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Gyang Bere, Jos
Mrs Oluchi Ezekiel, an Igbo woman from Imo State and her husband, Jok Ezekiel, who is a native of Gyel District of Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State, are among the happiest couples that celebrated the Yuletide last year. The couple was blessed on Tuesday, December 19, few days before Christmas with quadruplets.
In a very clear and direct manner, the biblical passage, Psalm 65:11, which says that “God crowns the year with goodness” was fulfilled in the life of the couple. This happened for them as the world was about to roll over into a New Year and a new decade. Oluchi who got married on November 2, 2014 had been contending for five solid years with the challenges of childlessness. Her situation became unbearable and psychologically traumatic when people in the community where she lived with her husband began to ridicule and mock her for not having given birth to a child, especially considering that she was not a Berom native. Oluchi became so miserable and had even contemplated quitting the marriage.
For Oluchi, a 33-year-old graduate of Nursing, University of Jos, the tears from her night weeping became a sort of clothing, particularly in the months when her menstruation would cease and often led her to believe that she had conceived, and then suddenly the menstrual flow would manifest again.
Her troubles increased when her husband started buying into the idea of her detractors, who went about peddling falsehood that she had lost her womb after several abortions.
Oluchi was hopeless and helpless with no companion in the community; in fact, she was isolated at some point, but like the biblical Hannah, she courageously and faithfully looked up to God for divine intervention in her situation.
Recalling the trauma of those days, Oluchi told Sunday Sun: “We got married on November 2, 2014, and I was hoping to get pregnant immediately, but that couldn’t happen and throughout the past five years, it had not been easy; life had been very rough.
“Since we got married, people have said a lot of unpleasant things about me and they had been expecting me to have a baby. But we are not God that gives children. Throughout those years, life was not kind to me. To be frank and honest, people said a lot of things, but I kept holding unto God and faith, believing in God. I had the hope that God would surely do it for me one day.
“I was just hoping, almost helplessly. You can imagine that every month that I thought I would get pregnant, my period would just come; I was demoralized and very angry because I was expecting something.
“There was a lot of pressure coming from different angles, even to the extent of trying to cause separation between my husband and myself. People were saying a lot of things about me. Some said that I was a prostitute and had no womb. Some even called me a man, and asked mockingly, ‘have you ever seen where a man gave birth to a child?’
“Some said I had done many abortions. But the God I am serving has vindicated me today, I kept holding onto God. I am a member of Winners Church, Living Faith Church Worldwide. I went to Shiloh in 2016, and in one of the programmes, our Daddy in the Lord, Bishop David Oyedipo, said that those who came for fruit of the womb should stand up.
“I stood up immediately that night, and he said we should pick our Bible and write the names of our children. I said, ‘Shiloh 2016, my case is different’ and I wrote three names in my Bible.”
The Almighty God, who promised to never leave nor forsake those that put their trust in Him, wiped away Oluchi’s tears, when she discovered, in May 2019, that she had conceived. The pleasant discovery came after a persistent fever compelled her to see a doctor soon after finishing her studies in the Department of Nursing, University of Jos.
Initially, Oluchi thought the fever was as a result of academic stress, but when her husband insisted on her visiting a doctor, she was confirmed pregnant. The confirmation was like a bolt of thunder and so shocking that for a moment. Oluchi, as would be expected, had desired to immediately get pregnant after marriage, but when that did not materialize, she was naturally disturbed. When it eventually happened , a bit of doubt swept over her mind. But all that changed when laboratory tests and ultra-sound scan taken some months later showed that she was truly pregnant. That was when she really believed.
With joy of conception growing in her heart, Oluchi carefully nurtured the pregnancy, completely unaware that quadruplets were growing in her womb. When she attended antenatal care at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) and ultrasound scans were done as the pregnancy progressed, the babies ‘bunched’ together like one big baby, but situation changed on Tuesday, December 16, after labour had started.
She was rushed to JUTH about 3:00a.m on that fateful day. A fresh scan was done, which revealed to the shock of the medical team that a set of quadruplets was about to be born.
The hospital management referred her to Fertile Ground Hospital, Zaramaganda, as an emergency case about 3:00p.m because their incubators were filled.
Few hours after she was received at Fertile Ground Hospital, a cesarean operation was carried out and she was delivered of quadruplets, comprising three boys and one girl.
The derided woman, who had been in the wilderness of childlessness has since the birth of the babies been thanking God for taking away her reproach. Interestingly, early in 2019, Oluchi had informed the husband that she would quit the marriage after completing her studies.
Hear her: “Throughout those years, after attending Shiloh 2016, I was thanking God for the gift of the children whose names I had written in the Bible. It was during Shiloh 2018 that I decided that I would use my Shiloh sacrifice to pay school fees for three children, since I wrote three names in 2016; I asked God for direction on how to do it and I paid school fees for three children in my neighbourhood.
“I had told my husband that once I was through with my studies, I would leave him and go because I had not given him a child and he was extremely bothered. Certainly, as a human being, occasions would come and you would start to believe what people say to you, so I think he faced this temptation.
“At that time, I was rounding off my studies in the University of Jos, but by the time I finished my exams and my project, I became pregnant and didn’t know. I thought it was the stress of academic work. I said I had stressed myself a lot, and decided to treat myself for malaria, but the illness persisted.
“The fever was coming on and off and my husband decided that we should go to the hospital and check to know what was wrong. When we went to the doctor, he confirmed that I was pregnant, but even me myself did not believe it because I was not expecting it.
“My husband was asking the doctor if he is sure that I am pregnant. We left the hospital without any form of certainty and the doctor said, we should come back in two weeks time, we went back and he confirmed it that I was pregnant and that was when we believed that I was pregnant.
“Between 2014 when I got married to the time I became pregnant, I went through a lot of trauma. I don’t know how to describe it, but I went through hell because of the kind of person I am, and where I am come from. There were all these tribal issues; my husband is from Plateau and I am Igbo, so there is that tribal sentiment, but the only think I was doing was to give thanks to God.
“My husband is a contractor in Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), he is a environmentalist. The hospital has a cleaning company and he is one of the contractors.”
Continuing the story of the beautiful Christmas gift she got, Oluchi (which in Igbo means, the work of God) told Sunday Sun with a smile: “As I said earlier, I wrote three names of children during Shiloh 2016, and I was trusting God for the three children, but God added one for me, and I never knew that the children would come in one day.
“Whenever I went for ultrasound scan, the babies did not show. I was thinking that I would give birth to a child, but today I have four at a stretch. I am grateful to God. I gave birth on Tuesday 19, 2019 at Fertile Ground Hospital, Zaramaganda Jos, through caesarean section.
“I don’t know how to pay the bill, I am trusting God that he will see me through on that because the hospital usually charges based on the number of children. For now, I don’t have a clue of what the bill will look like, but it will be much.”
When our reporter visited the hospital, two of the children were seen in the ward with the mother while two were in the incubator.
She said the children were doing very well and that the two children in the incubator were under medical observation.
“All the children are doing well, they are breastfeeding very well and we don’t have problem with any of them by the grace of God.”
As would be expected, the husband is over the moon and has been giving thanks to God for the gift of the children.
“It is not easy for a woman to stay for four to five years without a child especially when you eagerly desire to have children. I was seriously bothered during the period, but I thank God for his intervention.
“To be sincere, I was not expecting these children at this moment. I am a contractor with Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) and we have not been told about the bill, but we are trusting God on how to pay it.”
Jok appealed to the state government and philanthropists to assist the family to pay off the hospital bill and have extra to care for the children.
