He was reputed to be the oldest gospel preacher in the world, with a career lasting 82 years. When he died on August 24,, on the eve of his 114th birthday, Reverend Akinbode Sadela, founder of the Gospel Apostolic Church, was said to be the oldest living Nigerian. When The Nation visited the church 48 hours after he passed on, it was business as usual. SEUN AKIOYE writes on why Sadela’s death was kept away from the congregation and profiles the rise of the man of God from a houseboy and tax collector to one of the greatest preachers of the gospel.
At 5:30pm on August 26, a special revival began with a prayer session at the Gospel Apostolic Church, Sholuyi Gbadaga in Lagos. An elder, who led the session, seemed well tuned with his duty as he urged the congregation in sporadic prayers for blessings during the revival.
The church, founded by Reverend Akinbode Sadela, is a conservative Christian group, not given to the pomp and extravagance of modern pentecostalism. The building itself was designed to accommodate the separate sitting of the male and female congregation. An altar looked directly over the congregation with a large sitting area behind it. The elders and the choir shared this space.
It was the beginning of a three-day revival to mark the anniversary of the 82nd year of the ministry of the founder. Rev. Sadela was a remarkable man of God who had been instrumental to almost all the Christian revivals witnessed in the country. Born in 1900, he qualified as Nigeria’s oldest living person at the age of 113 years. Out of this, he had put an amazing 82 years into the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As the service progressed, prayers were said for his life and ministry, speakers drew lessons from his long life and more songs and prayers followed. But Rev. Sadela himself was conspicuously absent at the service. On the altar, three distinguished looking chairs occupied the centre stage, two elders had taken the seats to the right and left but the center chair belonging to Sadela was unoccupied.
Unknown to many members of the church who attended that evening service, their revered pastor and founder had died about 48 hours before at a private ward in Sacred Heart Hospital, Abeokuta. It was a secret well kept by the family and church leadership from the public and media. It was a covert operation which ensured all leaks were blocked and information secured.
The one they called Aboyinbode
In pre-colonial Nigeria it was unusual for dates of birth to be recorded unless such coincided with a major event. That was the case for Sadela who was recorded to have been born on the last Saturday in August in 1900 at Ifon, Ondo state. His father, Chief Olomonehin Sadela was of the Imoru clan and a staunch idol worshipper. His mother, a princess, was from the Amougba Ruling House in Ifon.
Sadela’s birth coincided with the arrival of the British District Officer in Ifon, so was fondly referred to as “A ba Oyinbo de” or simply “Abooyinbo de” (The one who came with the white man). But despite his pagan ancestry, it seemed Sadela was destined for a higher calling in the vineyard of God. According to the man himself, he began to read the Bible as a toddler, being taught to read by the angels of God.
Being the last of 12 children, he was greatly pampered and his parents were not willing to send him to school. Desirous of education, he took the next possible step. “My parents didn’t want to send me to school but I decided to run away,” he said.
Sadela finally got his wish and began his primary education at the St. Paul’s Anglican Primary School Ifon but the lure for gold prompted him to abandon his education for Sapele in the present Delta state where he became a houseboy to Captain Pullen, the British District Officer. He also served Captain Balmour and Gavin as house help. But in 1918, he went back to home and finally completed his primary education in 1920. Many years later in 1946, he passed the Senior Cambridge and later London University Matriculation in 1949. He studied Law at the Woolshall College London by correspondence and was heading to Law School before his educational pursuit was ironically cut short by the call of God.
A lifelong Ministry
Inside the modest compound which housed the headquarters of the Gospel Apostolic Church in Gbagada, activities began to pick up five days after the death of Rev. Sadela. A condolence register had been opened since Monday and many church members had expressed their gratitude to a man who had been their pastor, most of their lives.
In the small bookshop, a gospel hymn blared out given sonorous yet soulful tunes, although unintended, the hymn captured an atmosphere of grief which indicated the departure of a beloved one. More than four hundred sympathizers had registered their condolences with words of appreciation and thanksgiving more than words of grief and sorrow.
Sadela’s encounter with God began in 1928 as a tax collector. It was a time of great revival in Nigeria with men of God like Moses Orimolade, the founder of Cherubim and Seraphim church. It was also the time of the great evangelist Apostle Ayo Babalola with a reputation for the performance of unbelievable miracles. Sadela like Matthew the tax collector met Orimolade in 1928, who prayed for him and predicted he would become a great man of God. In 1931, he met Babalola at Oke-Oye Ilesa. Babalola would later prove to become his leader and mentor. He was baptized by immersion the same year; he had answered the call of God.
Between 1932 and 1937, he served faithfully as a part-time pastor with the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) founded by Babalola and helped to plant many of the church branches. In 1937, he was ordained as a full time pastor.
Being a close associate of the renowned evangelist, Sadela traveled most part of South West Nigeria with Babalola. He lived with him and partook of his travails also fasting 40 days and night together. It would be correct to say he helped plant the CAC in Nigeria.
Two weeks before the death of Babalola in 1959, he reportedly instructed Sadela to establish a church which will have the word “Apostolic” in the middle. In 1972, that instruction was carried out with the establishment of the Gospel Apostolic Church (GAC) which now has about 180 branches in Nigeria and overseas.
