Maybe her own ‘childlessness’ inspired her to help childless couples smile again. Mrs. Ibidun Ighodalo’s effort at popularising IVF is not only a humanitarian feat, but an attempt to launch Nigerian women into modern childbirth without much tears, writes SAM NWOKORO.
In this age of elitist hedonism and godlessness, when upper crust individuals in the society prefer to live a techy, soulless life insulated from the cries and worries of the lower and middle class, it is something ennobling that some could afford to spare some thoughts for the less-privileged among us. In fact, it is not just the fact that most charities are delivered in form of consumables, to satisfy the thirst for food and drink, that commends those good ones who remember the deprived that counts all the time; but that someone somewhere is thinking day and night how to help needy people obtain some precious things they have been seeking from our creator.
It is popular knowledge that Nigerian women are battling with a host of social problems not caused by them. These problems range from political emasculation, cultural taboos, harsh labour, trafficking for sexual servitude, sexual harassment and others.
But all the social problems that perturb women, infertility, simply defined as childlessness, hurts the most.
In Africa where knowledge about the physiological and social needs of the woman is so low, appreciation of the enormity of the pains of childlessness, especially to women, can be very enervating. That is why any woman that gets the opportunity to have a baby after having lost hope is always grateful to the source or facilitator of the miracle; whether it comes through religious leader or by any other means.
That is why the project of Ibidun Ighodalo, wife of the Founder of Lagos-based Trinity Church, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, comes into deeper appreciation. To those who understand the workings of the spirit and the principles of godliness, what this woman is doing is not only a miracle, but also social engineering that governments would have long popularised to minimise the rampant death of our women through childbirth and to cut the social trauma of childless couples and the associated social nuisances such as: frequent divorces, endless marital litigations, the primitive taunts of uninformed family members, risky pregnancies because of the desire to clutch a baby and many others. In fact, the benefits derivable from the popularisation of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) method of child-bearing, which Mrs. Ighodalo has undertaken as a charity work, are many and of fundamental importance in Nigeria’s health delivery system.
True African woman
A true African woman, Ibidun understands the African mindset and social philosophies. It can be deduced that she is a potential reformer, a game-changer – for in the foreseeable future, philanthropy would be veering towards those spheres of public needs which the state has failed to provide, buttressing, as it were, the very modern theory of egalitarian dialectics: societies develop faster with the “top-down” growth model, that is the trickle down model. The privileged class gets consciously aware that social conscience demands that they shed that little excess at their disposal on those below the line – the needy, those folks striving to come up to the middle class. And most of them are those in the age between 21 and early 40s. These are thejust-about-to settle-down guys who constitute the living soul of any nation. They are still regenerative and are the procreators of replacement generations of any society. They are the home-makers. And the hoi-polloi regularly feed from their good spirits. That is a better divinely-approved method of enjoying success in life and blessing from our Creator, the Father of all light from whom all good comes from.
Socially, by directing her brand of philanthropy to this most critical aspect of national worries, the productive health of the Nigerian woman, Mrs. Ibidun has demonstrated not just a nobler spirit, but also some leadership virtues that align with the United Nation (UN)’s expectation from any aspiring global leader:to inculcate the spirit of globalisation, of humanity and of seeing everyone as just a part of him or herself. That is the spirit of globalisation, of communality, and of the smallness of our world which the UN is striving strenuously to construct today.
The Ibidun Ighodalo Foundation (IIF), which recent philanthropic work on minimising the social worries of childless couples, facilitated cash grants to some 28 couples searching for babies. This is reportedly just one of its other recorded feats and which has obviously keyed the organisation and its founder on possibly a special track that would always be reckoned with as the days go by in the annals of voluntarism.
From TheNichechecks, what the wife of Trinity House shepherd has been doing with her foundation, and which curiously has not captured commensurate commendation from the authorities, costs between N800,000 and N1 million per couple.
Aligning to global consciousness
IIF, no doubt, is a manifestation of the UN’s mandates for non-governmental bodies to be effective in responding to the needs of their environments. But what makes IIF’s unique is that it has made impact in a very sensitive pedigree, in a crucial aspect of nation-building where the tycoons and those who wheeled much of Nigeria’s wealth into their pockets did not even think of. It reiterates the theory that change agents come from humble backgrounds and good things can only come from good spirits whose preoccupation is more about others and society than self.
Coincidentally, and in remembrance of September 5 every year as World Charity Day, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, used the occasion to reflect on the spirit that powers the IIF project, saying: “Charity is one of the best investments we can make in our common future. On this day of international charity, I call on people everywhere to be part of our 15-year partnership for humanity, and to help make the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a reality for all. Charity contributes to the promotion of dialogue, solidarity and mutual understanding among people. Poverty persists in all countries of the world, regardless of their economic, social and cultural situation, particularly in developing countries.
“In recognition of the role of charity in alleviating humanitarian crises and human suffering within and among nations, as well as the efforts of charitable organisations and individuals, including the work of Mother Teresa (who attained sainthood on September 4, 2016), the General Assembly of the United Nations in its in-line image designated the September 5, the anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa, as the International Day of Charity.
“On this International Day of Charity, the United Nations invites all member states and all international and regional organisations, as well as civil society, including non-governmental organisations and individuals, to commemorate the day in an appropriate manner, by encouraging charity, including through education and public awareness-raising activities.”
Obviously,the IIF project falls in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda (SDA).
Complementarity
The IIF project seems a fitting and approximate complementarity to the evangelical Trinity House Presiding Pastor, the very intellectually-minded Ituah Ighodalo. Somehow, it fulfils the biblical injunction that “blessed are the merciful…”.
What the good-natured man of God probably had little time to discharge to humanity from his rich spirit of goodness, his significant other, through the IIF, is availing to people in very excellent way. To remember that the woman was only recently a beauty queen goes a long way to show that two natures combined to make her a role model for today’s woman.
And you wait for this: Ibidun is still believing God for her own biological child.
