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.
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