…A bottle of soft drink costs N10,000 in the area
Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Founder of Pro-life Plus, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Mr. Sonny Pat Natson, has expressed concern over the rising number of commercial sex spots and clubs where ladies go to obtain abortion services in Kaduna metropolis.
Pro-Life is specialized in the crusade against the abortion of unwanted pregnancies. Natson, 70, a former lecturer in Secretarial Studies at the Kaduna Polytechnic has been engaged in the crusade for 31 years and doggedly pursued this purpose by mounting daily campaigns against this criminal activity all over the country. Though based in Kaduna, capital of Kaduna State, Natson has never been hindered in the campaign he started as a lecturer at Kaduna Polytechnic, focusing on educating young women on the dangers of abortion.
On the present rate of abortion, Natson said: “It is increasing; it has reached an epidemic level for a very long time. Now, it is even getting worse; with family not existing any more, parents are even afraid of disciplining their children; many parents can’t talk to their children, many parents don’t know what to tell their children. So there is laxity in what we call family system.
“The sad thing is that we Nigerians are not good at keeping data. There is no day that passes without having one or two cases of abortion. In Kaduna, babies are dumped at garbage sites on daily basis. They pack them up, some dead already, but some still alive. To make matters worse, you could see 10-year-old girls pregnant – a case of children carrying children. So abortion cases is growing worse every day especially when old men take joy in impregnating young girls and giving them money to go and do abortion because they can’t face the consequences before their family or children.
“So abandonment of new born babies is happening in Kaduna every day. The other day, I got a phone call telling me that one dead new born baby was found near a gutter. Eventually the mother was traced, it is very sad. What is happening in Kaduna and environs as far as issue of abortion is concerned, is not encouraging at all. The future of our children is bleak; in fact, everybody will be crying for what is happening to the future of our children. Abortion is taking place every day. It is a worrisome situation and sad indeed,” Natson said.
Continuing he said: “In many parts of Kaduna, I have foot soldiers especially from churches where I have given lectures. The young ones who quickly identify with my NGO after such lectures often call to tell me that their sister is pregnant and wants to abort it. They will plead that I help them to stop her. I link up with them, and many times we succeeded in stopping the abortion. At another time, I will receive a call, telling me there is a lady in Jos who wants to abort her pregnancy because she said she doesn’t want the baby. Somehow I intervened through prayers, and God is against the sale of baby because Gods image is not for sale. But we encourage adoption of babies, we know reasonable people who are already queuing for adoption of babies. We don’t allow people we don’t know to adopt a baby.
The issue of how we get to know what is happening all over the town, is that we have ears to the ground because in ECWA Church, we have a group, even at HEKAN or the Catholic church, the groups keep us posted on abortion issues. We receive calls on daily basis of young ladies trying to commit abortion or have done so already. There was a particular case in Jere, Kargarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State, where a young man observed that a boy and his girlfriend were about to do abortion, and luckily for us, we didn’t know them, but a Catholic boy informed me. I said he should tell them that he knows where the abortion could be done and bring them to my house. The lie worked. I called it lie because we are anti-abortion. When they came to my house, the girl sat down exactly where you are sitting down (referring to the reporter), and the boyfriend sat near her. I allowed them to watch a short video clip on the procedure of aborting a baby. When the girl saw it, she started crying, she couldn’t stand the sight. I switched it off, and I said that is what you want to do to your baby. I asked her, do you want to do it? “She said no sir, no sir, I don’t want it. She started crying that she couldn’t kill her baby. Then I asked the boy if he was ready to pay for the abortion and he said yes, he was ready to pay for it. I turned to the girl and said that the boy who got her pregnant wanted to kill the baby inside her womb. I told her, ‘the child is your child, it is the boy’s child, and a father wants to kill his own child, and he wants to do it through you so that he makes you a murderer like himself. Do you still want the abortion be done?’ The girl said over her dead body. And I said but you came all the way from Jere with the intention to do abortion, it is a long journey.
“The boy who brought her was sitting quietly, and he was still ready to pay for the abortion. I said ok, our medical doctors are on tour now, but we will phone you immediately they return so that you can come over. So he bought this lie, they went back to Jere, but the girl refused to abort the baby. Anyway, they eventually had a baby boy, and the man who brought them to my house told me that he saw the boy who wanted the abortion done, rejoicing and carrying the baby all over the village as a proud father. He eventually married the girl properly. This was about a year ago. They later brought the baby to my house, a beautiful baby boy. The girl said she will not contemplate abortion again even if she was pregnant 20 times. I said ok, tell other girls that babies are gifts from God, you don’t kill them. If your own mother aborted you, will you be thinking of aborting others?
“That is why In Pro-Life, we don’t use the word ‘abortion’ so much again, we rather use the word ‘kill’ because abortion is murder. So you want to kill your child, but before you do it, listen to us first.”
On the moral side of the issue which frowns at sex outside wedlock or before marriage, Natson blamed parents and the faith-based organisations, saying: “If parents and church do not wake up now, sex will destroy the whole society. You see fathers impregnating their own daughters. In some cases a big boy would impregnate his own mother, not to talk of school children, boys and girls, using every classroom to prostitute. Security guards collect money at weekend to let people use their classroom for fornication. So if this thing called sex is not tamed, our future generations are finished. This immorality is the destruction of goals because all other sins are committed outside of the body. The television and internet are not helping matters because of pornographic sites. I actually refer people to read the book of Leviticus to see the danger of sex. Humanity is finished with what is happening all over the world today because of illegal sex.”
Natson said that the situation has deteriorated so much that abortion services are now obtainable in several kinds of places. He cites instances: “I don’t want to start calling names of hospitals; many of these so called clinics are abortion centres, go there anytime from 9.30pm up to midnight, you see young girls queuing for abortion. And this so called abortionists, it does not take them up to 10 minutes to get rid of unwanted babies. You find a baby paying the supreme price for being conceived; it did not ask to be conceived, but why should a baby be killed for a sin committed by its parents? There is rape all over the place, they want to kill a child because of rape, why should you kill a child for the sin committed by the parents? They call it unwanted pregnancy, so abortion is happening in these places. I know three special night clubs, I won’t mention their names and addresses here in Kaduna, where a bottle of soft drink costs N10,000 because it is too exclusive for abortion purpose.
Where a bottle of soft drink is about N10,000, you must know the kind of people who go there. And of course by 11pm you see young girls entering those places to mess up with old retired men. You see a girl who has not even finished her education, driving an SUV and all kinds of cars. Where did that money come from? It is not just the night clubs, there are many more places. I don’t even want to mention where they are located in Kaduna. But I know them. Sometime ago, I sent one of my photographers who got me some shots of half-naked girls on the queue. This mess should actually be called ‘abortoir’ because it is blood that is keeping them running. A clinic is to save life, but ‘abortoir’ is for killing of unborn babies. Unfortunately, some doctors say they do abortions to secure a baby because it is malformed in the womb, but medicine is not static, there is improvement in medicine almost every day, I am not a medical doctor but a Pro-Life campaigner. I know that these things are happening. A child desires the sympathy of a doctor, but a doctor will kill the child on the claim that the child is sick in the womb.”
He spoke further: “In the past, abortion was even unheard of in the north. Today, the story has changed for the worst. Let me tell you a story; one of my friends travelled to one of the states in the far North, I won’t mention names, to do a building project near a general hospital. Over there was this unkempt gutter by the wall, and they dug out five aborted babies, thrown over the hospital wall. That is in the North, far North for that matter, so it is happening every day, it is not a question of religious boundary; everybody is doing it.”