Pastor Joseph Adebayo Adelakun, popularly called Ayewa will be 70 in a few weeks time. But many don’t know his birth was historic. It was one of the stories that showcased the supremacy and existence of God. His birth was dogged by the host of hell to ensure that he didn’t come to this world. The devil tried what he could to terminate and destroy the pregnancy of this great man of purpose. The devil might have seen what he would become in future and the many lives God would use him to save.
Many don’t know Pastor Joseph Adelakun has a Muslim background. He is an indigene of Saki, in the Oke Ogun area of Oyo State. He is the second child and the first and the only son of his mother, Rafatu, who changed it to Sarah Adelakun. She was the 4th of the 5 wives of his father, Alhaji Salami Adelakun.
How do we describe his pregnancy that suddenly vanished after a poison was fed on his mun in her dream? No doubt, the devil had seen the star of the unborn baby. When the pregnancy was about 4 months, the mother saw signs of miscarriage. She was immediately given some concoctions so that the premature baby would not die and action followed urgently to transfer the pregnant mother to a nearby town called Ago Are, for hiding. It was when the young Amusa became 4 years old that he was carried back to his home town. He was still being protected by drinking Islamic washed tracts on slate called “Hantu” and all manner of concoctions to prevent his death after he had already got ten back home,
Recall that Pastor Adelakun Ayewa experienced a delay before he gained admission into primary school. The school authorities insisted that his right hand must touch his left ear before he could be enrolled, despite that all his younger brothers had been given admission. They believed then that admission should not be based on age.
It was gathered that it took about 10 years before his mother could give birth to another child, who was named AwulatuAdelakun, now Rebecca Wheghenu- a pastor’s wife and was later followed by the last born of this proud mother who was named Modinatu Adelakun. Now Adepeju Adedokun.
Let us quickly remind you that, as a little boy, Pastor Adelakun had some Christian friends who always came together and used various metal objects as drums. Anytime he came back from school, he could be sick if he had not played his improvised drums. His father always called him all manner of names such as lazy boy, because of his attitude. Sometimes, he would sneak to Oke Oro Baptist Church, Saki, to play the drums with his friends without the knowledge of his father who was a Muslim.
The struggle of life started for him when Ayewa’s father died in 1965. It led to hopelessness, frustrations and dislocations. His elder brother who was working then wished to help him and the family members, but being a salary earner, he could not do more than his income. Amusa, therefore, left his home town to struggle for survival.
After his primary education, he would have loved to proceed to Olivet High School in Oyo town, Oyo State, but there was no financial power to go. He also had the opportunity to attend and train at Oyo Trade Center, now known as the Technical College, still, there was no means of attending it. He, therefore, lost all the privileges to further his education. Hence, the struggle continued.
Ayewa, as a young man, thought that he could still do something else even when it appeared that all the openings for furthering his education had been blocked. He then joined Kareem Electrical Engineering Company at Ogunpa in Ibadan between 1966 and 1968 as an apprentice through the help of his elder brother, then Magistrate Bayo Adelakun, though his mother was not happy about his learning of the trade because whenever she heard “electricity,” being mentioned she was always afraid of the danger about it, not to talk of seeing her only son taking it up as a profession. But his older brother, Bayo Adelakun, assured Ayewa’s mother that there would not be any problem.
After the completion of his apprenticeship period, he still thought that it was not his bus-stop or the purpose of his coming to the world. He later pursued the development of his God-given talent that eventually made him who he is today.
We asked him to tell us a bit about birth and upbringing. “My father was an Alhaji, Alhaji Salami IsholaAdelakun. He was the leader of Action Group during his lifetime. My mother’s name was Rafatu Ashake Adelakun. My mother converted to Christianity before she died, she said we would serve the God who delivered me from smoking Indian hemp. She did before she died at the age of 101. My siblings and I were 16 in numbers, though some of them are late now. My father got married to 5 wives.
What was his growing up like?
“I grew up in Saki until when I was 15years old when I finished my modern school, a preparatory school to go to high school. Let me tell you one story about my life and background. I’m the only son of my mother had. I have 3 other female siblings, we are 4 from my mother’s side. When my mother conceived me, she said she didn’t see blood or water, but the pregnancy just vanished. In our town, there was one house in a compound they called “Ile Bada”. My parents went there to meet with powerful Muslim marabouts when people encouraged them to go for a consultation, and obviously what happened to my mum was not normal. So they went there and the marabout told my parent to come in the middle of midnight. He told them that when coming, my father should wear only his Boxers, they called it Knickers then, and my mother should tie the only wrapper. When they got there, midnight, my mum was given washed-tract from slate, they gave to her to drink, and after she drank the concoction, the pregnancy mysteriously returned. I was born 70 years ago. My mother did not tell me all these at first, it was God who revealed the secret to me when I gave my life to Christ.
God told me I should go and meet my mother, enquire from her what happened to me when I was in her womb. My mother was flabbergasted when I asked her. She said, “who told you? Even your sister wasn’t aware till date, the secret is between your father and I”. I told her God revealed it to me. God also told me that some forces didn’t want me to come to life because they had seen the glory of God in me He was the one who hid me (the pregnancy) at the back of my mother, I have never heard of such. As if that was not enough; when they wanted to give me tribals marks, I was told that I fainted 5 times. I was told that whenever a mark was incised on my face, blood would gush out as if a cow had been slaughtered. That was why they invited a veteran, called Onikola, an old man, who had even retired a long time ago.
He was the one they later summoned to help. They were told that, with the way they put the mark, if care was not taken it will become abnormal, swell up and disfigure my face for life. I was told that the man was so surprised at the way and manner they did it and yet nothing happened to me. So, enemies planned to kill me through that exercise too but God rescued me, I escaped it. I was also fed with vegetable and beans in my dream, even if I belched, the odour would come out of my mouth. It as if my intestine has decayed, but the Lord helped me and I escaped it. My father didn’t know any herbalist, he didn’t visit herbalists from the beginning. Even in our house we don’t drink common palm wine, the highest we did was probably when we wanted to sit for an exam or reciting a special prayer and they gave it to give us, and we washed tracts from slate to drink, even though I still used to vomit it away, on my clothes and they would start beating me. So I’m a miracle child. And God really helped me. I took care of my mother until she departed.
– Sunday Adigun
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