By Rareview News Report
Despite more than two decades of kidney transplantation in Nigeria, cultural beliefs, fears of health complications, distrust and inadequate awareness continue to stand between patients in need and potentially life-saving organs.
For a patient whose kidneys have failed, whose heart is no longer functioning adequately, or whose liver has been irreparably damaged, an organ transplant can represent the narrow bridge between life and death.
Yet in Nigeria, that bridge remains difficult to cross.
Beyond the shortage of transplant facilities, specialists and suitable organs, a more deeply rooted obstacle persists: what Nigerians believe about what happens to the human body after death — and what they believe might happen to the soul if part of that body is given to somebody else.
In many communities, organ donation is still surrounded by myths ranging from fears of spiritual consequences and reincarnation problems to suspicions that donating an organ amounts to violating the sanctity of the human body.
Some traditional and religious beliefs hold that the body must remain intact after death, while others fear that removing an organ could leave a person spiritually incomplete in another existence.
For some Nigerians, therefore, the question is not merely whether an organ can save another person’s life.
It is whether the donor — or the donor’s spirit — pays a price for that act of generosity.
This cultural hesitation has persisted despite the fact that Nigeria has been performing kidney transplantation for more than two decades.
The country’s first successful kidney transplant was carried out at St. Nicholas Hospital (Saint Nicholas Hospital), Lagos, on March 6, 2000, by a pioneering medical team led by consultant nephrologist Dr. Ebun Bamgboye. Consultant transplant surgeon Dr. Ayo Shonibare was also a key member of the team. St. Nicholas Hospital describes the procedure as the first successful kidney transplant in Nigeria and the West African sub-region.
Since then, transplant medicine has progressed, but access remains limited. Research on Nigeria’s transplant experience has historically found that living donation has dominated the country’s transplant practice, with deceased-donor transplantation constrained by regulatory, logistical and infrastructural limitations.
The dilemma, therefore, is striking: Nigeria possesses the medical knowledge to transplant organs, but has not yet built the social, institutional and regulatory confidence required to make donation a mainstream culture.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in a report marking the 2026 World Organ Donation Day, examined the misconceptions, fears and divergent opinions surrounding organ donation in the country. Interviews with doctors and Nigerians across different walks of life showed just how wide the gulf remains between medical science and public perception.
‘Donation must be voluntary’
General Physician, Dr Gerald Chinasa, said organ donation must be based fundamentally on voluntary consent and medical safety.
“It’s advisable that donors must freely agree to donate without any force, pressure or coercion. No financial profit,” he said.
According to him, organ donation may involve a living donor or a deceased donor following brain or circulatory death, depending on the medical and legal circumstances.
“Selling or buying organs is strictly illegal worldwide; donation must be purely altruistic,” Chinasa said.
He added that potential donors must undergo comprehensive medical and psychological assessments.
“Medical teams should evaluate whether the organs are healthy enough and free from severe infections, transmissible diseases or extensive cancer before donation,” he said.
That distinction is critical in a country where stories about kidney sellers, organ trafficking and alleged exploitation of vulnerable people can easily become mixed up with legitimate, medically supervised donation.
The World Health Organisation’s guiding principles support voluntary, non-remunerated donation and reject the buying and selling of human organs. The WHO has also warned against organ trafficking and transplant tourism, stressing the need to protect vulnerable populations and ensure ethical transplantation systems.
Between love and fear
For many Nigerians interviewed by NAN, willingness to donate depended heavily on who would receive the organ.
Mr Dominion Peter, a businessman at Balogun Market, Lagos, said he would not donate any of his organs, regardless of his relationship with the recipient.
“For things like blood, I can easily donate; but when it comes to donating any of my organs, I can’t do it,” he said.
“God that created the human being with the organs has a reason for doing that.
“So I don’t think for any reason, it should be intentionally tampered with, unless out of life’s uncertainties something happened to them.”
