DNA Doesn't Make a Father…Really???

Wale  and Tina wedded  in 2004, vowing their marriage would survive in good times and bad. They had five children, but like so many couples, their love for each other got lost along the way.

"[We] were just 'Mom' and 'Dad'; we talked about the kids, the bills, the house," said Tina. "Somewhere along the way we had quit having fun and spending time together."

After being at home for five years, Tina went back to work in a nursing home, where she met a man and had an affair.

When Tina became pregnant for a sixth time, her husband assumed it was his — he had no reason to think otherwise.

But then she told her husband about the affair.

To determine who the father is, they decided to get a DNA test. "The baby has a right to know the truth," said Tina. "I would hate to have him be an adult and find out the truth in some other way. You have a right to know where you came from and how you got here."

Tina added that her husband also has a right to know if he is the father of the child. But he was not. The test came back indicating that Wale "is excluded as the biological father of the child."

"It's not what I was hoping for," said Wale, who was with Tina when they opened the envelope containing the results. "Not what I thought it was, either."

For the Adesina family, science did not have the final say on what it means to be a parent. The couple decided to keep their marriage and family together. They are raising new baby Ope together.

Though Wale said, "It'll always hurt," he is not going to let Tina's affair stop him from "raising him, bringing him up."

Asked what she'll tell Ope about who is father is, Tina pointed to Wale: "This man sitting right here for all intents and purposes. DNA doesn't make a father. We're a family with all our faults. And we're far from perfect, but we are a family."

From the beginning of time, doubts about the paternity of a child have fueled family strife. Until recently, those doubts could not be resolved with any certainty. DNA testing has changed that.

Tens of people each week send cheek swab samples to be tested at DNA Centre located at 73 Allen Avenue in Ikeja to find out who is — or is not — the biological father of a child. And according to the statistics in the lab, one in three males who undergo such tests finds out he is not the biological father of a child.

The technology has advanced over the last few years, the price of the test has come down and the process is straightforward: The lab needs a cheek swab, or a strand of hair pulled from the scalp with the roots and follicle attached, and results are available usually in three to 5 days. With DNA,

we can prove that he either is the father or he's not, It is completely definitive!