,” he said.
He added that the reported sale of kidneys represented more than ordinary economic hardship, saying, “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.”
Atiku said young Nigerians should be using their talents and creativity to build better lives rather than selling their organs.
“Young people should be selling dreams, ideas and innovation, not their body organs,” he said.
Although Nigeria has laws prohibiting commercial organ sales and trafficking, Atiku said enforcement alone would not address the poverty and desperation that expose vulnerable people to criminal networks.
He called for economic reforms that would deliver affordable food, cheaper transportation, accessible healthcare, decent jobs and renewed hope for young Nigerians.
“Our young people should be selling their ideas, talents and innovation to the world and not their kidneys for N1.7 million just to survive at home,” he said.
The statement comes amid reports of alleged kidney sales and a recent police investigation into an alleged organ-harvesting and human-trafficking operation involving four suspects, including two nephrologists.