Peter’s position reflects a powerful sentiment in Nigerian society: that the human body is not simply a biological machine whose components can be replaced or transferred.
For Mr Jude Ndubuisi, however, the equation is different.
He said he would willingly donate an organ to a close relative if doing so could save the person’s life.
“I can willingly donate any of my organs to a relative if need be, just to save the person’s life. However, such donation would only be limited to relatives very dear to me,” he said.
Miss Nmesoma Machukwu expressed a similar but more restricted willingness.
“If it is my parents and sister, I can consider donating any of my organs, but any other person, I can’t,” she said.
Mrs Belynda Emerulam, a fashion designer, also favoured donation principally within the family.
Mr Ikechukwu Nze, an accountant and father of three, was more cautious.
“I would consider donating, but I would first want to understand the health implications, possible complications and how the donation could affect me in the future,” he said.
His position highlights one of the legitimate concerns that public education must address: organ donation should not be promoted through emotion alone.
Potential living donors have the right to understand the medical risks, alternatives and long-term implications before making a decision.
‘I may return incomplete’
Perhaps the most striking objection comes from the spiritual realm.
Mazi Nnaji Uzegbu, a trader and traditionalist, said his belief in reincarnation made him uncomfortable with organ donation.
“Reincarnation is of the belief that the human soul or spirit reincarnates after death, to begin another life in a new body, either in human form or in animals, depending on the moral actions of the previous life,” he said.
“So, I believe that if I donate any of my organs, I may come back not being complete in my next life.”
It is a belief that medical science cannot simply dismiss with statistics.
For health authorities seeking to improve organ donation, this is precisely where public education must become more sophisticated.
The challenge is not to ridicule traditional beliefs, but to create room for informed conversations between medical science, religious institutions, traditional authorities and communities.
A campaign that simply tells Nigerians that their fears are “superstitious” risks alienating the very people it hopes to persuade.
When science meets spirituality
The question of whether the body must remain physically whole after death has existed across cultures and religions for centuries.
But organ transplantation introduces a new dimension: a person’s physical organ can continue performing its function inside another human being long after the original owner has died.
That raises profound ethical and philosophical questions.
Can a kidney carry the identity of its former owner?
Does a transplanted heart transfer anything beyond its biological function?
Does the physical integrity of a corpse have spiritual significance?
And perhaps the most important question: if an organ can give another person years of life, should the opportunity to save that life outweigh fears that have no established medical evidence?
There are no simple answers to the philosophical questions. But medicine can be clear about what is medically known and what is not.
There is no established medical evidence that donating an organ causes reincarnation problems or spiritual deformity.
At the same time, living donation is not risk-free, which means prospective donors deserve careful screening, independent counselling and long-term follow-up rather than emotional pressure.
The law is clear on commercialisation
Nigeria’s legal framework also seeks to draw a sharp line between altruistic donation and the commercial exploitation of human organs.
The National Health Act 2014 provides a framework governing transplantation, including requirements relating to authorised hospitals, medical practitioners and consent. Legal analyses of the Act note that transplantation services must be conducted in duly authorised facilities and that commercialisation of human organs is prohibited.
Section 48 of the Act establishes informed consent as a central safeguard for the removal of tissue from a living person, while Section 51 addresses transplantation in authorised hospitals.
However, legal scholars have also identified shortcomings and ambiguities in the framework, particularly around the definition and procedures for appropriate consent and the regulation of organ donation.
That means Nigeria’s challenge is not simply persuading people to donate.
The country must also give potential donors confidence that the system will protect them.
The supply-demand gap
Surgeon Dr Emeka Anyanwu described transplantation as a life-saving treatment for patients suffering from organ failure.
He noted that demand for transplantation continues to rise while the number of available organs remains far below what is required.
That imbalance is not unique to Nigeria. Globally, the demand for transplantation substantially exceeds available supply, while the shortage of organs can create incentives for unethical practices such as trafficking and transplant tourism. WHO has consequently placed strong emphasis on ethical, transparent and voluntary donation systems.
