Veteran gospel minister, Evangelist Toun Soetan, one of Nigeria’s evergreen voices of Nigeria’s gospel music, turned 70 years old recently. In this interview with MODUPE GEORGE, she speaks about her sojourn into Christianity, state of gospel music in Nigeria, among other issues.
YOU are a trained teacher-turned-gospel singer, can you share with us how you discovered your talent and how you were led into ministry?
I didn’t discover it. Though I knew I could sing, I never thought of going into it fully. I love music; in fact, I was a street dancer for so many years. However, I was called into the music ministry. I didn’t dream it; I never knew something of such would ever come up. In my church then, no one spoke of a city-wide female singer, all I ever knew about was to sing or lead in the choir and that was all. However, I had an encounter in 1974 when I attended a revival service at the Oritamefa Baptist Church. Getting there on a Sunday morning, I didn’t bargain for what I encountered during the choir ministration. The choir sang a song titled, ‘He Touched Me’ by Bill Gaithers and I started crying in the midst of the congregation.
I entered the church as Alimotu Sadia, not knowing my left from my right. While the choir ministration was going on, I discovered that I started shouting and crying, I knew something had happened to me. The ushers rushed at me and took me out. It was about the time the preacher was rounding off his message that I walked back into the church, it wasn’t the message that got me saved, it was the choir’s song; music. I think that was actually a set up for me. God had orchestrated things to go that way and I heard God say to me when I went to the altar that, “I brought you here because of your future.” Right there at the altar God told me that I will be part of the choir that sang the song that saved me. I gave my life and subsequently I joined the choir. I sang in that same choir for 16 years. I was single when I joined the choir, got married and I had three of my four children in the choir before I left the Oritamefa Baptist choir. Like I said, I didn’t choose to be a music minister, I never thought of it. I didn’t kneel down to pray and fast for it, I found myself in it. Though the talent had been there, I never thought I could develop it. When I gave my life to Christ I found joy and peace that I never had all my youthful days. I didn’t know my dad until I was 21. When I wanted to get married my people rejected me, you know I said that I entered the church as Alimotu Sadia. My mum was an Alhaja, I was raised in Beere, Ibadan, but my dad was a Christian, a Baptist, but I never lived with him. I lived with my mum all my life. In the end my wedding was indeed a glorious day, the crown was huge. 120 voices sang the day I got married with powerful instrumentation. God has indeed helped me. I have enjoyed the goodness of God.
Will you say singing is a gift in your lineage?
I didn’t see music at home, but I could remember that my grandmother was a local singer known as ‘Asun rara,’. She was a princess, whenever she is doing something, you will hear her singing and at some point rise up to dance. I love to listen and watch her. I never heard my mum sing, but my grandma aroused my passion for singing. I can remember when I was in school, right from People’s Girl’s Grammar School, I was a DJ. It got to a time when I could sing all kinds of songs; Apala, Blues, among others. It got to a stage where I was nicknamed ‘Toun Brown,’ in school because I love to sing James Brown songs—‘Hey, hey, I feel alright;’ Olando Julius’ song, even Fela you found in my mouth. I was just singing everything, but I never knew I would end up a gospel singer. Once I gave my life to Christ I stopped everything; I focused more on God and I started receiving songs from Him. I don’t compose songs, but I receive them whenever I settle down to read the word of God and I write them down. Even the ‘Iye Re’ that brought me to the lime light is from a scriptural passage.
At what point did you drop your teaching job for the music ministry?
I never thought of dropping my job for singing, but it got to a point that beyond singing in the choir, invitations to sing outside the church started coming in. The Full Gospel Fellowship came into existence, the members started inviting me to sing at their meetings and then the UCH brethren invited me to come and lead ‘The 42 Choruses We Love To Sing;’ that was my first record and it went viral. After that was ‘Iye Re,’ among other songs. Later on, I had to resign from the teaching profession because the pressure of combining teaching with my signing ministry was becoming too hectic. I would go teaching in the morning and singing in the evening, including Sundays.