The Gospel according to Sadela
Many gospel pundits believe that Sadela inherited the mantle of Ayo Babalola. His GAC was fashioned after the doctrine dominant in the CAC. Also like his mentor, he was a conservative who frowned at excessive emphasis on wealth and materialism at the expense of the gospel.
“Baba was a very loyal follower of Jesus who had a passion for soul winning which is the core of his ministry. He told us to go into the city and win souls for Jesus,” Pastor Adebola Onadeko, the head of Legal department at the GAC told The Nation.
Over eight decades of his ministry, Sadela’s message did not change, it remained: “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” This was evident in the way his ministry has evolved over the years in spite of the threat of Pentecostalism. It is also evident in the way he has lived his creed.
One may be forgiven to imagine that a ministry that long and prosperous would automatically confer on the founder a lifestyle of luxury. Far from Sadela, he lived simple in a humble flat. “Baba said God has not called him to acquire properties but to preach the gospel, he stayed true to his calling. He did not own a single house anywhere,” a pastor in the church volunteered.
For many years, where Sadela called home is a tiny flat inside the modest compound of the GAC. The building was called the mission house which is available for anyone who is the leader of the ministry. The flat has a living room and an ante room; the two are relatively small and cannot contain more than 10 people at a time. But it was well furnished with comfortable chairs for Sadela and his visitors. In his ante room, many of his awards hung on the wall and his living room boasts of framed pictures which tell the story of his life.
A troubled marriage
For a man committed to the work of God for so long, one would think he would be immune from the travails and problems of ordinary mortals. But Sadela has experienced one of the most bitter marriages ever known to man. At the age of 34 years, he got married to his first wife. The marriage lasted 21 unhappy years as the seven children from that marriage all died at infancy.
“When the seventh child was sick, I was crying to God for 22 days. Eventually, the child died and I wanted to know why not one of the children survived,” Sadela said during his 107th birthday anniversary.
He consulted with his mentor, Ayo Babalola and it was revealed through prayers that his wife was killing her own children through witchcraft. “She later ran away and confessed to the killing of her children through witchcraft, she died after the confession,” Sadela said.
For the next ten years, the preacher avoided women, he was too bruised and hurt to attempt another shot at marriage. This has also raised questions about his credentials as a man of God who did not know his wife was a witch. “My answer is very simple, no man is omniscient. God always reveal only what He wanted to reveal to His servants, that is why He is God.” Sadela’s resolve of abstinence lasted till 1965 when he married Madam Juliana Ajisomo Sadela. The marriage had four children with two surviving and in leadership positions in GAC. Juliana died in 2001 after a brief illness. The stage was then set for one of the most outstanding marriages in Nigeria.
In 2007, Sadela married Christiana, a lady of 31 years who had never been married before. This was an extraordinary event which drew the flanks of some Christian leaders. Sadela would have none of it, claiming that it was a direct order from God. “After a brief search, she met the description revealed by God. The dowry was paid and following the directives of the Holy Spirit, the joining was done like the marriage in the Garden of Eden.”
Sadela believed it was a reenactment of the Bible days: “ If Seth the son of Adam married at the age of 105 and in this our own time a marriage is consummated between a 107 year old man and a young woman of 31 years, then the Bible days are indeed here again,” he said.
The signs of death
In a press release to the media, the spokesperson of the church, Pastor Daisi Olisa said the church was not taken by surprise by the death of whom they called “ our oracle of God” therefore they would not mourn but celebrate the death of Sadela.
Many members of the church confessed that the late preacher had given warning signs to them before his eventual departure early on that Sunday morning, August 24, 2014. A parishioner remembered that penultimate Sunday, Sadela had done something unusual. “Baba was about to end the service when he suddenly told us to start praying for whatever we need. We didn’t understand it then that he was saying goodbye to us.”
Onadeko has a more pointed example. “Baba had warned us before now, he had prepared out minds. He said if you are a man of God, you will see Jesus before you go. So we are not mourning, but celebrating because he had told us before now,” he said.
The incidence that led to the death of Sadela was not slow in coming. He had taken ill-which is expected at his age- and had gone for his medical check- up at the Sacred Heart Hospital, Lantoro Abeokuta. “On Sunday morning, at 4:30 am, he had taken his bath and dressed up. He then said he wanted to rest and he put his head on one of the church leaders and he died,” an insider told The Nation.
But why did the church keep his death a secret for two days. One of the leaders replied: “It was a Sunday morning and if we had announced on that day it would have disrupted a lot of things. Also the revival was due to start the next day. Baba had also said we should never allow our grief to overshadow the work of God. Even when his wife died on a Sunday morning, he still preached in the church that day, that was why we didn’t announce it.”
Throughout the service of August 26, no reference was made to the fact of Sadela’s death. A condolence register which was opened during the service was closed. As the congregation danced and sang the information of his death possessed only by a few was kept away from them. But at the end of the service, the announcement was made. It generated emotions initially, then a resignation which collapsed into gratitude. Onadeko was right, Sadela’s congregation were thankful and not mournful.
