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Nineteen years ago, God blessed the family of Pastor and Mrs Sobowale-Davies with twins. Expectedly, the arrival of the newborn babies at the Island Maternity Hospital, Lagos was supposed to be a moment of love and joy for the family.
But, that was not to be. To their shock, the twins were joined at the abdomen and sternum (chest), and their livers fused.
That crisis literarily created a heavy burden on the couple who were not prepared emotionally and materially for such challenge.
Mrs Kikelomo Sobowale-Davies, an accountant and civil servant, never imagined such would happen to her because when she was pregnant, her joy knew no bound.
“I never imagined something like this happening to me. When I became pregnant, I was overjoyed, having a bundle of joy in my stomach. I did the necessary scans that I could. You know the ones the pregnant women do, and no abnormalities were detected. They said they were twins,” she recalled.
Narrating her experiences in a 10-minute 45 second documentary entitled: My Asiwaju story, Mrs Sobowale-Davis recalled that she broke down shortly after she was taken delivery of the twins on July 16, 2003.
“I began to cry and I wondered how they were going to live their normal lives. I couldn’t imagine, but all I knew was that they were alive and I knew that they would surely survive,” she said in the documentary.
Mrs Sobowale-Davis’worries might not be unconnected with the fact that conjoined twins are uncommon, occurring in about one in every 50,000 to 60,000 births. And that 40 to 60 per cent are stillborn, with 35 per cent surviving only one day. “They couldn’t stop crying. Because of their positions, feeding them was difficult. And at times, one would want to sleep and the other one wanted to be awake. So, for them, it was kind of inconvenient. I felt for them,” she recalled.
More worrisome for the couple was the chance of carrying out a successful surgery on the twins.
Lamenting their predicament, Davies, a pastor and businessman, wondered how the family could get the needed support for the surgery as well as the societal issues about the Siamese twins.
“We were also concerned about their health, and a lot of societal issues concerning the twins. And we knew we the needed surgery for them to live separate lives. But, as a family we didn’t have the financial strength,” he said.
But it was common knowledge that the medical expertise and equipment required to perform such a major surgery were not available at the time, and even if they were, it would require a medical miracle. However, one week after the twins’birth and in the midst of the agonising experiences, some encouraging news came their way.
According to Davies, the then Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Leke Pitan, informed him that Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had taken a keen interest in the twins and that he was ready to assist the family to take care of the surgery.
To Mrs. Sobowale-Davis, that news came to her as a surprise. “I was surprised when he told me Asiwaju knew about it. We don’t know him from anywhere. And after a few days, his wife, Senator Remi Tinubu, came to visit us at the Island. And they assured us that all would be well.”
The promises by Governor Tinubu were backed by timely actions as the twins and their parents were prepared for a medical trip to Maryland for the surgery.
“Senator Remi Tinubu asked us if we had valid passports for the trip, and we told her we didn’t have. He said we should not bother, that she would arrange everything for us for the journey and the separation of the twins,” Sobowale-Davies recalled.
The choice of Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre in Baltimore, Maryland, United States was top on the list of possible hospitals for the surgery. And a team of 17 medics were assembled for the task, including Dr. Henry Lau, the Director of Paediatric Surgery.
A four-person medical team from Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, where the babies were born, accompanied them to the Children’s Centre. The Nigerian team was on hand to observe the surgery.
Before the departure date, Davies was nervous about flying because he had not flown before. But, he got assurances from Tinubu’s wife that the trip would be safe. True, the babies arrived safely in the U.S. and settled at the governor’s nephew’s house, Dr. Sikiru. Two days later, they went to the hospital.
It was surgery day, and the plans had been laid out, but it was time to put them into action.
“On that fateful morning for the operation, I was scared, when the doctor and his team took the twins away. I couldn’t tell if I was saying goodbye to one or both, but I had faith in God that they would survive it,”Davies said.
The surgical team met at 8:00 a.m. to administer anaesthesia to the twins. At 11:00 a.m., the twins’ chest bone, abdominal wall, and liver were separated.
Continuing, he recalled: “At interval nurses would come to check on us at the reception, to assure us and to give us feedback. We are scared but we keep on praying dueing the five hours the operation lasted.”
According to Chairman of the Pediatric Surgery, Dr. Colombani, the operation went very smoothly. And the twins, thereafter, lived a normal life.
Davies thanked Tinubu for his generosity and large heart.
“He never knew us before, yet he took interest in the case of my family. He is indeed a man that we can never forget in a hurry.
“All I can say is thank you Asiwaju. The generosity, the large heart, he didn’t know us from anywhere and he took interest in the case of my family. He is indeed a man that we can never forget in a hurry. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu visited us and he gave us a house above our expectation.
“A simple act of kindness changed our story. That is our Asiwaju story. It is uncommon to find people who will give simply out of the goodness of their hearts, and I am extremely grateful to the Asiwaju family, the Lagos State government, the doctors, and everyone else who made this possible. God will abundantly bless and replenish him,” he added.
Today, the twins, Faithful and Favour, are doing well and studying medicine at the university.
Favour recalled: “Honestly, I don’t recall us being conjoined because we were still very little then and probably didn’t know anything, but according to what my mother told me, I know it must have been a very difficult situation.
“I’m glad we were given the opportunity to live our separate lives, all thanks to God in the life of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we can live our separate lives, have separate friends, go to separate schools and do things different.”
Faithful added: “Our story inspired me to pursue a career in medicine – to study physiotherapy at the University of Lagos. We also have this desire of studying medicine at the university that we were separated, which is John Hopkins University.
“I desire to study medicine and she desires to study physiotherapy. We want to do this to give back to the society and also to Asiwaju for the act of kindness that he showed towards my sister and I.”

By Ozolua Uhakheme

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