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David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
Ironically, while many women troop to prayer houses and traditional medicine practitioners in search of the fruit of the womb, the family of Mrs. Miriam Nkechi Ibe, a staff of Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State, who was recently blessed with quadruplets, considered the gift as ‘overdose.’
Ibe was delivered of the babies through caesarean section at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi. She said, before the quadruplets came, she had a three-year-old girl for her husband and, perhaps, in an attempt to increase the number and mix it up with a male child, four came at a go, three males and a female.
However, her spouse, a native of Mbaitoli in Imo State and an evangelist attached to St. Barth’s Anglican Church, Umuezeagu Uruagu, Nnewi, though beaming with smiles at the hospital, had mixed feelings, as he expressed concerns on how to cope with the situation, considering the economic hardship in the country.
Ibe said: “Immediately after the delivery, somebody came where I was waiting and said to me, congratulations father of four. I shouted, Jesus! I was not expecting four at a go. Actually, we were told from the scan conducted in one of the hospitals in Nnewi that the babies were three but, to my greatest surprise, they turned out to be four and that threw me off balance.”
Consequently, Ibe made an appeal to government and public-spirited individuals to come to his assistance to enable him cope with the situation. As his last resort, he sent a distress call to Nnewi-born industrialist, Chief Louis Carter Onwugbenu, who, from available record, has been responding to such calls, especially to be part of the activities to mark his birthday, always celebrated every August.
As if he waiting for the request, Onwugbenu did not hesitate to rush to NAUTH to see the Ibes, who before then were left in confusion as to how to settle the hospital bills, feed the babies and take care of some other challenges.
On arrival at the hospital, the philanthropist called for the bill of Mrs. Ibe and her babies, which attracted the attention of other indigent mothers at the maternity ward who were also delivered of babies, with some of them discharged but unable to foot their individual bills.
Out of sympathy and outside what he had envisaged, Onwugbenu later ended up paying for 12 of such indigent mothers, which amounted to about N1,500,000. He explained that it was part of the activities marking his 66th birthday this month.
He noted that he did not do that because he was the richest within his environment but that he deemed it a responsibility those whom God had blessed should not shy away from.
Onwugbenu called on other philanthropists and government not to look the other way whenever they hear the cry of the indigent, stressing that they should be helped, “because no one knows who will be what tomorrow.”
As for the quadruplets, he gave them scholarship to study up to the tertiary level in any higher institution of their choice, anywhere, under the Louis Carter Foundation, where a lot of other indigent students were already beneficiaries for some years now.
Appreciating Onwugbenu’s gesture, chief medical director of the NAUTH, Professor Anthony Igwegbe, said the industrialist had always reflected his chieftaincy title of “Okpata Ozue Ora Nnewi (He who utilises his wealth to help others)” in his actions.
He said the industrialist had always been known for such gestures at the hospital and prayed that God would continue to bless him for his acts of goodness.
The Ibes and other beneficiaries of the largesse were full of praise to God and the benefactor, being the instrument used to rescue them from financial embarrassment.
