In a press briefing themed 40@40, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo launched the Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation this weekend.
At the briefing, Pastor Ighodalo reminisced about a lady he loved deeply and admired for her beauty inside and outside, a lady he says “had so much intelligence, so much drive with a desire to live life to the fullest.”
She got married to Pastor Ituah Ighodalo 4 years into courtship.
According to the dashing Pastor of Trinity House, “Not only was she beautiful outside, she was beautiful inside.”
He added that she had so many dreams, one of which was to become a billionaire by the age of 40. He resolved that whatever it took him, he would support her to fulfil her dreams. Ituah is certain that “where she is she is much more than a billionaire.”
He talks about a lady who dreamt of serving humanity to the fullest. “She was generous to a fault.” She wanted to develop people and worship God with everything she had and dreamt of becoming truly outstanding.
According to Ighodalo, his wife had dreams of starting a family and raising beautiful children who will serve the Lord.
Ibidunni changed one of her dreams after about 10 years of marriage and 11 IVFs. According to Ituah, “she changed one of her dreams and opted to help those in search of their own babies.”
He explained that she chose to lift them up, be a shoulder for them to cry on and if they so desired, help them through with their own IVFs regardless of their financial status.
Her shoulders were large enough for those husbands and wives going through the emotions, the trauma, the pain of barrenness as well as the financial burden of artificial insemination.
The procedures cost a whooping sum of between N3 and N4 million but she never minded having been in the very same situation herself. Ibidunni was more interested in putting smiles on people’s faces as she single-handedly funded the procedures.Some of the procedures had to be done abroad and she funded the flights, hotels and medicals.
Mrs Ibidunni Ighodalo sought and got her husband’s approval to start the Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation in 2016. She told him she wanted to help as many women as God would have her support, to have their own babies.
She encouraged adoption and announced that those who did not want to adopt were welcome to go through the relevant medical procedures.
She named her husband as the Chairman and project manager, Titi Adenuga would be on the board. She drove the project with a lot of passion.
Pastor Mrs Ighodalo organised the “Couples’ Day Out” where attendees were informed about the scientific way of conception. The emotional challenges people go through with reproduction were also always discussed. Ibidunni included marriage counselling for “husbands and wives who needed to be on the same page.”
She also invited those who had struggled with child bearing in the past to come encourage those going through the traumas. Part of their role was to recount their own experiences. Indeed, she has held many TED programs where she discussed her own child-bearing challenges.
Mrs Ighodalo encouraged participants at the “Couples’ Day to know that without the help of God, some of the measure will not work. Pastors and ministers of the gospel were drafted to speak about the spiritual angle to reproduction. The pastors prayed for those believing God for the fruit of the womb.
When the Ibidunni Ighodalo kicked off in 2016, there were 12 couples who undertook the procedure with about 40% of them successfully carrying their babies already. They included a couple with a set of twins.
That particular story gave her so much joy especially when people started calling in to congratulate herself and her husband on the birth of their twins. For them, they may not be the biological parents of the children, but they were indeed their parents.
While Mrs Ighodalo was preparing for her 40th birthday in June, her husband asked what she would want for her birthday. According to him, knowing she also loved the good life. He had plans to take her on a destination celebration if she so desired but she shocked him !
She told him that she would rather “support 40 couples to have their own children.” The accountant in Ituah believed it was going be more expensive than a destination birthday celebration. A quick mental calculation gave a bill of between 80 to a 100 million naira.
Worried about the source of funds, he said his wife “again said to me, ‘God will provide.’ ”
The fearless Ibidun began to work on sourcing the funds immediately, telling her friends and every reliable financial enabler.
In preparing for the celebration, she sent a text message to celebrity photographer, T Y Bello at 11:18pm, the night before she died. She told in the text message Bello, that “T Y, I am doing 40 by 40 for my birthday. Begin to plan with me.”
Indeed, Bello began designing the the invitation card whose wordings were after Ibidun’s death, change to reflect her thoughts for the foundation.
“T Y showed Ituah the text after his wife died.
Ituah, in his typical strength that has help alleviate the pains of friends, associates and family left to mourn the death of his beloved wife held on, staying strong and seeing the passing of his wife as the will of God.
He told newsmen at the launch of the Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation that “fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, on the 14th day of June, the year 2020, my wife passed.”
“It was one of the very very challenging days of my life and it has been since that time, a very very difficult time.”
Ituah says that in spite of it all, he thanked God for grace, strength and hope and “for being who HE IS.
“Since her family, his’ and her friends knew that this was his wife’s desire, they all resolved that whatever it takes, 40 couples will be lifted from the pain of childlessness.
Pastor Ighodalo believes that with the grace of God, the couples will get a 100% success with medical procedures.
He used the occasion of the launch of the foundation to call for support as they cannot go the journey alone. He hopes that members of the public would support the quest financially.
Ituah acknowledged that quite a few people have responded already while some of her friends including school mates from FGC Oyo and classmates from the the University of Lagos that have come together and given a cheque.
He added that some private individuals have also identified and with the project and made contributions.
#ibidunniighodalo is arguably the most celebrated person in Nigeria in recent history after her death. Tributes have continued to pour in from the many people whose lives she touched both directly and indirectly. Those who didn’t meet her before her death indeed regret not crossing her parts.
For those who happened to have come across Ibidun, she is the biblical selfless Dorcas, one of Jesus’s disciples whose people trouped out at her death to extol her generosity and kindness.
It is also argued that she was lucky to have married a man who helped and encouraged her to be the very best of herself, a scenario that is rare in the average African family.
People who know her husband, Ituah describe how they are both birds of the very same feather, kind, selfless, hardworking, an achiever and loved by the high and mighty. Indeed everyone has made the grief of Ibidunni’s passing somewhat easy to handle.
Nigeria continues to mourn a queen by all standards.
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