29092019 - 2023: Controversy over Pastor Tunde Bakare's prophecy on Buhari's

PAGE 26— SUNDAY VANGUARD, SEPTEMBER 29, 2019
UTERINE FIBRODS:
I suffered painful
menstrual bleeding
for five years
– Beneficiary of Lulu-Briggs Foundation outreach
BY KOLAWOLE IGANDAN
The atmosphere at La Sien Pavilion, a
high end event centre in Port Harcourt,
penultimate Saturday (September 21)
was electrifying. Indeed the whole of the Rivers
State capital was agog with the news that 100
patients of uterine fibroids would enjoy free
surgery, courtesy of OB Lulu-Briggs
Foundation (OBLBF) in commemoration of
its 18th anniversary. It was a clear
manifestation of the Biblical saying that many
are called but few are chosen as <strong>over</strong> 500
women turned up asking to benefit from the
medical largesse.
With the average medical bill
of removing uterine fibroids
running up to N350, 000,
depending on the size of this
unwanted growth, and with the
medical condition afflicting at
least 50 per cent of women of
reproductive age, according to Dr.
Rosemary Ogu, a consultant
pediatrician/gynecologist with the
University of Port Harcourt
Teaching Hospital, there is no
doubt that this procedure is out of
the reach of the average Nigerian
woman. It was therefore expected
that most of these women who had
been suffering in silence would turn
out for the screening to benefit from
this opportunity of a life time.
The focus of this year’s
anniversary, uterine fibroids
awareness and sensitization
campaign, took its root from the
Foundation’s Medical Mission
outreach which took place during
the second quarter of this year.
Speaking during the seminar, the
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, <strong>Pastor</strong> (Dr.)
Mrs. Seinye OB Lulu-Briggs, explained why
the focus was on uterine fibroids.
“Earlier this year, at the Medical Mission
which we hosted from May 20 – 24, 2019 in
Bakana, ultrasound scanning services were
among the diagnostics set up,” Mrs. Lulu-
Briggs, who was represented by her
spokesman, Barrister Oraye St. Franklyn, said.
“We were surprised by the number of women
who found out that they required urgent
fibroids surgery. However, due to the nature
of the surgery and after care requirements, we
were unable to provide fibroids surgery during
the mission.”
According to her, the Foundation promised
the women that it would c<strong>over</strong> the cost of their
fibroid surgery, adding that in the course of
planning for their treatment, OBLBF found
out that “about 80 per cent of women <strong>over</strong> 50
have fibroids while about 30 per cent of this
group will develop such symptoms as undue
discomfort of heavy and painful menstrual
bleeding, premature labour, miscarriage and
even loss of fertility.”
Promptly, the
Foundation secured the
partnership of the Rivers
State University Teaching
Hospital and the
When you are
operated for
fibroids and the
womb is left
empty by not
getting pregnant,
the fibroids can
come back after
three years
University of Port Harcourt
Teaching Hospital, as well
as the collaboration of the
Medical Women
Association of Nigeria
(MWAN), Rivers State
chapter, for the project.
In keeping with its word,
the Foundation launched
a month-long fibroids
awareness-raising
campaign, having
previously handled some
other diseases such as
Parkinson’s disease (2010),
prostate cancer (2016),
kidney disease and
diabetes (2018).
Saturday’s seminar, with
the theme, “Raising
Awareness about Uterine
Fibroids: Get Informed; Take Action,”
was the grand finale of the event, where the
guest speaker, Dr. (Mrs.) Ogu, declared that
the cause of the unwanted growth was yet
unknown.
“Concerning the causes of fibroids,” the
consultant pediatrician/gynecologist said, “we
don’t know. So many researches and studies
have been carried out, but no one knows the
causes,” adding, however, “But we know there
are genetic and hormonal factors.”
The physician, who is a former president of
MWAN in Rivers State, said uterine fibroids
are more common among Africans and
counseled women that it is better to have
fibroids surgery here “because more of the
surgeries are done here.”
She confirmed the fear that fibroids could
grow again in a woman’s womb after it has
been removed surgically. “When you are
operated for fibroids and the womb is left
empty by not getting pregnant, the fibroids
can come back after three years”, Dr. Ogu
said.
She also said a virgin womb, that is, a womb
that has never carried a baby, can play host to
fibroids growth.
