Incoming Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode and his wife of several years, Bolanle Ambode in few days time will be Lagos first couple and would be performing most state functions with cheerful smiles.
But underneath that facade of happiness lurks gloom caused by fertility problem and about twenty years of childlessness sources told us.
A Physics graduate of Lagos State University, Bolanle who hails from Epe met the incoming governor about 24years ago while he was working at Badagry Local Government Council as an accountant. The middle-aged couple have had a wonderful experience career wise.
Bolanle has Masters Degree from the Lagos State University in 1994, and sits atop BrandSmiths Consulting Ltd, Rehoboth Chops and Confectioneries Ltd, among others.
Akinwunmi has come on in leaps and bounds and at 24, qualified as a Chartered Accountant and completed his Masters degree programme in Accounting from University of Lagos, specializing in Financial Management.
At one-time, he was the Auditor-General for Local Government in Lagos State, at another time, he was appointed Permanent Secretary, Lagos Ministry of Finance. He later became the youngest Permanent Secretary in service and only the second person to hold both positions of Permanent Secretary and Accountant-General of the state at the same time.
If the narrative about the couple’ careers are splendid, their inability to have babies naturally has been the low point of their marriage.
Impeccable sources told OrijoReporter that the couple waited patiently for the Lord for 17 years to bless their marriage with a child but He didn’t hear their cries.
About two years, it was said that they found a way of dealing with the nagging problem when they had twins, a boy and a girl through In Vitro Fertilization(IVF) in the United States.
IVF is the process by which eggs are removed from woman’s body ovaries and mixed with sperm in a laboratory culture dish. Fertilisation takes place in this dish, “in vitro”, which means “in glass”.
Thousands of IVF babies have been born since the first in 1978. In 2009, nearly two per cent of all the babies born in the UK were conceived as a result of IVF treatment. It is likely to be recommended when a woman has blocked or damaged fallopian tubes, or her partner has a minor problem with his sperm, and success was not achieved through fertility drugs.
Orijo Reporters.