For Nigeria, expanding transplantation therefore requires more than recruiting donors.
It requires investment in specialist hospitals, transplant surgeons, nephrologists and other specialists; reliable laboratories and tissue-typing services; intensive-care capacity; donor registries; follow-up systems; transparent allocation mechanisms and public confidence in the health system.
It also requires a functional framework for deceased donation.
Historically, Nigeria’s transplant activity has been dominated by living donors. Academic research has identified the absence of adequate infrastructure and enabling systems for deceased donation as a major constraint.
A question of trust
Miss Elizabeth Ayodeji, a student, said she supported organ donation but stressed the importance of sustained public education.
That may ultimately be the missing link.
A Nigerian who has heard stories about organ harvesting may understandably fear hospitals. A person who has grown up hearing that the body must be buried whole may fear spiritual consequences. Someone who has seen reports of people selling kidneys because of poverty may wonder whether “donation” is really voluntary.
These concerns cannot be brushed aside.
Instead, Nigeria needs a national conversation that distinguishes organ donation from organ trafficking, voluntary donation from commercial transactions, medical transplantation from criminal organ harvesting, and legitimate cultural beliefs from medically established facts.
The country also needs to make the donor — not just the recipient — central to the conversation.
A donor should know what is being removed, why it is being removed, what the immediate and long-term risks are, who will receive it, what protections exist and what happens if complications arise.
That is the foundation of informed consent.
‘I don’t think I can’
Some Nigerians remain firmly opposed.
Taiwo Akande, a 200-level undergraduate of Lagos State University, Ojo, said reports of kidney donors experiencing health complications had made her reluctant to donate.
“I don’t think I can donate my organ, though I don’t pray for anyone close to me to require organ donation for their survival,” she said.
Mr Joseph Adeyinka, a civil servant, meanwhile, condemned the sale of organs for financial gain.
His position mirrors the WHO’s insistence that the human body should not become a marketplace. The WHO guiding principles explicitly condemn financial gain from the buying and selling of human organs and advocate voluntary, non-remunerated donation.
Lagos-based journalist Uchechi Afonne said she would consider donation if a loved one’s survival depended on it and she was medically fit to donate.
She added that she could also consider donation where waiting for a paid organ could jeopardise the patient’s survival.
The responses illustrate the central paradox surrounding organ donation in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians are willing to give blood. Fewer are willing to give an organ. And even fewer are prepared to consider giving an organ to someone outside their immediate family.
From taboo to informed choice
World Organ Donation Day, observed annually on Aug. 13, is intended to raise awareness of the life-saving value of organ donation and honour donors and their families. The 2026 observance has again highlighted the need to dispel misconceptions and build greater understanding of donation.
For Nigeria, the occasion should be more than another awareness day.
It should provoke a national conversation about what kind of transplant system the country wants.
Nigeria has already demonstrated that it can perform successful kidney transplantation. St. Nicholas Hospital, which pioneered the procedure in the country in 2000, now reports that its transplant unit has performed more than 500 successful kidney transplant surgeries.
The question now is whether the country can move from isolated medical successes to a sustainable national transplantation system.
That requires confronting the myths without insulting the people who hold them; strengthening the law without creating fear; protecting donors without discouraging altruism; and expanding transplantation without allowing commercial interests to turn human organs into commodities.
Ultimately, organ donation is not simply a medical procedure.
It is a conversation about life, death, dignity, family, faith, law and the meaning of human solidarity.
For the Nigerian patient waiting for a kidney, however, the philosophical debate has a very real deadline.
Somewhere in a hospital ward, someone is waiting.
And somewhere else, someone may possess the organ that could give that person another chance at life.
The challenge is to build a system in which that gift can be made freely, safely, ethically and without fear.
(Original story: News Agency of Nigeria — NAN)