Last week, we ran the first part of the intriguing story of 106-year-old Pa John Dada Obafemi, in which he spoke about his childhood/school days, life as a teacher and his resolve to join the army. In this concluding part, the centenarian speaks about his days as a World War II soldier and his evangelism days. He also tells GBOYEGA ALAKA how a divine assignment to reunite the factions of the Christ Apostolic Church remains the only thing keeping him alive.
In January 10, 1943, I went to seek prayer at Apostle Ayo Babalola’s place. I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me. But as I knelt and he made to open his mouth, he said, ‘Get up. You are a pretender. God has shown you your calling. This work you are about to do is casual. You do it for a while and then go on to do the work of God. He said God had however granted me leave to join the army for the duration of the war.
Following that interaction with Apostle Ayo Babalola, Pa Dada Obafemi was still not willing to submit to this evangelisation future. But he was glad, anyway, that the revered man of God granted him leave to go join the army – albeit, temporarily.
The unwilling servant
“Finally, I went to the white man – the Provincial Education Officer at Middle School, Ilorin, who had sold me the idea of joining the army. I thought he would damn me, since I’d already called his bluff, but he welcomed me with a smile. That was Wednesday January 13 1943. Promptly, he registered me. Contrary to his suggestion, I didn’t join as a nurse because as a member of the CAC, we could not take or administer medicine. All my years in the army, I never took any medication – except once, when we were all compelled to take an injection. I thought of a way to escape, but there was none. The Sergeant Major who was calling the numbers got to my number, called it out repeatedly, and when I refused to answer, he approached me and said angrily: “Aren’t you so so and so number? Provost, write his name down for suspension.’ I was promptly suspended. It was a powerful injection and for four days, none of us felt okay. It was given to us in preparation for the warfront.
I was posted to Idi Ope Barracks now Abalti Barracks in Lagos. I spent five months there and passed out as Class IV Clerk. I was then posted to 2428 Company as head of accounts. On September 30, 1943, our ship left the Lagos Habour for Cape Town. I returned to Nigeria on June 10, 1946 as Sergeant – School master of exemplary conduct.
I joined the army on January 13, 1943 and left on July 31, 1946. Today, in the four corners of the world, I am among the oldest enlisted soldiers alive.”
Asked why he did not write a rejoinder or speak up when a certain Major Aduku -now late, who joined the army in 1945 was being celebrated as the oldest enlisted soldier in Nigeria, Pa Obafemi said, “I was not aware. At my age, you’ll excuse me for not reading newspapers. But there is no dispute. The records are there. I may not be able to lay claim to being the oldest enlisted soldier in the world – because a search will have to be conducted to determine that. But in Nigeria, I, very likely, am. The Nigerian civil war broke out 20 years after I left the army. God spared my life because of the gospel work that He elected me for.
On my return from the war, I did not want to work because I had money. All through the war, I was depositing all my money at the Lafiaji Post Office in Lagos. I didn’t drink or smoke. Because of what God said and my position in heaven, he gave me the strength to ward off women. At Abalti Barracks, one of the food vendors inundated me with requests for sex but I resisted. In all my years in the army, I did not for once corrupt myself with any woman. That’s rare in the army. Even white officers engaged in fornication. In Alexandria (Egypt), they had a big brothel, where they had doctors. Soldiers would go there and place their caps at a certain place and any woman who picked your cap would be yours for the night.
One day, I went there to see their mess. I put my cap on the table as expected but disappeared. L T Lambert, a white officer went to commit fornication in Alexandra and got killed by a train on his way back.”
All war photos lost
When this reporter and photographer asked to see photos taken at war front or in military uniform, Pa Obafemi lamented that they’d all been misplaced or stolen. “All of them have been stolen. The ones here are those I took of my colleagues. I gave the last surviving ones to somebody to help me reproduce and that’s the last I saw of them. Gaza was my last post before I quit the army.
Change of name
What influenced his change of name to John Dada Obafemi, since he started out as John Dada Alara?
“Good question,” he retorted. “On July 17, 1949, while I was undergoing training under Apostle Ayo Babalola, 20 years after I had become his follower, Pastor R A Adedipe, manager of all the schools in Ado Ekiti and overseer of the whole of Ekiti to Kaura, requested for an experienced and wise teacher to assist him. I was seconded to him. It was he who said I could not be bearing Alara, since it was more or less a generic name for all the obas and princes of my hometown of Isare Ekiti. He said it was important that I had a unique name. That was how my surname Alara was changed to Obafemi till this day.
