Nsukka quintuplets: Father says he can no longer cope with their upkeep

“Ours is an admixture of joy and pain. But this is not to say that we are ungrateful to God Almighty who blessed us with four children at a go. Our problem is that the challenge is enormous and difficult”. This was the confession of Mr Matthew Amoke, the Okada-rider father of the Nsukka quintuplet delivered in November 2009. Since the birth of the two boys and two girls two years ago, the Amoke family has not found the upkeep of the kids easy.

This is in spite of the fact that added to his Okada business, Amoke also gets some income from his petty trading at the Ogige market, Nsukka where he sells rice and condiments in a cubicle carved out from a stall.

Narrating their agony, Amoke told Daily Sun that the cost of the children’s upkeep increases in geometrical progression while his income and other money come in trickles Cost of feeding As they grow, so the quantity of food they consume increases. Now, they have started eating solid food, they eat like adult, they eat about six times daily and my wife is always busy in the kitchen cooking. We have no maid because we cannot afford it. For this reason, I and my wife are always on our toes round the clock. At night when they wake up to demand one thing or the other, the rest will join suit. My wife is relieved a bit now they have been weaned of breast milk. 

They consume not less than N1,500 worth of milk daily. The daily expenditure without corresponding daily income has put stress on my petty trade with the result that, my stock now consists mainly of goods given to me by friends on credit. I nearly drove myself to madness one day as I tried to itemize my expenditure. It was a friend who noticed what I was doing that saved me, he warned me: “my friend don’t try to check your expenditure or else you run mad”.

Their going to school My problem here is two pronged: one is that I need to register the four children at once with about N4, 500 each and this is excluding the school uniform and the rest. The other problem is transporting them to school on a daily basis to and fro, they area too tender to stay on a motorbike, otherwise I would have been using my motorcycle to take them to and from school. What I do is that, I use taxi at a very exorbitant charge to take them to school and also bring them back. I have no money to make a permanent arrangement with a driver.

Scholarship Some people will be saying but the church gave the children scholarship. This is true and for this, we will ever remain grateful to the head pastor who is now on transfer. The fact is that the scholarship covers only school fees. We have to cater for the children in the areas of uniform, daily transportation, and other materials.

Government support Up till now we have not received any assistance from any government. Every assistance we received were from good spirited Nigerians from mainly outside the state. We will ever remain grateful to them. On one occasion we were able to meet the First Lady of the state, the wife of Governor Chime at the Nsukka Local Government Stadium. She admired the kids and promised to take up their matter with her husband. We are eagerly expecting to hear from her.

While thanking our donors we are constrained to renew our appeal for assistance as the lives of the children could be endangered by lack of fund. All financial assistance should be paid to account numbers: Diamond Bank Plc – 0033468114. Intercontinental Bank Plc – 1001141035. Account name: Amoke Matthew O.C.