It was hell looking for a child for 15 years - Oshiomhole’s aide

He is a top notch politician, very influential and generally successful. But for Hon. Omon Ezomon and his beautiful wife, Bridget, there was a painful snag.
For 15 years, the couple had no child. Recently, however, God wiped away their tears and removed their shame. After 15 harrowing years of waiting on the Lord, Ezomon and his wife were blessed with a bouncing baby girl.

Hon. Ezomon, is the Special Adviser on Legislative Matters to the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole. Thrice, he contested and won elections to represent Owan West constituency in Edo State House of Assembly. Despite being elected the Deputy Speaker of the House in 2003, a position he held until late 2006, Ezomon and his wife lived with a vacuum in their lives.

But all that changed with the arrival of a baby girl, Favour, Ehabi (Destiny) Ezomon. And since the arrival of the bundle of joy, the Ezomons’ home in Benin City has become a house where joy dwells. According to Mrs. Ezomon, when the doctor told her that the result of the pregnancy test she took was positive, she could not contain her joy. Excited and nervous, she put a call through to her husband who was on his way to China and informed him about the good news.“In tears, I told him that by the time he returned from his trip, he should start preparing to be a father,” she told Daily Sun. With a precautionary advice from her doctor to take some rest, she confessed with a glint: “To me, rest was an understatement. I immediately took a sabbatical leave from my business.”

For a woman who had been called heartbreaking names by even her loved ones, carrying the baby to the due date was one challenge she prayed fervently to surmount, especially as age was no longer on her side.Despite being in the U.S, an environment that boasts of the best medical facilities, her fears and anxiety continued to mount. “I was shaking with fear on the day of the delivery. At a point, I asked one of the nurses if I was going to die”, she recalled, a smile playing on her lips.

Mrs. Ezomon, who is still relishing the joy of motherhood, said that even in those traumatic days, she believed that God would not disappoint her.She noted that her positive stance propelled her to make preparations for the babies’ arrival, even though she was not sure of when it would be. She decorated different rooms for her expected male and female children.“Every day, I would enter the rooms I prepared for my children and say, ‘this is the boys’ room and this room is for the girls. See today what my belief has done. The Bible says it would always be unto us according to our confessions,” she stated.

On the psychological trauma her barren state inflicted on her, she remarked with a smile: “It is only those who wear the shoe that know where it pinches. It is when you feel the pains that you would fully realize what it means to be a mother after 15 years.” Speaking further, she said: “It is a feeling you cannot explain. The humiliation and the stigma were too much to bear. Sometimes, I found myself crying for days. During those trying days, it was the grace of God and the love of my husband that kept me going. I also drew strength from the book of Exodus 23 that says: ‘There shall be none barren in the land, not even among animals.”

Just as his wife, Ezomon is still bubbling with joy months after the arrival of the baby. He told Daily Sun that the birthday of his daughter would remain the greatest day of his life.The former parliamentarian said none of his political victories has given him the type of joy and sense of fulfilment he is now enjoying. But how does it feel to be married without a child for 15 years and still carry on as if nothing was wrong?The former legislator said it was a very sad memory. “The joy of seeing my first child after 15 years of marriage wiped away the pains and agony of the past. It has brought jubilation into the family. The joy of every couple is to get home every day and be welcomed by their children. When it doesn’t happen, it becomes a nightmare.

Our 15 years of childlessness were years of torment. It is difficult for someone who has not travelled that road to know how it feels. It is a very sad memory indeed.”As it is well known that pressure is mounted on a man in the African society to take a second wife after the first fails to have a child, Ezomon admitted that his case was not different. He is, however, grateful to God that he did not succumb to the pressures.“It takes the grace of God to withstand family pressure. I didn’t see the reason for a second wife because I had the kind of wife that I needed from God. Even with that problem, she remained a pillar of strength. Whatever glory that I may have achieved today politically can be attributed to her understanding and co-operation. I never lost hope of her being able to give birth one day.”

Recalling the pomp and pageantry that laced their wedding 15 years ago, the Special Adviser to Governor Oshiomole said their wedlock had the seal of heaven. According to him, the ink had hardly dried on their wedding certificate when the former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, sacked the Interim National Government’ headed by Chief Ernest Shenokan, thereby returning the country to the dark days of military rule.

Consequently, Hon. Ezomon, who incidentally was a first time legislator at the Edo State House of Assembly, lost his job.The couple who believe that their beautiful daughter would open the gate for more children could not but encourage those now travelling the path they once treaded not to lose faith in God.“Those that are still hoping and waiting upon God for the fruit of the womb should hold on to God firmly. I am a living testimony that God can revive dry bones. People thought that there was no hope for me. But I kept telling myself that there is hope. I knew it was just a question of time,” Mrs. Ezomon said.