My CAC years
“I was ordained a pastor on September 22, 1959; 20 years, eight months and four days after I joined the Christ Apostolic Church.
“Evangelism in those days wasn’t such a big money endeavour as it has become today. We were satisfied with whatever we got, although we still knew of some church officials who collected bribes for favours to augment their income. I have never collected bribe, even though I have been tempted with it because of my position.
WOSEM, Central CAC and the Supreme Council
In December 1977, the Supreme Council as the ruling body of the church in those days was called wrote a circular that they had given T. O Obadare who undoubtedly was a spiritually gifted prophet in the church autonomy to hold crusades independently. This was how the crisis in the church began. When I saw the circular, as supervisor of Olorunsogo and environ (Mushin, Lagos), I called a meeting to intimate all stakeholders. I thought it was a wrong decision, for I had known Obadare long before then and seen in him traits which made me think this autonomy thing would backfire.
Before that circular came, Baba Adegboyega, who started the Olorunsogo assembly had invited Obadare to come and hold a revival; he came without informing me – even though he knew me as an elder and used to call me ‘Baba Obafemi’.
I had known Prophet Obadare way back in 1962. Back in 1966, a son of Ile-Ife started an assembly in Ilare – not too far from Oduduwa College at a time I was a senior Pastor in Ile-Ife. He invited Obadare to hold a revival there. Could you believe that Obadare came and conducted the revival without as much as paying a visit to Elijah Titus Latunde, a very senior Pastor of the Church, who later became president of the entire CAC, let alone me, a mere Senior Pastor? We sat back and watched. When he saw that I did not attend, he came and asked why and I told him, I told him point blank! “You are a thief. You came to a jurisdiction and could not even stop by for a courtesy visit to those in charge of the area”.
He apologised, so me and Ajibade, who was the prophet of Ife and environ went to the subsequent ones. It was a massive revival. When it was time for baptism, it was unprecedented. More than 240 people stepped forward. The irony, however, was that we barely had five of them left in the church just three months after.
So I already saw the arrogance in Obadare. I said this kind of person does not deserve autonomy. At the meeting to grant him autonomy, the likes of renowned Prophet David Olulana Babajide, who took over as the General Evangelist of the Church after Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola, Asaju, and one Prophet Babalola popularly called “Baba Osogbo” were there.
On April 23, 1978, we had a meeting. As we finished prayer and got to Matters Arising, the chairman said he was surprised that I was against Obadare’s autonomy. I said yes and that it was based on experience. I said it was better that he continued conducting revival like every other person was doing. I also told him we were only giving them advice and that we were not against them.
Three months later, Obadare and his men went to conduct a revival in Efon; his men went to open the bonnet of Asaju who was supervisor of Efon and poured acid into it. This matter was brought to our attention during a convention at Osogbo.
All their conducts bred trouble for CAC. Whenever they got to a place, he would start a church, buy cars for his pastors and gather all the rich men and turn them to WOSEM members. They did this for about 16 years until Baba Latunde died and Baba Orogun became president.
So we said, enough was enough; let us settle our differences. Since you WOSEM people are no longer with us, you can go on your way while we carry on as CAC. We broke into two. A letter was written to that effect. The day we held the meeting, which turned out to be the final attempt at settlement, Obadare did not attend. We said whenever we had something to do, we would invite them and they were also free to invite us.
I have not divided my church, says the Lord
“There is no doubt that Christ Apostolic Church is the foremost Pentecostal Church in Nigeria. With the exploits of many prophets who God had raised in the church, it is very sad that we are still facing a division of such magnitude. Not long after our differences started, God, the owner of the Church, conveyed a message to us saying that he had not divided His church. He said if we didn’t come together, He would not bless anything we ventured into subsequently.
Going down memory lane on the division in the church will require another interview. However, let me seize this opportunity to clarify one or two issues.
