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Who is thinking of Sonia Ekweremadu?

IN life, it is not good to have a big mouth, pontificating on people’s pain, laughing at those in an hour of trial, casting aspersions on those facing storm, and pretending to be incapable of a fall. Many people have written themselves into eternal damnation on social media, wearing arrogance like a tunic. They lack empathy and fellow feeling. They are never gracious. Even when presented with incontrovertible evidence, they stick to their demons of doubt. Their words will come to bite them as their future queries their present. I do not care how educated you think yourself to be: fear God. Be gracious. The Bible says that mercy triumphs over judgment.

Around 1995, a woman I used to know in Ibadan reacted to tragedy with contempt. A been-to who was billed to return abroad on a particular day ran his sleek automobile into a trailer parked around Idi Oro junction and closed his chapter. The incident was blamed on inebriation as the victim was returning from a night of wine and women. Wailing rent the air as the wreckage was pulled away from under the trailer close to mid-day. But Iya Bose showed no empathy: “He died because he did not have Jesus!!” I couldn’t believe my ears. Well, soon after, her own son who presumably had Jesus died.

Sonia Ekweremadu, the daughter of Nigeria’s immediate past Deputy Senate President, lies at this very moment in excruciating pain. I have never had kidney disease and I pray I never have it, but I know what it is to feel pain, having battled many illnesses in my short odyssey. I do not know whether or not Sonia will live—that is in the hands of Almighty God, mighty in battle and rich in mercy—but I know what all those who seek profit from other people’s pain have a life of sorrow ahead of themselves. Before our very eyes, a father, by reason of his desire to save his daughter from death, is being persecuted as an organ harvester. What a world.

Before another sentence, let me say we have travelled this road before. In 2009, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, leader of the Committee on Health at the Red Chamber, was accused of collecting $80,000 out of the $2.5 million unspent 2007 budget funds, but she insisted that the money was expended on a trip to Ghana by her committee. She went into hiding but later had her day in court. But then, as the case went on, it became obvious that Obasanjo-Bello’s prosecutors were not really intent on fighting corruption, but on getting at her father, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, through her. Now, 13 years later, we are back to the same pernicious practice of crucifying a daughter for her father’s sins. Rather disturbingly, many of the critics do not care a hoot if Sonia dies: her father must go down. That is perversion, not justice.

From all the evidence provided so far, David Nwamini Ukpo, the organ donor whose false underdog story has captured the imagination of British morons, is nothing but a lying, manipulative, infernal scoundrel. Unless and until he can prove that the NIS, NIMC and other bodies that have provided details of his biodata were all compromised, there is no way he can escape jail, the social media noise of his supporters notwithstanding. Among other pieces of, in my view, unassailable evidence, Mr. Ukpo’s BVN issued on October 31, 2019, his international passport issued on November 4 2021 and his NIN issued on June 15, 2021 all establish beyond reasonable doubt that he was born on October 12, 2000. To have manipulated these details, Ekweremadu would have had to travel back in time and coach Ukpo on what to do, but there is no evidence of such manipulation. Believing the worst about the Ekweremadus even in the face of concrete evidence to the contrary is a monstrous absurdity.

I invite readers to consider the originating summons marked FHC/ABJ/CS/984/2022 and filed on June 27 by the Ekweremadus’ counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), before Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court, Abuja, praying the court for an order directing the NIMC to supply them with the Certified True Copy (CTC) of Ukpo’s biodata information. The salient part is this: “After conducting various medical tests, the Royal Free Hospital in London decided that the said David Nwamini Ukpo was not a suitable donor because his kidney is not compatible with that of Sonia Ekweremadu.” Realising that his ambition to japa (flee Nigeria), nursed quietly all along, was under threat, Ukpo approached the UK authorities with his super story.

Law Mefor, a forensic psychologist, offers the following interesting take: “Everyone familiar with UK Visa processes knows that the ‘Type D Visa’, being strictly a private medical treatment visa, is a strenuous and meticulous process. Senator Ekweremadu’s letter supporting David’s visa application also fully disclosed that the young man was going for organ donation and declared the hospital for the procedure.” I am not familiar with British visa processes, but I know that commonsense should have caused the British authorities to focus their gaze on their Nigerian office which issued Ukpo a visa. It is insane to argue that a 15-year-old was given the visa of a 41-year-old and then fail to focus any gaze on the issuing authority. Surely, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu has no visa-issuing powers. Again, if Ukpo is actually a minor, how on earth then did he escape the usually eagle-eyed British Immigration? Why and how was it that they did not suspect anything foul? There are actually two Britains: the Britain of the British and the Britain of the Brutish, a woke mob. I have no regard for the infernally woke UK mob. They are people who lacked proper upbringing. That is why even judges behave like morons, with the land virtually ceded to morons from distant lands.

I return to Sonia. I hope she pulls through. And to the naysayers, I say: visiting the political sins of fathers on their innocent daughters is sheer demonism. The Yoruba warn against bitterness, saying that rewarding evil with evil makes evil perpetual: “Bi a ba fi oro ya oro oro ki i tan.” They also say it is the man who has not faced trouble that proclaims his manliness. You won’t be so boastful when you contract a terrible disease. Good people are merciful. As the Bard of Avon wrote for the ages: “The quality of mercy is not strained;/ It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven/Upon the place beneath/ It is twice blest;/ It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”

I’m thinking of you, Sonia. Stay strong.

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