66-year-old Pastor Samuel Olusegun Oladele who was recently installed the 8th President of the Christ Apostolic Church may not have had it smooth in his walk with God in the Church.
Though he now sits on the most coveted seat in CAC, there are indications that the road to that position was a tortuous one.
Apart from being from a poor background, his touted forthrightness in the church seemed to have pitched him against constituted authority. Some describe him as being too blunt to a fault.
While giving a speech at the commencement service on Saturday, March 20, Pastor Oladele told the rapturous audience how he grew from a very humble beginning to clinching the number one position in the church.
He was full of praise to his predecessor whom he described as a man of great courage. He recalled that while he was being announced the General Superintendent of the Church about six years ago, Pastor Akinosun did not hide the fact that he was not his favourite candidate but he said he could not upturn what God had willed.
Oladele’s story is also a clear testimony to the fact that a man can receive nothing except it is given from above. He recalled the prophetic statements and the circumstances of his birth at about 9.50 am August 30, 1955, in the small village of Alagbagba in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State to Late Pa Gabriel and Madam Alice Oladele.
Though he did not give details of the prophecies at his birth, there are evidence that God had already destined that he would get to the pinnacle of his ministerial career in the church even when it was not clear he would amount to anything.
He was once a houseboy
By age 13, Oladele said he was already a houseboy to Chief Adebiyi Adeyi; one-time minister of works and later of chieftaincy affairs in the old western region. The family according to him was so wonderful and had taught him cleanliness. He paid special tribute to the Adeyis at the commencement service.
From the tone of his delivery, Oladele seemed overwhelmed. He mentioned the names of a lot of people and how they contributed to his growth both spiritually and materially.
The CAC president said, “The story of my life is one of divine mercy and grace. I acknowledge God the giver of every good gift. I appreciate my parents who not only knew the Lord but also obeyed His word concerning my destiny. I acknowledge Prophet Bankole who prayed me into existence and gave a very accurate prophecy about my voyage in life.”
He thanked a number of other people including Pastor Ale, Baba Ojedele, JB Akande, and one 96-year-old Baba Awe who had prophesied that he would be the president of CAC in his lifetime.
Oladele said, “Baba Awe once told me. He said, by the time Pastor Oluseye (one time president of CAC) was following Apostle Babalola, he did not know he would be the president of the CAC. I say to you that you will be head of this church in my life-time.
It was thus a mixture of joy and a well of nostalgia to see the 96-year-old man present at the commencement service of Oladele as the president of CAC. Perhaps Baba Awe can now say like Biblical Simeon, “Now Lord let thy servant depart for I have seen thy salvation.”
The CAC number one citizen also thanked one Pa Ogundiran whom he said directed him to late Pa JB Akande and a number of other important figures including those who paid his way through the seminary. He was grateful to all the former Presidents of the CAC and all the people he had worked with in the course of his service in the church.
What however seemed to be the most striking of the appreciation was when Pastor Oladele mentioned Prophet Samuel Abiara, the retired ex-evangelist of the Church.
He said he had once contemplated resignation from the church. He did not give reasons why he wanted to resign. But his decision might have been connected with some of the treatment he received from some church officials.
He said it was Prophet Abiara who called him and pleaded with him in his office not to take the resignation route. “Prophet S.K Abiara dissuaded me from resigning. He invited me to his office and said you can’t resign,” Pastor Oladele recalled.
If he had resigned, he would not have been the president of the church today.
Pastor Oladele’s tortuous journey in CAC
Indeed, Oladele was on head-on-collision with some powers in the CAC. Years before he was being celebrated in the church, there were dogged moves to frustrate his ministry.
Some didn’t like his guts. He was just too straightforward for some; that they never hid their disdain for him. He was indeed blacklisted at a point by the church authority. Yet, the hand of God kept pulling him up.
One Pastor Odesola wrote in an article published on the online medium of the church how there were specific instructions from the church authority as revealed by a pastor in the church not to invite Oladele and one Pastor Yussuf to National programmes in the church.
Odesola wrote, “For instance, in 1998, when we organised the maiden edition of the CAC Publicity Departments News-Writing Seminar and Workshop for Publicity Secretaries and members of the public in Lagos, we featured Pastor Yusuf, Mr. Aderiye of AIT and Mr. Olusakin Babalola, News Editor of (the defunct) Daily Sketch Newspaper as guest speakers at the event.
“The then Chairman of CAC Mushin DCC where the programme was held showed no interest at all in the programme, although he was billed to give the Opening Address. However, when he saw Pastor Yusuf’s name on the list of our guest speakers, he quickly rushed down into the church and almost disrupted the programme.
“He called me aside and asked in veiled anger, Pastor Odesola, as the National Publicity Secretary of the Church, do you want to tell me that you didn’t know that the Church Authority has banned Pastor Oladele and Pastor Yusuf from featuring as guest speakers in any national event in the church?
“Sir, that is news to me, I replied. I never received any verbal or written directive from the Church Authority to that effect, I explained further. The DCC Chairman looked at me incredulously as he tried vainly to control his anger. You either remove Pastor Yusuf from your list of guest speakers or take your programme elsewhere, he said with a tone of finality before he stormed out of the church auditorium.”
Odesola then wrote that the same Oladele who was “blacklisted and banned from speaking at national events in CAC in those days now occupies the highest seat of leadership and power in the Church. That’s the Lords doing, and it is the stuff with which great leaders are made.”
CAC new President: His profile
Indeed, only God could have brought Oladele this far. He attended CAC Primary School, Alagbagba and at a very tender age of 14 entered into the ministry by training locally under the late Pastors J. B. Akande and J. O. Ogundiran respectively.
He attended the CAC Bible Training College in Akure and graduated in 1974, having trained under late Mrs. O. O. A. Pearce and Pastor M. O. Faloye.
Upon the completion of his studies, he was retained by the CAC Bible Training College where he worked as a tutor until 1977 when he left Nigeria for the United Kingdom. In the UK he attended The International Bible Training Institute in Burgess-Hill, West Sussex.
When he came back to Nigeria in 1980, he joined CAC Theological Seminary as a tutor until 1983 when he left for the United States of America.
While in the USA he attended Berean Bible College, San-Diego, California, St. Louis Christian College, Florissant, Missouri, International Bible Institute and Seminary in Plymouth, Florida where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Theology and Haggai Institute for Advanced Leadership Training in Singapore.
Oladele worked as an Assembly Pastor at CAC Oke-Imole, Ijeshatedo under Itire DCC, Lagos. CAC Agbokojo in Ibadan. He was Promoted District Superintendent in November 1991 and served in that capacity at CAC Sango District, Ibadan, CAC Oke-Igbala District, Efon-Alaaye, and CAC Eleta District in Ibadan.
He was promoted to Assistant General Superintendent in 1996. He was then posted to CAC Oke-Ado DCC as Chairman in January 2004 where he remained till his promotion as the General Superintendent and now the president.
He is happily married to Mrs. Susanna Kehinde Oladele (Nee Olawade) and blessed with four sons.
It is expected that his tenure will be a time of healing and restoration for CAC; Nigeria’s foremost indigenous Pentecostal cum evangelical church.
By Gbenga Osinaike
