Reasons Government Must Make DNA Tests Free At Federal, State, Local Levels

By Lola Adams

In Nigeria today, a simple biological truth has become a luxury only the rich can afford. A DNA test, which costs between N250,000 to N500,000 in most private laboratories, is priced far beyond the reach of the average citizen. 

Yet this test holds the key to justice, public health, family stability, and national security. 

It is time for the government to stop treating DNA testing as a private medical indulgence and start treating it as a public good – free and accessible at federal, state, and local government levels.

1. To End The Paternity Crisis And Protect Families:

Every week, our courts, churches, and social media are flooded with paternity scandals. Marriages collapse, children are traumatized, and men are driven to despair over questions that science can answer in hours. The alarming rate of paternity fraud is not just a moral issue; it is a social emergency. When a low-income earner cannot afford to confirm the paternity of a child he has raised for years, doubt festers into violence, abandonment, and even death.

If DNA testing is free at general hospitals, primary health centres, and court-annexed facilities, we will replace suspicion with certainty. 

The truth, however painful, is cheaper than a lifetime of deceit. A free test will protect innocent men from fraudulent child support claims and protect innocent children from being denied their rightful lineage and inheritance.

2. To Strengthen Justice and Decongest Our Prisons:

Our criminal justice system still relies heavily on confessional statements, many of which are obtained under duress. In cases of rape, murder, theft, and child abduction, DNA evidence is the gold standard globally. But how many Divisional Police Stations in Ado-Ekiti, Gusau, or Yenagoa have access to a DNA lab? Almost none.

Making DNA testing free and embedding forensic units in federal teaching hospitals, state criminal investigation departments, and even local government health departments will revolutionize crime fighting. 

It will exonerate the innocent who are languishing in awaiting-trial detention and ensure that the guilty cannot hide behind lack of evidence. Justice should not depend on whether a victim can pay for a laboratory test.

3. To Save Lives Through Public Health:

Beyond paternity, DNA testing is medicine. Sickle cell disease, a scourge that Nigeria leads the world in, can be effectively managed through premarital and prenatal genetic screening. Many couples only discover they are both AS after they have birthed children who suffer endlessly. 

Free genetic screening at the local government level – integrated into primary healthcare – would allow young Nigerians to make informed reproductive choices. 

Similarly, early detection of hereditary cancers, diabetes predispositions, and other genetic disorders will reduce the burden on our over-stretched tertiary hospitals and save the nation billions in medical tourism.

4. To Secure National Identity And End Child Trafficking:

Nigeria is battling a crisis of missing children, baby factories, and trafficking. When a lost child is found, how do we reunite them with their family without a verifiable scientific link? A national DNA database, built from free voluntary testing at local levels, would give every Nigerian child a biological anchor.

Federal Government should fund the National DNA Bank, State Governments should establish forensic laboratories, and Local Governments should serve as collection and sensitization centres. This three-tier structure will make the system truly accessible – from the Ministry in Abuja to the PHC in Irepodun/Ifelodun.

5. The Cost of Free Testing Is Cheaper Than The Cost of Lies:

Critics will argue about cost. But what is the cost of a broken home? What is the cost of a man jailed for 10 years for a rape he did not commit? What is the cost of raising a generation of children battling sickle cell crisis because their parents lacked information that a N30,000 test could have provided?

The government subsidizes fuel, fertilizer, and education because they are public necessities. Truth is also a public necessity. A Public-Private Partnership model, where the federal government provides equipment and reagents, states provide laboratories and personnel, and local governments handle grassroots mobilization, will make it sustainable.

Conclusion:

A nation that cannot establish the truth of its own bloodlines cannot plan its future. Making DNA testing free is not a favour to citizens; it is a duty of a responsible government. It is a policy that will promote honesty in families, efficiency in our courts, health in our hospitals, and security in our streets.

Let the Federal Government lead, let the States implement, and let the Local Governments deliver – until no Nigerian is denied the truth about who they are because they cannot afford it.