Today, wife of Prophet Funso Akande, the pastor in charge at CAC Ori Oke Baba Abiye Ede, Osun State, Evangelist Adejoke Adeoti Akande, turns 60. TAYO LEWIS had an interaction with her and brings excepts:
What kind of dreams did you have while growing up?
When l became self aware, l loved two professions but God did not permit me to function in either. One was to be a lawyer, the other was journalism. I really loved those two professions.
My mother is Queen Alice Omosolape Oyebode Oyelade and she is still alive.
It was in modern school that I wet my soul mate and my lord, Prophet Funso Akande. Initially, there was nothing between us until I got to secondary school at Osogbo.
At 60, what were those desires that you can today point to and thank God for fulfilling them in your life?
Today, there are several things l can count that God has brought to pass in my life. l loved fighting for the rights of the under privileged, l get angry when l see people being cheated and God has channeled that passion in a different direction.
The most critical part of that passion, which is, I don’t like to see people having problems; God eventually found a way to use me to help people having challenges.
I go on my knees and pray and God always answer my supplications on those l ask him to help me sort out. It’s always a thing of joy for me, particularly those looking unto God for children.
Anytime people come out to give testimony that God blessed them with a child through my intercession, l am always very happy. That l can be a fountain of joy to others always makes me very glad.
You are a princess, where did you grow up and what was it like?
I became self aware that l was born in Iresi to Oba John Adegbola Popoola Oyelade. I was born December 27, 1963. I was not, raised by my parents as I grew up with my paternal grandmother. It was, however, within the palace premises that my grandmother lived. It was with her that l started primary school and I later went to modern school.
Most people who work as pastors and ministers talk of a CALL. How did you receive the call?
It took me a while to know what a call is but since l gained understanding of God’s words, l knew that it’s been a long time that l had been called. I am from an idol worshipping family as many know in Iresi. My forebear from Jagun family where l hail is the founder of Iresi town. He was a great warrior to the extent that he did not die like most mortals. Every year in December, he is celebrated through several rituals. The legend has it that he went underground and there was a chain in the palace which was said to have been wound round his waist when he went underground. I don’t know if it’s still there as we speak. It was only men who were granted access to the shrine. I don’t really know if it’s true but it’s an annual ritual. A cow is killed to celebrate but a woman must not eat from the beef or else she will be barren according to the myth. I don’t know how true this is or maybe the men just want to consume the meat alone. The celebration usually lasts seven days. That is the kind of background l had.
Then, there was no grace to be born again or really totally be a Christian. Sometimes you may have just danced and eaten at the shrine and still be the one to read the Bible passage at the church same day . It was a syncretic type of faith practise.
I was Baptist. It was when l grew up that l really had an understanding of these things. We used to have a children camp then, Sunbeam in our Baptist church. All neighbouring towns in then Osun North East, Iragbiji, Ada, Ikirun, Iresi, Oyan and others were always camped together. Each time l returned from representing my church, they will put me on a table as small as l was then in front of the church, facing the congregation. I was always able to recount everything we were taught at the five-day camp meeting. I was not even literate at that time. I was that young. When l left Iresi for Osogbo, l veered off the things of God and had no time for spiritual matters.
l had a crisis and in the midst of my turbulence when l was really suffering, l had a friend who invited me to church. They had a programme then and that was where l answered the altar call. It was at Save and Serve Church, Olopomewa that l got born again. However, when they left that site for their permanent site along Ologuneru road in Ibadan, it was too far away for me with my then very young kids. I had no car then. I then started attending a nearby Redeemed Christian Church of God, Eleyele Parish. It was a classical church.
I can’t tell now but RCCG then, you will love to join them, judging by the knowledge of God I assimilated after being born again.
They accepted me and l had great opportunities to serve God. I was always excited to go to church. When they expounded the word of God, it was like l was watching it on a movie reel. I had time for God. I was living at Idi Ishin then, they started another RCCG branch which was closer, around Chief Richard Akinjide SAN’s house but they were a model parish, they ceded me to join them from Eleyele and l met God there too.
There was one Pastor Dogunduro then, he would come from Lagos every Sunday to minister but he will get to church before those of us living in Ibadan. He would come to my house like he did for members around. If l was just about to iron my dress, the wife will start ironing my dress while the pastor helps me to get my children dressed for church.
There, l saw there was nothing as good as working for God. I also had the zeal to work for God, so l joined the children department. Once l come in, the children would keep quiet and listen. Any time l am absent in church, the adult church will have problems because the children would keep escaping from their department to go meet their parents, whoever stood in for me usually has problems controlling the children. l was also the church treasurer for the eight years l worshipped with them.
