One of the benefits of being a woman is that you know for certain if you have become a parent. Men on the other hand are reliant on someone else to tell them. When that someone else isn’t honest, things can get messy for the family.
Paternity fraud is when a mother deliberately misidentifies her partner as the biological father of her child. If you let the Internet tell it, paternity fraud is high in Nigeria backed up with unverified statistics.
The perception that paternity fraud is high in Nigeria is not unfounded. Reports have been making the rounds that Nigeria has the second highest rate of paternity fraud in the world after Jamaica. Many men have been unknowingly raising children that are not theirs and to curb the trend, there have been calls for the introduction of mandatory DNA testing at birth.
Unfortunately, apart from the emotional trauma the men go through, there are currently no consequences for mothers who commit paternity fraud. Paternity fraud is not considered a punishable crime.
In our society, it is often said that a woman is in best position to identify the father of her child, so once a woman points a finger to a particular man, case closed.
The underlying factor in this topic is cheating. While Nigeria’s patriarchal society might raise pitchforks and want to slam adulterous Nigerian women, we have to know that cheating is not only exclusive to them.
In paternity fraud, everyone involved will suffer the emotionally devastating impact, which may well be accompanied by equally devastating legal and financial consequences. More directly, the child will suffer, and so will the non-biological father.
Paternity testing should be mandatory. There are thousands of women in the country who take advantage of certain types of men. These females should be held responsible for knowingly accusing a man as being the biological father when she knows the truth.
The one thing that is seldom discussed in public from this angle is the “best interest of the child”. Normally, when we hear that phrase punishment is reversed.
In conclusion, I believe paternity fraud offences should bear a harsh punishment in order to deter many women who use this as a tactic.
Lanre Akinbo,
Lagos.
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