As Pastor Adeboye clocks 66, he says: Next to salvation, everybody should have education

By Taiwo Olanrewaju - -02.03.2008

DADDY G.O. (General Overseer), as Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboyeis popularly called, was born on 2nd March, 1942 in Ifewara, a small farming town in Osun State, Nigeria, but which he calls Ifewara City. He was born into a very poor polygamous family. “ My father was so poor that even the poor in the village called him poor”, admitted the modest preacher.

Inspite of the fact that his father had limited land to cultivate and the level of the family’s poverty was so acute, that little Enoch did not put on any shoes until 1959, when he became 17 years old, the young man knew what he wanted in life.

Propelled by the legacy of hardwork, passed on to him by his father, another factor, which helped the Ijesa man, whose favourite meal is pounded yam and egusi soup, was his zeal. Even as thick as the poverty which enveloped him was, he was determined to become, not only Nigeria’s, but Africa’s youngest Vice-Chancellor and he knew that the only way out of the woods for him was through education.

How he knew that education could liberate him out of poverty at such a tender age, one cannot say. But when at the age of 13, he gained admission into Ilesa Grammar School and his parents said they had no money to pay his school fees, he went on hunger strike.

Pastor Adeboye, who is humility personified, believes so much in education and once said during an interview, on Monday, 22nd January, 2007, at the Redemption Camp that, “............ Next to salvation ( I mean salvation of your soul and everything that goes with it-baptism, the Holy Spirit, etc.) what everybody should have is education. I don’t know where I would be today if God did not allow me to be educated.”

And that is why the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), under his leadership, is trying to do her very best concerning the education of the people. The church, which has nursery, primary and secondary schools, also has a college of technology and a university, while a vocational school is in the pipeline. Altogether, the RCCG has over sixty schools. What the Adeboye family lacked in wealth they have in good name and in abundance too. “Of course, he (Pastor Adeboye’s father) had a very good name because the people in the village were struggling to marry my sisters. They wanted to marry into a good home and all my elderly brothers, not a single one of them had problem getting a girl to marry as poor as we were because of the good name of my parents”, said Daddy G.O.

Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye played his fair share of truancy. As a young, brilliant and handsome man, who was into photography and sports, girls flocked around him. And looking back, he said the most embarrassing moment of his life was when one girlfriend caught another one in his house. And he had to introduce one to the other.

What he did was to confuse the girls by saying one was the cousin of the brother of the uncle of his senior sister’s aunty, so that by the time he finished the description, the ladies were lost and could not comprehend where he was coming from or where he was going.

To each of his girlfriends, he gave different dates of his birth. So, when Miss Foluke (now Mummy G.O.), an indigene of Ilesa, sent him a new testament Bible and white handkerchiefs as his birthday gifts, he said he was almost certain that she had missed him.

“You want to marry me, an undergraduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and you sent a Bible and white handkerchiefs as birthday gifts, of course, you have lost double”, he said. But those gifts were what the Lord used to cement their relationship and bring the two closer.

A very busy man of God who does not give in to worries, Pastor Adeboye, who is the last born, a favourite child, loves his mother very much. And he attributes his achievements in life, first to God and then to the prayers of his mother.

He said when he was younger, anytime he did anything which pleased his mother, she prayed for him thus: “Thank you my son, you would call one fellow, two hundred would answer.” The man of God, who loves the personalities of David, Elijah and Elisha in the Bible and described Elijah as a caterpillar and Elisha as a tractor, said his mother wanted to name him Elisha when she took him for baptism in the Anglican Church, but she forgot when she got there and chose Enoch.

“There is something I like about Enoch, he walked with God in holiness, he walked with God in purity. The Bible says Enoch walked with God and God took him, he didn’t die, God just took him. He walked away. This is the way I want to go. “If the Lord tarries, I just want to walk away to heaven. Go to church, have a nice time, eat pounded yam and go. No sickness, no ache, no pain, no problem. That is the way I want to go.”

The father of four, who is very optimistic, believes that Nigeria will still be the best country in the world. Daddy G.O., whose favourite Bible passage is Hebrews 13 verse 8, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever”, said he attended St. Stephen Primary School, Ifewara from 1948 to 1955, Ilesa Grammar School from 1956 to 1960, after which he taught as a pupil teacher in L.A. Modern School from 1960 to 1962.

He also taught at Ondo Boys’ High School for nine months in 1963 after which he went to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka but as a result of the civil war, relocated to the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where he finished his first degree.

Pastor Adeboye taught at Oke Igbo-Ifetedo Grammar School and between 1969 and 1971, was at the University of Lagos for his Masters degree. He want back to Oke Igbo Grammar School again to teach because he had a bond of five years with the school. But he didn’t feel comfortable having a M.Sc degree in Mathematics and teaching in a Grammar School, so, after a year, the school forfeited the rest of his bond and he was able to return to the University of Lagos to continue his studies for Ph.D in Mathematics.

Though at 31 years old, proud owner of a car and already with a Ph.D in Hydrodynamics, a specialised area of applied Mathematics, the youngest vice-chancellor in Africa was indeed in the making but God had other plans for Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye. His third child was afflicted with a strange disease and after all manners of orthodox, traditional and spiritual means had failed, Enoch’s uncle, Rev. Chris Fajemirokun, introduced him to the RCCG.

Although he found the mode of worship too loud and rowdy, on 29th July, 1973, Adeboye met the Lord. According to him, “something overwhelmed me that I was close to hell and did not know it. I suddenly realised that it was possible to have all the Ph.Ds in the world and still be on the loosing side. I knew all kinds of formulae but did not know the one for eternal life.”

With that frame of mind, he answered the altar call. Sobbing like a baby, he ran to the altar, throwing his hands up, he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour. Ever since, Enoch has not looked back.

The only regret this man of God has was waiting too long before giving his life to Christ. “I have always told my people, thank God for salvation, it doesn’t matter what sins you have committed, when you come to Christ, He will forgive you. I always warn them, the wounds would heal but the scars would remain. Those who are out there, who are still saying when I am a little older, I would give my life to Jesus Christ, I hope they would listen, “wounds would heal, scars would remain.” The years I wasted in rollicking, follies, I regret those years. I wish I had given my life to Jesus Christ much earlier.”

Pastor Adeboye would like to be remembered as “a friend of God. A young man from an unknown family in an obscure village, who became a friend of God and walked with God all the days of his life.” As Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, who presides over the fourth largest pentecostal church in the world, turns 66 years old today, “Let somebody shout Halleluyah. Halleluyah!!!.