After a while, Pastor Bola Longe, he was second-in-charge at the Special Investigation Bureau at the Oyo State Police Command, Eleyele, then. His office was next to mine. One day he invited me to worship in his church. I told him l attend RCCG but he said l should just come and see. Once l stepped in there, l never went back to RCCG. It was there that my calling really blossomed. I became his interpreter for six years. His wife, myself and one other woman were coordinating the women.
If you live around the barracks you will notice a tradition. On Christmas Day, children of policemen will go from house to house in the barracks with bowls begging for food and wishing each household Merry Christmas.
They knock your door and wish you Merry Christmas, many people will offer them leftover foods and that used to annoy me to no end. I noticed that in our church, there were mostly wives of policemen, so l told Mrs Longe, let us organise a programme for these women. She was hesistant but l then promised the pastor to support the programme financially. We held the programme and ended it Dec 24th. l then suggested that we host a love feast on Christmas Day.
Some of the women brought firewood and whatever they could afford. l gave money and my pastor’s wife added hers. We asked everyone to bring their families and we sat outside the church and had fun. We closed around 8pm such that those children did not participate in going round houses in the quarters to beg for food that year.
That was how we started a very strong women prayer meeting. That was where l was anointed as an Assistant pastor. That was where l started ministering but not full time as l was still working with the Audit Department of the Oyo State Police Command at Eleyele.
What is your belief about prophecy?
I believe in prophecy
Is it because you are a CAC member?
NO! if you read the Bible, the Book of Isaiah prophesied the birth of Christ years before he was born and it came to pass.
God gave me a gift, if the Spirit of God is talking in anyone I will know. Isaiah didn’t even say he will be born. He said ‘he was born.’ When someone is saying ‘I am the Lord, l will do it’ while prophesying, l get skeptical. Isaiah said ‘A child was born, a son was given’
When God said he had done something, it may not come to pass in the next 10 years but it will certainly happen.
Look at when it came to pass. I strongly believe in prophecy because it’s in the Bible and not because l am a CAC member alone.
Quite a number of our prayer meetings are filled with women but the situation in Nigeria does not reflect that answers are being granted to their numerous petitions. What do you think is responsible?
Prayers are being answered, if not things would have been worse, Nigeria would not just have broken up, It would just have sunk. If it collapses, we can still have fragments to rescue but it would have literally sank. The evil that is daily being perpetuated in this country is worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is the cry of the beloved, especially women, that is still saving this country.
God hears women’s prayers a lot, look at the case of Hagar when she was sent out of Abraham’s house. She cried and God opened her eyes to a well which rescued her and her son from death. She was in a desert but God sent water.
God has averted a lot of evil over this nation. There was a time there was looming war but God averted it. We also gathered women and we prayed here at Ori Oke Baba Abiye. Then, everyone seemed sure there we going to be war. At a stage, as we prayed, God told us to be groaning like a woman in labour. God heard our prayers and averted the war. He gave us an assurance that because of the beloved, there would be no war. God answers prayers still because He is merciful.
Many families are languishing currently in Nigeria because of the economic downturn. What counsel do you have for Nigerians at this time?
My first counsel is that we all return to God. The Bible says that silver and gold belong to God. Repentance is the first condition to restoration. If we say we should all go, it’s even those evil doers who will not go. As individuals and families, when we go to God in repentance, God will heal us and gradually, the whole land will be healed.
Secondly, people should live within their means. All these merriments and aso ebi when you cannot afford it has to stop. We need to first make provisions for our immediate families. Women are mostly implicated but at a time like this, let us live within our means and be prayerful.
We also need to be hardworking and not selective in the kind of work we do for a living. I have sold firewood before and it was not even the times when l was really suffering. I was living in the barracks and each morning and evening l see kids with firewood on their heads that they had gone to buy outside the barracks. I found out somewhere outside NIHORT where it was being sold per dozen and l started loading my pickup with it to sell at the barracks at stupendous profit. By the time l sold three l had recovered the money l used to buy a dozen and l still had nine to sell.
There is a lot of profit to be made in some businesses that people don’t focus on. If you are not finicky about white collar jobs, there are still many businesses where there is money to be made. I keep pointing out this to the wives of my pastors all the time. At that time, wives of other policemen at home who were not working but stayed home will even help me to sell the firewood while I was in the office or away at Oke Ogun, doing audit assignments.
What petition do you have for God at age 60?
That He will bless me so l can care for those in pains. I want to have a Refuge House. I am pained especially when l see young women who become pregnant under whatever conditions and men disown them. I know there may be cultural hiccups but l know God will help me out as He has always done.
I want to build a house to feed and accommodate the weak and helpless. That is my dream.
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