Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that blood transfusions are contrary to biblical teaching and therefore sinful. Two distressing cases have recently demonstrated the appalling consequences of this irrational belief.
A child in Cross Rivers state nearly lost his life because his parents – being members of the Jehovah’s Witness sect – refused to allow their dying child to receive a blood transfusion, and it took an order from a family court to save the child’s life. In a second case a medical doctor – also a Jehovah’s Witness – refused to give a blood transfusion to a woman who was in a critical condition due to the loss of blood she had suffered while giving birth. This doctor not only violated his Oath of Hippocrates, he is guilty of negligence occasioning death. This is tantamount to manslaughter and attracts a sentence of life imprisonment.
The biblical text on which Jehovah’s Witnesses usually rely when refusing blood transfusions is Acts 15: 28,29. “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, it shall be well with you.”
This doctrine has not only led to a high infant mortality rate, but also to higher maternal mortality. The Witnesses have in fact celebrated the children who have died as a result of refusing blood transfusions.
The Case for a Ban
The plain fact is that religious people in Nigeria take advantage of religious freedom to wreak havoc in society. Not only educated, literate people understand the concept of religious freedom. Illiterate people understand it as well. And many members of both groups – literate and illiterate – have an agenda. Their aim is to terrorise others in the name of religion. Moreover, Nigeria is also notable for the readiness people have to exploit certain provisions of the law in the name of religion.
Section 38 of the Nigerian constitution is like a nursery rhyme to these people, but they fail to understand that Section 38 is not absolute. The truth is, this provision which religious people rely on to promote their bigotry is restricted in its scope by Section 45 of the self-same constitution.
Enough is enough. There is no real doubt that the Jehovah’s Witnesses – also known as the Watch Tower Movement – is taking on the characteristics of a terror group and it ought to be sanctioned or proscribed. People might think that this would be unprecedented but in fact Russia is just one of a number of countries that have banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Now that Nigeria appears to be in alliance with Russia, perhaps we should do the same. After all, the law does empower the government to regulate the activities of religious organizations.
By Obasi Ikechukwu
