Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has raised alarm over reports that some young Nigerians are being driven to sell their kidneys for as little as ₦1.7 million, describing the development as a disturbing reflection of the country’s worsening cost-of-living crisis.
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Atiku, in a statement on Friday, said economic hardship had reached a level where some young people were allegedly considering extreme measures simply 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.
The former Vice President said Nigerian youths should be using their talents, creativity and skills to build productive lives rather than being pushed towards the sale of their organs.
“Young people should be selling dreams, ideas and innovation, not their body organs,” he said.
Atiku argued that when the cost of living becomes unbearable, desperation can make otherwise unthinkable choices appear possible.
“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,” he said.
He blamed rising costs of food, transportation, rent, school fees, healthcare and electricity on the economic direction of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
“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,” Atiku said.
He said reports that kidneys were being sold for about ₦1.7 million showed that the situation had moved beyond what could be described as ordinary hardship.
“Yet young Nigerians are reportedly being driven to sell their kidneys for as little as ₦1.7 million. That should break the heart of a nation,” he said.
“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 acknowledged that Nigeria already has laws prohibiting commercial organ sales and trafficking, but argued that criminal enforcement alone would not address the economic conditions that leave vulnerable people exposed to exploitation.
“Laws alone cannot cure the poverty and desperation that make vulnerable young people easy prey for criminal networks,” he said.
He therefore called for economic reforms that would have a more immediate impact on living standards, insisting that government policies should translate into affordable food, cheaper transportation, accessible healthcare, decent employment opportunities and renewed hope for younger Nigerians.
“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,” Atiku said.
“Our young people should be selling their ideas, talents and innovation to the world and not their kidneys for ₦1.7 million just to survive at home.”
He concluded: “This is the human cost of Nigeria’s cost-of-living crisis.”
Atiku’s comments come amid reports and ongoing law-enforcement investigations into alleged organ-harvesting and human-trafficking operations, including a recent case said to involve four suspects, among them two nephrologists.
However, the reported claim that young Nigerians are selling kidneys for ₦1.7 million remains an allegation cited by Atiku and should not be treated as establishing that such transactions are widespread or that every reported case has been independently verified.
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