•The Story Of Prophet ABIDOYE
Amongst the members of Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church Worldwide (Ayo Ni O), everyone knows His Grace, Baba Aladura, Prophet Samuel Adefila Abidoye. He is Spiritual Father and Chairman of the church.
But many don’t know a lot about Baba Abidoye who is 100 years old. He hardly grants interviews and only members of his church know a lot about him. When he turned 100 years last July, The Nation newspaper revealed a lot about him.
“If indeed, His Grace, the Baba Aladura of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church (CSMC), The Most Revd (Dr) Prophet Samuel Adefila Abidoye has a thousand tongues, they are not enough to praise the Lord” the paper wrote. “If all the hairs on his head are tongues, they are still not enough to sing His praise. For a man who was told he would not live beyond 26 years, Baba Abidoye has every reason to be thankful to God. He is now 100 years plus. Although this was common with ‘Aladura’ church members of old, these days, it is a feat. “God is the one that gives long life. I am still alive through His grace”, the spiritual head had said in an interview with The Nation.
“That grace of God has not only seen him through to old age, it has always been manifesting in major trajectories in his life. About 1922, when he was born, there was nothing like Christianity in his town, Omu-Aran, in Kwara State, where he started his primary education at the Native Administration Primary School. Indeed, it was not until 1929 that Christian Missionary Society (CMS) got there and he joined. In 1936, he was baptised. That same year, Prophet Ayo Babalola, founder of the Christ Apostolic Church, visited Omu-Aran in the rainy season and it was raining heavily. Babalola reportedly prayed and the rain stopped. This confounded the teachers who were there and they decided to allow the pupils to choose whatever denomination they wanted to belong to. That was how Abidoye opted to become a member of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, at that time apparently unaware of the consequence of that singular decision”.
“Today, that young man who became a Christian by default is the Fifth Spiritual Father/Chairman, Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church Worldwide. It was, apparently the fulfillment of a dream he had in 1937, when he had told someone in the dream that he wanted to become the head of a church, in response to that person’s question of what he wanted to be in life. His response was amazing because, coming from the Odetulu Abegunle Royal Family of Omu-Aran, he should have wished to mount the throne in the town, someday”.
Becoming Baba Aladura came as a surprise to him because of what he called his radicalism. As he noted, “Well, I was worried at the beginning. First of all, I never imagined that I could become the spiritual father (Baba Aladura) because I was a bit radical. I have written five books on the church. In one of them, ‘After Moses Orimolade—What Next?’, I criticised some of the church’s doctrines like the problem of not wearing shoes in cold countries like Europe where I stayed for so long; among others.”
That he has been able to lead the church successfully in the last 16 years further testifies to his divine mandate. It is not easy to run an organisation. Not in the least one as complex as a church, with all the centrifugal and centripetal tendencies”.
The church has witnessed phenomenal progress since his assumption of office in 2006. His liberal approach to issues must be one of the reasons. When he came on board, he conceived the idea of ‘Project Hephzibah’, which has remained like a blueprint of his programme for the development of the church. He brought in a group of young and vibrant men to help bring this into fruition. To the glory of God, the project has achieved significant successes, visible in several aspects of the church.
Baba Abidoye’s tenure has changed the face of the prophetic ministry in the church. Without doubt, the activities of prophets dominated every other thing at Kaduna. His tenure has also seen to the ordination of pastors in CSMC. Until now, only prophets were in charge. This is with a view to giving the congregation a deeper knowledge of Scripture. It is expected that the ensuing division of labour between pastors and prophets would yield good dividends for the church and members at large. People not only need to rely on prophecies and predictions alone, they should also know enough about The Word. It is also significant that when the Baba Aladura was installed in 2006, there were 47 districts. But as at last year, the church had expanded; it had 96 districts and 31 model parishes.
His exploits at Orile-Igbon, which has since 2018 become the International Headquarters of the church has not only given the sleepy town some spiritual significance, they have also transformed the socio-economic lives of the people as a result of the church’s activities that are held there from time to time.
He also spoke to Vanguard newspaper about his life.
Where and when was he born?
“I was born about 1922. I call it ‘about’ because in my town those days, there were no records. Some wrote the birth dates of children on walls. Even when I was young, we used walls as writing pads. I am from the royal family of Omu-Aran in Kwara State. My name is The Most Reverend Dr. Prophet Samuel Adefila Abidoye.
Who were his parents?
“My father’s name was Odetulu Abegunle, his father was Abegunle. My father was from a royal family in Omu-Aran. When we went to school, nobody taught us to change our names to our fathers’ names. I took Adefila from my father’s lineage because I love it. Instead of putting it at the end, I put it in the middle. My name is Abidoye. My father was the Olomu of Omu-Aran. My mother was from a small village in Alla. She was from a royal family of that small town”.
Which schools did he attend?
“I grew up in the boarding house of my school, the Native Administration Primary School, Omu-Aran, which started in 1931, then in Ilorin province. It was government- owned. I did not initially want to go to school because of the love for my father. When it was time for me to go to school, my father took me to the school. The principal of the school, Mr. J.D. Clarke, a white man, saw how I was struggling not to leave my father, he said, ‘I will allow him to come home every other week.’ I was there in the school and occasionally, went home.