It got to a time when the Holy Spirit asked me to get a file and I was wondering, what would I do with a file? As soon as I did that invitations started coming in and I began to file them up until the file couldn’t close again, then I knew that this is more than singing in the choir. At one point, I told my husband that I felt that the Lord was asking me to quit my job and he said that I should continue with my job, saying ‘do they sing in the morning?’ What will you be doing from Monday to Friday if you quit your job? Things went on until I started having problems in the school I had worked at for 14 years. I was almost nominated for the position of a principal at the Oritamefa Baptist School then. It was like God was saying; if I push you to the wall you will get out. All kinds of allegations were levied against me. I could remember some three brethren came to me one afternoon during a break time while I was alone in the classroom. God told them to come and tell that He wanted to use me. They said that three of them would collaborate and they would be paying me whatever salary I was being paid in the school then, if that was my fear of obeying God’s call upon my life – that was the second encounter.
It was obedience and willingness that brought me to where I am today. I did not know how to take the bold step, but one day my husband drafted my resignation letter and asked me to rewrite it in my handwriting. I eventually tendered my resignation letter and I left.
You said you didn’t know your father until you clocked 21, what actually happened?
I was rejected the day I was born by my dad. So, I didn’t grow up to know him. I was actually born in Lagos. My mum happened to be the first wife of the Oluwo of Iwo, the Abimbolas, but they had five female children and no male child. The king was seriously looking for a male child. Since she didn’t give birth to a male child, she was advised to leave the palace. So, she left in search of a male child. There was this ignorant idea then that if she could visit some hospitals in Lagos, the doctors could perform some surgical operation on her to make her conceive a male child. So, she was introduced to a hospital in Lagos on Mercy Street-Akerele Nursing Home. My dad was the gynecologist who attended to my mum. So, in the process of seeking medical advice, they fell in love with each other. I learnt that then, my mum was a paragon of beauty, so, my dad fell in love with her and she became pregnant for him. My dad left Lagos and followed her to Ibadan, but they later moved back to Lagos and they were living together and they had my elder sister, who happened to be the first child of my father. My mum conceived again, which was now me. I learnt that there was a subsequent warning from my dad that if the baby in her womb turned out to be a girl-child again, that would mark the end of their union. There was no ultrasound scanning at that time, so, they didn’t know the sex of the baby until I was born. It was around June that she gave birth to me. When she was leaving for the hospital to be delivered of me, my dad asked her not to bother returning home should the baby end up being a girl-child and that they should bother calling him. That was how I didn’t get to meet my dad, according to the story I was told. It was a bitter experience for my mum.
My uncle then was living at Osholake, Ebutemeta, Lagos. So, she took me to his house. We lived there for a few months and she brought me to Ibadan. And as a Muslim, she gave me the name Alimotu Sadia. I had that my dad had another wife who later gave birth to three boys. I went to school in Ibadan. I attended St. Teresa’s Convent School and People’s Girl’s Primary School.
When I clocked 21, I demanded for my father, because the feeling of growing up without knowing who my father was was too terrible. The only name they called me then was, ‘omoale’- the child of a concubine and I suffered a lot. I suffered all kinds of shame. So, at 21, I demanded to know my dad. Everyone said that I suffered too long and they pleaded with my mum that I deserve to know who my dad was. So, she took me to Lagos that day and she took me straight to that hospital; my dad was still working there. When we got there we were told he was in the theatre; and we had to wait. I felt so happy that I would see who my father was that very day. When he came out, I heard someone telling him that there was a young lady who resembled him waiting to see him. As soon as he sighted me, he screamed and said Olatowunmi! That was one of the names he had penned down to give me. I ran to him and wept and shouted ‘Baba mi’ (my father, my father!). She told my mum that ‘who begged you to bring her to me’. The statement infuriated my mum and it escalated into a fight. It was an interesting scene to behold; before we knew it, a crowd had gathered. I could hear some of the people saying to my dad that ‘is this the kind of child you want to lose.’ The man was very tall and handsome; I realised that I looked so much like him. I loved him immediately when I saw him. I didn’t follow my mum back home; that was how I was reunited with my dad. Meanwhile, the women I met at home didn’t make me feel welcomed. So, I borrowed money and I ran back to Ibadan.t
Why did you established a music school, Trinity School of Worship (TRISOW)?