Riding on the back of that Obadare crisis, some young Pastors led by Pastor Elijah Howard Lajuwomi Olusheye seized the opportunity of the difference in opinion amongst the church leaders, particularly members of the Board of Trustees to agitate for a reformation in the church, particularly to improve the welfare of the pastors and allow younger pastors aspire to higher offices since only death removed leaders at that time. In 1990, this aspiration resulted in a major crisis. Some members of the BOT pitched camp with these young pastors while Pastor Nelson Udofia, who was the church secretary and a Board member, refused to join them. Luckily he was the custodian of the church certificate. Thus even if the young pastors wanted to take over the church, they knew they needed a certificate. In 1991, they approached the Corporate Affairs Commission with an affidavit on a false claim of the whereabouts of the certificate. Interestingly the commission issued them a certificate with the same name and registration number. When Pastor Udofia got to know about this, he went to the commission to protest. Upon investigation, it was found that the certificate was inappropriately issued and subsequently revoked. Again in 1995, another certificate was issued thus taking the church back to two distinct factions, one called the Supreme Council and the other General Executive Council with certificates bearing the same name and same certificate number but different dates. I became the President of the church under the General Executive Council in 1993 to 1997 and was also registered as a Trustee on the 1995 certificate along with Pastor Olusheye. When I became the president, I started getting a better picture of what was actually going on and eventually started raising my voice.
I have a weak point. Whenever I hear “Oluwa so wipe”, that is “the Lord says”, I wholeheartedly believed. This made me take decisions that did not go down well with some people but whenever such person(s) confronted me with believable facts, I always apologised because I do not keep malice.
My belief in unifying the church has continued to pitch me against the leadership of the church. Because of our sharp differences, Pastor Olusheye, immediately he became President, reduced my paltry retirement benefit from N8,000.00 per month to N4,000.00 until when he got tired and eventually restored it. In 2011 when he was about to retire, he decided to singlehandedly impose leaders on the church. Naturally I opposed him and took the matter to court. Part of the issues I raised was his attempt to introduce an Ecclesiastics Committee into the church which I viewed as changing the church constitution without following due process. In the end I won and two officers in the church, the current President Abraham Olukunle Akinoshun and one Pastor Caxtonjoe Fasuyi were victims.
I took the bold step to meet the leaders of the Supreme Council to let us end this crisis. Despite the fact that some of them felt I should have approached them earlier, especially when I was president, they welcomed my move. Interestingly, Pastor Olusheye joined forces with me and he admitted that he took wrong steps over the years. In fact before he died he did an affidavit to admit it. Series of meetings were held and at a point Olusheye and me, being the only two remaining trustees had to disengage our lawyer when we were not too comfortable with his steps on our matter.
In September 2015, after due consultation, the representatives of the Supreme Council and we the Trustees went to court with a Terms of Settlement which was merely to allow us come together as brothers, pending when a new constitution would be written, new trustees and new officers appointed. Not only did the leadership of Akinoshun arrange for our move to be opposed to the point of disturbing the court that day, our lawyer was reported to the lawyers body? The lawyers bar gave a ruling that we were the ones in court with the sole right to appoint our lawyer. Would you believe that Akinoshun and his management team summoned Olusheye and I to their disciplinary committee on this matter? In the end they stopped paying our legitimate retirement benefits as retired Presidents because we went to court as trustees? Can you imagine that at my age? We all know the truth on this matter but for personal reasons, some people do not want the crisis to be over. For over eight years after my wife’s demise, I cried to God to call me home, but He said unless the church is united He would not.
I thank God for the grace of good health and for making me His messenger. My philosophy in life has always been centered on the truth. Without accepting the truth, no reconciliation can succeed in the church. Sometime last year, I called both sides together for a resolution of the crisis, but Pastor Akinoshun had always insisted on the Supreme Council members coming to the General Executive Council to beg and be absorbed as assistant this, assistant that. I will continue to maintain my position that it is not the courts that will settle our differences for us and we can only settle on the truth, nothing more.”
As this interview drew to a close, Pa Obafemi gestured that he had one more wish. He said, “Aside uniting the church, there are two personalities I would like to meet – Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Please help me convey my message to them.”
This interview took place a few weeks before the coronavirus incursion into the country and the lockdown, hence this reporter missed the chance to ask his opinion about the rampaging virus.
Pa John Dada Obafemi’s 107th birthday comes up on May 20; wouldn’t it be nice to wish this rare gem a Happy Birthday in advance and more prosperous years in good health?
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