I was in Fiditi with my wife when Nigeria gained independence. There is no one that witnessed that period then that would not be sad with the situation of things now. Nigeria held a lot of promises then because God has been very good to us as a country. We were rich in almost everything, but we wasted all our benefits. This is why we are not developing as a country.”
“God really loves this country. We should blame ourselves as a people for the sorry state we are today. The church where we spent virtually all our life is not what it used to be. Things have gone bad.”
—- Rev. John Adegoke Okesiji in The Nigerian Tribune, August 19, 2018.
Attaining 90 anywhere, and especially in our clime, is itself a blessing. David pegged the days of our life to 70, or at best, 80, and he regretfully added that anything longer is fraught with struggle and sorrow. It is a depressing prediction from one of God’s beloved children who He made a reference point for future kings of Israel. If, therefore, we have another child of God defy that prediction, not only by attaining 90, but also in good health and physical fitness, we have reason to be appreciative of God’s grace.
We also know, however, that life itself is meaningless unless it is purposeful, and its purpose is for the good that it promotes for God’s creation. This is what we all strive for. When one of us attains the height, we are naturally pleased, and we rejoice. This is the lot of Rev. John Adegoke Okesiji, retired since 1998 as Pastor of Okeelerin Baptist Church in Ogbomosho, which he led for more than 30 years.
Rev Okesiji’s life has been a shining example of Christian fortitude, and God’s grace has been a fitting reward for His faithful servant. He was born without the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. He was 12 years old before he was registered in school. He endured hardship, but he persevered. He was rejected in his first attempt to attend Olivet Baptist High School because he was “too old” for Form 1. As God would have it, he ended up having a full scholarship to the school years later. He received the B. Th degree from Baptist Seminary, Ogbomosho. He served creditably in several churches including Oke-Isokun Baptist Church, Oyo, First Baptist Church, Okeho, Ori-Oke Baptist Church, Ogbomosho, Okeelerin Baptist Church Ogbomosho and others.
The measure of a man and a woman, no matter his or her station in life, is the quality of the value he or she adds to the community, be it local, national, or international. For those who know him, Rev Okesiji’s contribution to the communities of which he has been a part is exemplary. He was a teacher of teachers and a pastor of pastors.
With his loving wife, Mama Sarah’s support, he has set a shining example as a man of God and a worthy son of his community and nation. A respected elder of Okeho, he has participated actively in its development efforts for decades. He served on the committee that researched the history of Okeho and published Iwe Itan Okeho in 1976. A family man of no mean repute, he takes seriously his obligations to God and community.
It is these two parts that cohere in Rev. Okesiji without conflict that makes him a fitting subject for study and the rationale for my comments today. A man of God and a concerned patriot, he, like many of us, finds our present predicament in both spheres quite unsettling.
The two quotations above are from the same interview that Rev. Okesiji gave on his 90th birthday. I only separated them for my purpose. In the first part, we see the frustration of a patriot over the unenviable condition of his country, whose fortunes at independence have been terribly reversed over years of the rule of incompetent and uncaring despots, some of them in democratic grabs. In the second part, we see the exasperation of someone who gave his life to God’s service, one who knows God’s desire for His church, and how that desire has been stymied by human ego and greed. He also witnessed first-hand the sacrifice and suffering of the early converts.
Like a few others of his calling, the man of God agonized over what could have been but is not: “Nigeria held a lot of promises then (at independence) because God has been very good to us as a country”, he observed. “We were rich in almost everything, but we wasted all our benefits. That is why the country is not developing.” But for the greed and selfishness of those who got themselves into power, God’s promise to Nigeria would have been fulfilled. Who, except the human locusts and wicked exploiters, would perceive no need to cry on the state of beloved country!
If you spent a lifetime teaching, preaching, and counseling youths and adults in the fear of God and love of country, if you took seriously your calling and you walk your talk and lived what you preached so that you present yourself as a worthy role model, you would also be disappointed at the turn of events for your nation. Where do we get our ethics? Why are we purportedly so religious but so blatantly immoral? Does the proclamation of faith in God or Allah immune us from God’s judgement against a life of immorality?
Then, of course, there is the more concerning untoward state of the church vis-a-vis its expected role as a bulwark against sin and wickedness in high places. This is the point of the second quotation: “The church where we spent virtually all our life is not what it used to be. Things have gone bad” is Rev. Okesiji’s summary of where the church is in Nigeria today.
Things have gone bad because many of our contemporary church leaders are fake. The early converts suffered for their choice of Christianity. The Late Revd. Paul Ogunyale was Rev. Okesiji’s classmate. At my father’s funeral in 1991, Revd. Ogunyale recalled the frightening experience of early Christians of Okeogun in their communities. Only the grace of God, which endowed them with uncommon courage because he needed them for His purpose, saved them.
Among those first converts was Rev. Moses Okesiji, the father of Rev. Okesiji. Common to all of those first converts across the regions of Nigeria was the conviction that God’s purpose for their salvation was to serve Him in life no matter their situation. And they looked up to their heavenly home where they expected a crown of glory. They took to heart seriously the story of Lazarus and the rich man and how the two ended up, one in eternal bliss, the other in eternal suffering.
Does the faith of our fathers and mothers still motivate our attitude to life? Is the old-time religion still good for us? Surely, we have church buildings in every nook and corner of our major cities and multiples of church buildings in small towns and villages. The same is true of mosques. We have millions of congregants proclaiming belief in God or Allah. Now, however, many church goers, like Pharisees before them, are simply hypocrites.
Now our men of God preach only prosperity in this world. They fake morality while they live in infamy. A viral video of a pastor having sex with a church member in an open field on the mountain where he had lured his victim for prayer shows the depth of our depravity as a people.
We have good reason to believe the man of God’s observation. We are witnesses to the hypocrisy. We know of the sons of Eli in our midst. We are aware of the Daddy Elis who feign ignorance of their sons’ evil deeds against man and God. But we also know what became of Eli and his sons. Above all, however, we also know that we have a God of justice.
Happy Birthday, Papa! Igba odun, odun kan.
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