The coordinator of programmes of the
Foundation, Mrs. Mrs. Ineba Tongkam,
speaking at a press conference to herald the
event, said OBLBF started its extensive giving
out in September 2001 with the Care for Life
programme’s health which provides
healthcare, shelter, food, monthly stipends and
social support to elderly citizens in Rivers State.
For the prospective beneficiaries who were
being registered before the event, OBLBF was
God-sent. Mrs. Tumini Greene said she
disc<strong>over</strong>ed she had fibroids last year
September when she went for scan on the
advice of a friend after bleeding non-stop for
two weeks against her normal menstrual days
of five to seven. She heard of the OBLBF
largesse and decided to go for it. “I got to hear
about this O.B Lulu Briggs Foundation project,
so I decided to attend since it is free so I can be
able to undergo the surgery because the pain
is becoming unbearable.”
A grandmother, Mrs. Beatrice Evans,
accompanied her daughter to the programme.
According to her, her daughter had been
suffering from fibroids for <strong>over</strong> five years until
they heard the announcement and decided to
give it a shot. “I heard the announcement, and
we came to see if God will, through this
foundation help us, because we do not have
money for the surgery,” she said. “If God uses
them to bless my daughter, I will forever be
grateful to them.”
A man who accompanied his wife to the
programme and simply identified himself as
Fred, said, “We got the information about this
programme, so we decided to come. There
was a test run on my wife when she was
pregnant and we found out she had fibroid.
So getting here today, we found out that the
information was true that the O.B Lulu Briggs
Foundation wants to help the less-privileged.
We are less-privileged because we do not have
money for surgery.
“That is why we decided to come here, we
have done scan and the fibroid is still there.
So I am praying and hoping that her name
will be amongst the 100 people that the O.B
Lulu Briggs foundation wants to take care of.
So we appreciate their effort and God will
continue to bless them.”
Commending the Foundation while giving
a goodwill message during the seminar, the
national chairman of the South-South Chiefs
and Elders Forum, High Chief (Dr.) Onigbi
Atuboinoba Harry, said with more of the likes
of the late High Chief Olu Benson Lulu Briggs
in Africa, the continent will be rid of
xenophobic attacks, adding that if other
wealthy Africans would be kind-hearted like
the founder of MoniPulo Limited, more jobs
would be created and frustration will be
reduced in the land.
Said High Chief Harry: “The program is
fantastic, it is divine, it is what Nigerians need.
It is not about stacking money, saving it
abroad and killing our children elsewhere like
the xenophobia attack in South Africa where
lives have been lost. If we have more of people
like O.B Lulu Briggs, there will be job
opportunities and frustration will be reduced
in the land.”
The OB Lulu-Briggs Foundation was
founded in 2001 to consolidate the informal
corporate social responsibility efforts of the
founder of MoniPulo, High Chief OB Lulu-
Briggs, who passed on last December and was
being <strong>over</strong>seen by his wife, <strong>Pastor</strong> (Mrs.) Seinye
OB Lulu-Briggs.
The Foundation’s Medical Missions
Programme started out as the Care for Life
Quarterly Free Medical Week in Abonnema,
Rivers State, in 2005. Since then, 124,826 men,
women and children in rural and semi-urban
areas of Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and
Rivers states have received access to quality
health care services and health awareness
education free of charge.
The Foundation has also responded to huge
un-met demand for ophthalmic care across
the Niger Delta by taking vision care clinics
to communities to promote good vision for
all and help prevent conditions that routinely
impair sight. The Foundation also promotes
preventive health through awareness raising
campaigns and c<strong>over</strong>s the costs of specialized
medical treatments for individuals from
indigent families.
Speaking at the thanksgiving service to
round off the anniversary on Sunday, which
also doubled as the 11th anniversary of Chapel
of God International Worship Centre, the guest
minister, Venerable Duben Okwaosa said <strong>over</strong>
the years, God had used the worship centre to
give voice to the voiceless.
In his sermon, “God of Eleventh Hour,” he
likened the patriarch of the Lulu-Briggs family,
the late High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs, and his
wife, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs, who is the
senior pastor of the church, to the Biblical
Abraham and Sarah, prophesying that she
would laugh last like Sarah.
The church’s cup ran <strong>over</strong> in attendance,
with <strong>over</strong> 1,100 worshippers who came to
rejoice with the family.