In 1940, when I finished my education in Omu-Aran NA Primary School, we were taken to a middle school in Ilorin to continue with our secondary education. In 1942, the army from Congo came to Nigeria and in Ilorin, they asked us to leave our school. So children were divided into two: those in lower classes were taken to Omu-Aran and those in upper classes were taken to Bida. I was in Middle Three, so, I was among those taken to Bida. I finished secondary education in Bida”.
What happened after he completed Secondary education?
“I later worked with the Railways. In fact, when the Queen of England came in 1957, I was a station master at Itori. I also worked at Ebute Meta till 1945 before I was transferred to Abeokuta”.
How did he become a Christian?
“There was no Christianity when I was born in Omu-Aran. Christianity came to Omu-Aran about 1929, the church then was Christian Missionary Society. I became a Christian in my primary school and I was baptised in 1936. After baptism, luckily, I met a distant cousin, Peter Oyeloye, he was a religious man and very prayerful. We had no Catholic Church or Cherubim and Seraphim in my town; even CMS started in 1929. The famous evangelist, Joseph Babalola of the Christ Apostolic Church came to our school in 1936 and our teachers went to see him. It was raining that day and he prayed that the rain should stop and it was so. What happened impressed our teachers, so they said they would allow pupils to practice any religion of their choice. I thus joined Cherubim and Seraphim in 1938”.
How did he become Chairman of C&S Movement worldwide?
“In 1937, I was transferred to a small station called Chikamakwa. Someone woke me up from sleep and told me to ask God what I want to become. I said I wanted to be head of a church. When I woke up, I was highly embarrassed because being from a royal family, if I was asked such, ordinarily, I would say I wanted to be a monarch in Omu-Aran. But how could l become head of a church when I did not know much about a church? But it started to manifest gradually. I discovered that after that dream; I started being deep in Christianity.
In 1956, before the Queen of England came to Nigeria, I had a cousin who left Nigeria about 1954 for England. He was a lawyer. He wrote to me that I should come to England. I rejected the suggestion initially. Later, things started turning terribly. The railway where we were enjoying ourselves, folded up. They sold the railway to a corporation. I started to wonder what I should do next.
Then one of my distant cousins, who was going to England in 1957 said, ‘Why don’t you leave the railway and go to the North? There, Middle Four holders were the heads of government establishments. I thus resigned from the railways and went to the North.
I was suffering there and my gratuity was not paid. When I sat down, the spirit of God spoke to me. In Kaduna, when I did not get any job, I decided that I would return home because things were rough. One day, as I was talking to a woman, I went into a trance. I saw somebody on a motorcycle who asked me to go back. I told her that I was told not to go back.
I had looked for a job for over two months before that time, and within five minutes of that vision, somebody knocked at the door and said, ‘Bro, go to the Ministry of Agriculture and look for a job.’ I went there and met other people who came for interview. I was quickly given a job as I was the only person holding a Middle Four certificate, other people had Standard Six. I stayed in the North for four years.
I was victimised in Kaduna because of political issues. Because of the victimisation, I wrote to my uncle in England that I would come to England. I went to England to learn photography because I love it and that I could come and work at the Ministry of Information after my education. When I was going to England, I was not going to start a church. I carried my prayer material and I went by sea. I fasted for three days during the journey”.
How did he cope in England?
“In England, I got a job working with the British Railways as a potter. In those days, a black man could not be given good jobs. Then in England churches, there was discrimination. If one sat on a seat at Westminster Abbey as a black, nobody would sit by one’s side. I said if this was happening in church where we came to worship God, what then would happen outside church? I decided that I would not go to church any more. I stayed at home praying with my wife and my baby. In fact, I christened my baby myself. Because I had a house which I bought since 1966, I reserved a small room at the top of the house for prayer. I started praying for people.
Luckily enough, some of the members of Cherubim and Seraphim from Omu-Aran came to England. We were praying for people and started a church. We had two groups, one in the South and the other in the North. They heard that I was trying to have a church. One of them who was a lawyer, Joseph, came to my house and said that they heard I was trying to start a church but they had a group in the North which we could merge with. I said if that was possible, we could do it. He was living in a rented house but because I had a house of my own, he said the church meetings would be in my house. On June 5th, 1965 we started the church using my house as the church building. That was how the church started in England”.
How did he become head of the church in England?
“When we formed the church, they said I should be the head of the church, that I had a place and they would use it as headquarters. I said I cannot take the position as I thought I would soon complete my education and return to Nigeria. They appointed Senior Apostle Rose Osaswa who was a prophetess as the head and elected two other officers. By 1968, Osaswa came back to Nigeria. By then, my mother whom I was rushing home to see died in 1968, so there was no need for me to rush home. Even though I was not interested in being the leader, I was the deputy. They finally elected me as the leader even though there were people who had been campaigning. I then accepted.
He was 94 when he granted this interview. He was asked whether he thought he would live up to 94.
“No. When I joined the railway, somebody told me that I would die in 1948, I did not say anything. But God did not agree with his pronouncement.
My mother had 4 children. One died. He was the one that died young; remaining three. Two later died but lived above 90.
Would you attribute his age to any special lifestyle?
“God is the one that gives long life. I am still alive through His grace”.
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