'PASTOR'

Whilst it was courtesy of ‘Gbemi Kehinde and Victor Amokeodo, my King’s College classmates that I acquired the coronet ‘Pastor’ it was Ayo Ogunye my good friend who ‘consecrated’ its usage during the summer school.  The summer school was where we received the extra tutoring at the University of Lagos Faculty of Education during the long July to September holidays.  It was open to the children of university staff or members of the public with some hint of association with the University.   At that stage, it was my ambition to win over every youth for Christ and to witness the gospel to anyone within sight and the summer school was certainly rich for the pickings. 

Initially under the influence of Apostolic Faith denomination, I foreswore the watching of television or anything that smacked of pleasure but with time, news and current affairs programmes lured me back towards the small screen.  I also had indelible associations with Lattie Williams and ’Biyi Mabadeje and you could not avoid the television screen if you visited their homes on the University campus.  I enjoyed my time with Lattie who at a point acquired an air rifle.  I developed the practice of accompanying him on his ventures into the bushes of the University of Lagos to shoot at any creature that strayed into our view.  He was also known to shoot a few wandering dogs causing them only slight injuries, but that was Lattie, a ‘dare devil’, for you.

With time in the late 1970s/early 80s I set up the Campus Christian Organisation with ‘Tunde Oderinde, Ope Fagboungbe, ‘Wole Eperokun and a few others as members.  Bro ’Tunde Oladunmiye became our Patron and Mrs. Eperokun, the wife of the University Registrar became the Matron.  We acquired a cassette player/recorder courtesy of Brother ‘Tunde and listened to Christian based messages and then went about seeking to do some good.  We were able to acquire abundance of gospel tracts from the University’s Faculty of Education home of Mr. William F. Kumuyi, a Mathematics lecturer who was then of the Apostolic Faith but later became the founder of Deeper Life Bible Church. 

The highlight of the summer school was always the end of term party held at the University’s Student’s Union buildings, Akintunde Ojo Building.  But the teachers, the organisers of the summer school always held the prospect of its cancellation over our heads like a sword of Damocles to compel good behaviour.

To begin with I did not do disco parties like many of my friends, but later I found it was possible to go to these parties with the objective of preaching and saying a prayer or two from the safety of the venue’s entrance, standing as a sentry with whoever was there.  The boys and girls just thought me rather odd, but I found relevance and comfort in it.  There was also the grand party of ‘Tunde Ojo whose father was a Professor of Law and his mother a senior government lawyer, held in their top floor flat off Ozolua Road on the University of Lagos Campus. ‘Tunde had agreed I could lead in prayers and I had geared myself up to say the opening prayer; I was all set to go when some of the girls protested and that attempt was aborted to my huge disappointment.  However, with time, I built a strong network of friends from Queens College, Yaba and among them was Chidinma Ekwueme.  A few boys became acquainted with me with the faint hope that I would become a facility for their liaisons with the girls.

As ‘pastor’, I undertook a number of  ‘preaching engagements’ in school and without. The height of my ‘preaching engagements’ was in 1980 when I engaged a bevy of beauties from Queen’s College, Yaba, including Iyabo Obasanjo at the Tafawa Balewa Square Race Course.  They had come for the October Independent Day secondary schools’ marching rehearsals.  I simply spoke about my faith, what I believed in and fielded a few questions from the girls.  The boys appeared rather silent and I always wondered why?

Later that year I took Ibadan by storm; my uncle Mr. Ojedele had invited us for summer holidays in his partially completed 6-bedroom palatial residence in Idi-Ape.  I had acquired a Yoruba bible and imagined that I could gain mastery enough to start preaching in Yoruba but this proved to be very ambitions.  I had collaborated with my aunty and summoned the entire family to a session of preaching in the large and expansive sitting room.  All my cousins, Ojedeles, Ojekales and my siblings were gathered but my words and sentences were laboured and halting, exposing my inadequacy in the Yoruba language.  We had always spoken to one another in English and it was only from eleven that I developed some confidence in speaking it.  In any case, my uncle joined us on his return from work and ended the session with his rationalisations about religious extremism.  I left the session with a feeling of disenchantment and failure.