The bible says, many are called but few are chosen. The question is why would a pastor go to a bible school to be trained? So, what you don’t have adequate knowledge about you will abuse. This is why 70 percent of the people in the gospel ministry are messing up today. When it comes to gospel music, it is not an industry, it is a ministry. It is totally different from secular; it is a ministry and calling. It’s a divine assignment, so you must know the purpose you are there, the message He has asked you to do, how you should do it and when you should do it and who will do it with you. More so, you need to work on your skill to be able to stand before the people. The place of anointing is different from the place of talent. You must be knowledgeable enough to be able to defend what you are doing. A lot of people are singing about the God they don’t know.
The school has been upgraded into a diploma-awarding institute in affiliation with Ajayi Crowther University, how did you come about this feat?
I was almost dropping TRISOW because it was almost fizzling out, until God said ‘it’s the time to sit down to really teach.’ There was a time I was invited to teach on an online platform known as ‘Praise Ambassadors’ containing about 600 people, but I never knew that there was a professor in our midst. I later learnt that he requested my contact from the coordinator. He called and told me how impressed he was about what I took the topic I was given to teach in the group. He said that he had been hearing about my music school and that what was my next plan for the school is. He requested for a rundown of what we teach in the school. I forwarded our programme outline to him and he said, “do you know you would have covered a diploma with this in a university?” He offered to work on the material to make it fit for a diploma programme. He then advised me to seek approval from BOWEN University. When the process was getting too late, he suggested that I should try Ajayi Crowther University. I wasn’t in the country when I was told that the approval letter has been signed that we are now affiliated to Ajayi Crowther University.
Looking at the current trends; scuffles, rivalry, name-calling, hanker for fame and the excessive tilt to materialism among gospel singers today. Are you not bothered? If you have the platform to address some of these issues, what will you say?
By their fruits you shall know them says the word of God. We need to also check on their foundation and what some of them believe in. Really there is confusion everywhere and it is the devil at work, but may the devil not use me. We are in the last days, I just pray that God will open the eyes of the church to see and correct all these evils. Many of these people claim that they belong to a particular church, but the question is what kind of church?, and what are they being taught. Also, who is mentoring them? The kingdom is not about fighting, it’s not for jealousy. The major issue is about this ‘ogo mi’ thing (my glory thing); someone is using my glory and all that. We are to support one another; we are all unique in the way we sing. Today, everything has turned to a rat race; competition, show off. The thing is you don’t judge another man, because you were not there when God called him/her. However, one thing that is sure is that you are going to give account, and not just of your soul, but that of the people you have misled. In the end, we are all going to receive our rewards, not the award that everybody is running after. We have made everything out of material, money and men. When they come to school we will teach them.
You clocked 70 recently, how does it make you feel?
I saw it coming and I just entered it. Seventy is what I have been looking at afar off. I have always thought that by then, one will be walking around like an old woman. I’m excited and grateful to God that I’m still on my feet; hale and hearty. I am happy to see it.
What is the greatest lesson life has taught you…
One of the great lessons life has taught me is to put God first in everything I do, when you do, He will never fail you. Life has taught me to be content and satisfied with who I am and what I have. Others are simplicity, humility, integrity, availability and focus.
Your marriage is well over 40, you are a singer, preacher, wife, mother, grandmother and a leader in. Where do you draw your inspiration?
It is my passion to always be a role model and be able to tell God at the end of it all that the seeds that you have given to me have become great and that I have been able to help them with their visions. I was felt fulfilled the day my husband climbed to the peak of his profession as the President of ICAN.
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