Rev Dr. Ola Akande was the first cleric to contest for the presidency under the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) in 1992.
The nonagenarian spoke with Sunday Oguntola on his amazing life at 90 and why he is not prepared to die yet. Excerpts:
HOW does it feel to be 90? I just don’t feel it that I am 90 years. I still feel like I am in my 70s or 60s because with the power of my brain to have been able to produce 12 books since 1986, I still feel like a young man. If it were not for the sore that developed on my right foot, I did not even feel that I am 80 years.
At the service of thanksgiving where the people were rejoicing with me for living up to 90 years, I told the whole congregation that I am giving them an invitation to be prepared to attend my 100th birthday.
You believe you will live up to 100?
Yes, I believe. My father died at 112 and he told me before he died that I must get to that age or go beyond it. So, my target is at least 120. When I reach that age, I can ask God to come and take me home. That is why I did not feel sick, if not for this sore.
My father transferred this sore to me. When he was 85 years, he began to have it until he died. The only thing I cannot do again is to write books. I think I have done enough writing but I read newspapers.
You read with glasses?
I read newspapers and bible without glasses. Occasionally when I write my sermons, I can use glasses and I can also decide not to use it.
You still preach?
I still have invitations to preach, which I honour. I had a preaching engagement on August 4 at the 80th birthday of a lady who requested that I should come and preach. I write most of my sermons in my mind; that is what I do. When I am asleep, I will just get up, pick a pen with a piece of paper and jot down whatever idea comes to my mind.
When I am on the toilet doing my number two, I have my pen with me. I ensure that I’m always with pens even when I sit doing nothing. I have paper and pen in my pocket and I will be jotting down points. If I am going to write letter to anybody, I would have first written the letter in my mind before I put it down and it will surprise you to know that about nine or 10 years ago, I began to use computer.
That is the mystery of my life and I did not understand it myself. I typed all my books myself with one finger because I did not know how to type with two hands. Everything is by picking. One of my books ‘Miracles, Mysteries and After Life’, I typed it myself and it is 365 pages.
What do you do these days?
As soon as I finish my breakfast, I go to sleep because the doctors have told me that the best thing I can do for this sore foot is to lie down on the bed and raise my legs on the pillow. That way, it will not be swelling.
I do not have any sickness apart from the sore foot, no headache, body pain, back pain and no more sex. The urge will not even come (laughter).
What is the cause of the sore foot?
It comes with arthritis, which I inherited from my father. It was the arthritis that developed to swollen foot and ultimately after four years, there was a little sore that opened and that was what I’m treating. It is almost healed up though.
But when you have sore on one foot, it would affect the other and that is why I use walking stick occasionally. The problem is that if I sit for long, getting up will be a problem for me.
Are you diabetic?
No, I thank God for that. My father was not diabetic before he died. All my four sisters, none of them was diabetic. Two of them died. One died at the age of 61 and the other at 80.
Likewise none of my five children had diabetic. As many times as the medical doctors have tested my blood here in Nigeria or America, I have been free of diabetes and that is something I am very happy for.
What will you attribute your strong health to?
I will say it is God; it is a gift from God because I grew up in Ghana. I still speak Ghanaian languages. I can speak Fante very fluently and the way I speak English is quite different from the Nigerian way of speaking English.
The thing that surprises me is that I do not go to hospital. I am gifted by God with good health and in addition to that supernatural God’s gift. I think it is the way of life I lived in Ghana because Ghanaians are extremely very neat and we have brought that into our marriage.
I have been married for 59 years. By December, we will be married for 60 years. Also there was something I learnt when I was in high school in Ghana. It was called the power of positive thinking. I belonged to a small group of high students. I went to high school in 1945 and finished in 1949.
What do you eat?
My food here in Nigeria is pounded yam with good soup like gbegiri, ewedu or okro with meat. I used to like fish but the fish here in Ibadan is not that okay for me. Occasionally, I call on my people in Lagos to buy sea fish for me while coming.
Also I like amala occasionally. I tell mama (his wife) 85 years to cook for me. My wife at 85 is still strong and I use to wonder what the secret is. She remembers more things than I do and I tell her that maybe when she gets to 90 years, her brain would tell her.
Was there anything you did that you realise you should have done better?
I cannot remember any, my brother. My life has been marked by God’s faithfulness and kindness. I only cry these days because many of my contemporaries have gone. When I think back, I cry and I remember the boys and girls with whom I went to school. I remember that among all of us only two are remaining. The others have died. Those whom we went to high school together in Ghana between 1945 and 1949, there are not more than four that remain.
I asked God why He has preserved my life. Why has He not allowed these people to live? I also think of the years I spent in seminaries, in America and I did not have many friends any more to contact. It is very painful, very painful.
Can you compare Nigeria of now to the one you grew up in?
In Nigeria of today, you cannot tell the truth and be respected. That is why I do not accept too much invitation to preach. One of our ministers died a few years ago. He was my name sake and his family invited me to come and preach. Everyone knows that my preaching is down-to-earth and many people did not like it.
If you invite me to come and preach, I will ask the invitees if they will be able to withstand my sermon because I will tell the whole congregation what God asks me to tell them. I spoke at the funeral and about a week after that, one young man who just started his ministry brought a letter.
He dropped it in at the entrance of our house. When I saw the letter, I exclaimed that the young man is condemning me because of the way I preached. I wrote a note to him and enclosed his letter in it. I told him he should not have written to me in such manner. He wrote back another stinker.
I made several copies of the letter that one of these days I will go to attend the church where he worships. Incidentally, the church he was is the church that I and my wife founded in 1979. After I greeted the people, I told them that I had information that I wanted to pass to the congregation.
I shared copies of the letter to the worshippers and he was unable to talk. The congregation was surprised and I told them to ask the man why he wrote such a stinker.
When a pastor preaches in the church and he speaks the truth, the congregation will not like him. They may decide not to pay his salary or sack him. During our time, we did not have that. In short, things have changed. If you want to tell the truth now, you have to be careful.