Like every expectant parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sola Afolabi were
full of hope four years ago while expecting the first fruit of
their marriage. According to Afolabi, the couple would tease
each other on the likely name or sex of the baby before its
arrival. The long wait ended when the wife delivering a baby
boy about three years ago, precisely on January 12, 2012. His
wife conveyed the news of the new baby, who was later
named Oluwanimilo Afolabi, to Mr. Afolabi. While the father
was still expressing his joy on phone, Mrs. Afolabi called the
attention of her husband to an unusual growth she noticed on
the head of the new baby.
According to Afolabi, the family had thought the bulge, which
was then appeared small, would fizzle out with time but this
was not to be so as it got bigger and bigger as the child
grew. This forced the family to become a regular face in many
hospitals in Lagos, including the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital. To worsen the situation, aside from the lump, which
is almost as big as the head of the innocent boy, he falls sick
from time to time because of the pain and the load on his
head. He couldn’t also eat like normal kids as foods and
drinks have to be passed through a carved close to his navel
and another in his chest.
After a preliminary check, the consultants at LUTH, according
to Afolabi told the family that the baby would need an
operation for him to be normal. At age three when the experts
considered the poor boy old enough to withstand the
operation, the price was put at N500, 000, which became a
burden for a family, that relied on proceed from their petty
trading. As a result of this, they began to run from pillar to
post until a reporter saw the need to make news out of the
case by publishing their story in one of the national dailies a
few weeks ago. That singular act turned out to be the needed
move as it caught the attention of many Nigerians, including
the General Overseer of Mountain of Liberation and Miracle
Ministries, aka Liberation City, Pastor Chris Okafor, who
decided to rescue the family on reading the story
“I was going through the dailies, when I saw the story of a
three year old boy who was having an abnormal growth on his
head. God spoke to me instantly to fish out the baby and
provide the money needed to carry out the operation. I called
my aides and appealed to them to go after the writer of the
story. That was how we were able to contact the father of the
little Oluwanimilo Afolabi, and decided to donate the sum the
sum of N500, 000 for his treatment,”
Meanwhile, the elated father of Oluwanimilo held the
congregation spellbound when he gave the account of how the
problem started. He said the abnormal growth was noticed
from the first day the boy was born and that the family
thought it was ordinary boil. As days turned into weeks, we
noticed it was growing in size. All this while, the child refused
to eat. If the mother breast-fed him he would vomit
everything. Anything he took in, he would vomit. I became
scared. I ran to the nurse that took his delivery to complain
and she advised us to take him to LUTH. On getting to LUTH
we were told he couldn’t eat because the passage where food
goes to was blocked. As I speak with you he only eats
through the tube attached to his navel.
“The doctors at LUTH said it was going to be an operation
but that it couldn’t be carried out then because of his tender
age. Now that he is three year old with the growth almost as
big as his head, the doctors said he is of age but gave us a
bill of N500, 000 to remove the lump. Since we had the baby,
our lives have never remained the same because of the need
to continue looking for money to take care of him. Then we
got a surprise invitation from Pastor Okafor after a newspaper
publication, when we thought there was no more hope.
On why Mr. Afolabi has been the one carrying the baby around
in the last few months, he gave cheering news of how his wife
delivered a new baby few months ago, which makes her to
remain at home, while the father takes care of Oluwanimilo.