George Aluo and Ephraim Nwosu
Chioma Ajunwa must be the luckiest woman in the world such that everything she touches turns gold.
She was the first woman to give Nigeria her first Olympic gold medal when she made an extraordinary leap at the Atlanta 96 Olympics to win gold in long jump, clearing a distance of 7.5 metres.
Many years after her marriage, she had been looking for a baby but the baby was not just coming. But as God would have it, she finally gave birth to triplets and the news made headlines in conventional and social media.
She decided to tell her story only to The Nigerian Xpress Sports in a recent chat. During her childless ordeal, Ajunwa said she was “not too desperate” for a baby because as a believer, she didn’t want to go fetish and end up, getting a “spirit child” or “mammy water baby”, as they call such child in local parlance.
“I had this strong faith that in God’s own time, the baby would come when it would. This is because I know my good God that I serve never fails. My parents had nine of us; my husband’s parents had seven of them, so there was no reason to think that we were barren. As a pastor, my husband was always consoling me… ‘Must everything be about a child?’, he would always admonish me to leave everything for God. ‘If the baby comes, fine, but if it doesn’t, to God be the glory.”
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Continuing, Chioma said: “In spite of all what my husband was saying, his admonitions, deep inside me, I was saying, this is what men use to say, tomorrow his relatives will pressurise him to go and marry another woman.”
True to Chioma’s faith, the babies came. Not just one, not two, but three.
Three golden babies! We asked her how she felt when God eventually answered her prayers.
Chioma, who is at present an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), said: “It was awesome. I can never sacrifice them for anything in the world. They mean everything to me. They are very precious gift from God and mean everything to me. When I was pregnant, I asked God for many things; the number one thing was that if this should become a reality, I promised God I would return the children to Him and I would give a giant offering. To God be the glory, it came to pass at the end of the day! My babies are two boys and a girl. Of the two male, one is Joshua, the other is Caleb, while the girl is Rose.”
While Chioma is celebrating her babies and making sure they grow up to become God fearing children, she has also been using her foundation, Chioma Ajunwa Foundation, to fight drug among the youths in a bid to make them responsible citizens of the world.
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Just last week, her Foundation organised a one-day anti-drug seminar that attracted over 200 secondary school students. The event took place at the Ikeja Police College.
The seminar was graced by all the major anti-drug and security agencies as well as resource persons from the University of Lagos.
Speaking after the very successful seminar, Chioma said her vision is to see the menace of drug in the society being reduced to the barest minimum. She added that as an athlete, she suffered a drug induced setback, which she wouldn’t want any upcoming Nigerian youth to suffer.
“I was a victim of drug ,as an athlete and I don’t want any of our youths to undergo the same pain. Drug is a killer and we need to sensitise the youths about it and do everything possible to make sure they stay out of drug and tobacco,” she said.
