Fatherhood is not only about blood - Nigerian mental health experts advise men not to abandon non- biological children after DNA results
Nigerian mental health professionals have advised fathers not to reject their children if DNA tests confirm they are not the biological fathers.
The health experts spoke to Punch after a new DNA testing report released by a Nigerian forensic laboratory, Smart DNA Nigeria revealed that one in every four Nigerian men who undergo paternity between July 2024 and June 2025 were not the biological fathers of the children in question.
The 2025 Annual DNA Testing Report shows that 25 per cent of men tested returned negative results, slightly lower than the 27 per cent recorded in 2024. Firstborn children were the most affected, with 64 per cent of disputed firstborn sons and a significant proportion of firstborn daughters found not to belong to their presumed fathers.
Speaking with the publication, the experts warned that discovering one is not the biological father of a child is not a valid reason to emotionally or physically abandon that child, stressing that such actions could have devastating and long-lasting effects on the child’s mental health.
The physicians stressed that children must never be made to suffer the consequences of paternity disputes.
The mental health experts maintained that regardless of the biological findings, children deserve consistent love, care, and psychological stability.
The experts admitted the rising cases of paternity fraud in Nigeria, which has seen many men discover through DNA tests that they are not the biological fathers of the children they have raised.
While acknowledging that such revelations can be emotionally distressing for adults, the mental physicians warned that the real victims of these discoveries are often the children, who are subjected to rejection, neglect, and, in some cases, abuse.
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