22-year-old student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun state who was rumoured to flush her baby inside one of the toilets in her hostel after giving birth narrates what actually went down.
When the news first broke, a lot of people vilified her. It was reported that she wanted to get rid of what many would describe as a bundle of joy.
People thus wondered why a 22-year-old undergraduate would try to flush away her baby in one of the toilets in Moremi Hall, her hall of residence at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Without clarifying the circumstances that led to the delivery in the toilet, they went on to social media networks, putting on trial Miss Oyinlola Rotimi, the 400-Level student of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology at OAU, who delivered a baby boy on Wednesday.
While the news went round the campus, the traumatised young mother was hurriedly taken to the institution’s Health Centre by two cleaners, Mrs. Shipebi Grace and Mrs. Cecilia Ologbenla. The social media was further flooded with stories that Oyinlola wanted to kill her baby. The OAU management investigated the matter and found out it was not true. Rotimi, who was discharged from the hospital on Friday, has also narrated her own side of the story.
In spite of the trauma she had passed through since last Wednesday, the student, a native of Ijabe, a border town between Osun and Kwara states, says she is happy that the embarrassment she received from the controversy that surrounded the birth of her baby has turned into a blessing for her.
She says the baby’s birth has made her more popular and important in the society.
‘God has the best plan for me’
“Why would I flush or kill my baby after going through the pains of carrying him for about good nine months? I am not heartless and I thank God for my life and the safe delivery. I know God has the best plan for me and my baby. I seriously appreciate the cleaners for their assistance because I got here (health centre) before I understood everything that happened to me.
I am happy that I am alive and my baby is alive too. I’m also using this opportunity to thank the VC, the doctors and nurses, my lecturers and everybody because they all stood by me. They all became my father, my mother and everything to me.
“Right now, I can call myself a celebrity and definitely I’m going to be greater than a celebrity. My baby too is going to be great.
Look at the circumstance that surrounds his birth, just some days old, he is already all over in the news around the world and everybody is happy to see him or hear about his story. He will surely go beyond where I am now. He has turned me into a kind of celebrity. ”
Circumstances surrounding the baby’s birth
“I was purging all through the night and I had no idea of what labour pain was all about. Actually, I was feeling pressed, I can’t call it a labour pain because I was visiting the toilet all through the night till that morning. I just went to the toilet to go and purge when I noticed something just came out of me which I found out was the baby. The baby entered the closet. I was just there shouting, bleeding and people who saw the blood came out to help me alongside the baby.
“I was really scared! I was not expecting a baby. I went to the toilet but seeing a baby was terrifying because I was not expecting him or her to come out yet. It is absolutely not true that I took to my heels when people came to help me.
It happened in Moremi Hall toilet and the toilet is a public one where everybody takes their bath, fetch water and clean up. So, some people were around fetching water, having their bath as usual, while I was in the toilet planning to defecate. My friend called the cleaner for help because she was an elderly woman. I was very scared and people around too couldn’t help because we are all young female students. The cleaner later helped to carry the baby out and brought it to the Health Centre along with me.”
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