S.T. Ola Akande: Just like yesterday

It is exactly a year today that an erstwhile General Secretary of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, Reverend Dr. S.T. Ola Akande transited to glory.

Though he wished to have lived up to 120 years, living more years than his father, but God always has the final say. He died at 94.

He served as the spiritual and administrative head of the Nigerian Baptist Convention from 1979 to 1991. He was the third indigenous General Secretary to serve in that capacity. The great man of God led and served the Nigerian Baptist Convention meritoriously for 40 years as a church pastor, administrator of high reputation and above all, a fearless preacher and teacher who did not mind whose ox was gored. Pa Ola Akande shepherded God’s people across the globe particularly Nigerian and African Baptists. He did this with integrity of purpose. He was indeed a great man of many parts. Pa Akande meant different things to different people. But in all, integrity of purpose was the underlying principle in all his interactions.

The 12 years he spent as the General Secretary brought significant and remarkable progress to the Nigerian Baptist Convention in particular and the Christian body in general. The Baptist World Alliance, All Africa Baptist Fellowship and World Council of Churches felt his leadership influence as he served in various capacities. To his many admirers, Pa Akande was a dutiful minister, courageous preacher, a skillful and talented teacher of the word. He was once described as the “best Nigerian Baptist leader ever produced.” He held the position of the convention’s president between 1977 and 1979 before becoming the substantive General Secretary in April 1979.

The Baptist family will long remember Pa Akande for what he stood for as he did not leave anyone in doubt about what opinions he held on various issues.

His tenure as the General Secretary brought about positive development, giant strides in spiritual enrichment and church growth. During his tenure, he instituted the honour roll and award of certificates for outstanding churches. This initiative served as encouragement for churches to be engaged in healthy competition in church growth and development.

He also moved for the improvement of the condition of service of pastors and other convention workers by bringing their pay to be at par with what obtains in the civil service. He also introduced an enhanced pension scheme for pastors and other convention workers. Similarly he introduced the now-famous “Appreciation Service” for pastors who served meritoriously in their churches. This is done once in five years, the objective of which is to motivate them to more outstanding service.

Pastor Akande as an icon of the Christian faith stood and preached against Baptist members who were in secret societies; he also condemned polygamy. He wrote in one of his columns as the General Secretary that no pastor or official of the Baptist Convention shall be a member of any secret society whether it be foreign or indigenous.

As an influential international personality, he worked diligently and tirelessly to establish the All Africa Baptist Fellowship (AABF) which brought together Baptists in Africa. Dr Akande served as a life member of the International Society for the study of the New Testament. At the same time, his love for evangelism led him to establish the International Institute of Evangelism four years after retirement. The institute trains many evangelists and adult literacy educators

The story of the late Reverend Dr. S.T.Ola Akande will not be complete without mentioning his involvement in the political space of Nigeria. His involvement made him more controversial as he ventured into politics. He was a big man in partisan politics. All appeals to get him to give up on his ambition failed. He was a member of the Electoral Commission in 1965 but refused to be compromised. However, he contested as a candidate in the presidential primaries of 1991 and won at the state level, but lost at the national level.

In recognition and appreciation of his many social, political, cultural and religious contributions to the Nigerian society, the Federal Government awarded Dr. Akande with the national honour of the Order of Members of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (MFR) in 2003. The Oyo State governor honored him by naming the popular Bashorun-Ashi, Bodija road after him on August 31, 2018. The road is now addressed as Revd. (Dr) S.T. Ola Akande Way. The honour was in recognition of his contributions to the development Oyo State and Nigeria.

Pa Akande has left a good legacy and his memory will linger on in the minds of his admirers, friends, protégés, immediate community, congregants and indeed Christendom. He was indeed a role model, a good father, a faithful husband to his wife and a man of honour. He was exemplary.

Adeleke is chief editorial assistant at the Nigerian Baptist Convention.

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