FEW clerics can attest to H.I.D’s faith and commitment to the church like the Bishop of Remo Diocese, Reverence Michael Olusina Fape. He came to the Diocese in 2004, but has had such a close relationship with Mama that he is one of those who can break tragic news to her or tell her unpalatable truth. His wife, Kehinde Fape, who is the President of Women Organisations, Remo Diocese, said “I am always short of words…. To describe where our Mama derives her strength….. I am humbled by her support towards all our activities”.
Reverence Fape, who has preached at many of the Awolowos’ family celebrations and remembrances, was the one who was inspired to encourage the diocese to build a church named after H.I.D in Sagamu in 2012. The church, H.I.D Awolowo Anglican Church, Ewuga, Sagamu, is a magnificent one built on seven plots of land. The Bishop revealed that the idea of building the church began with his sermon at H.I.D’s 92nd birthday celebration in 2007.
“(W)hen I was preaching, I told Mama of the dire need to commit more of her resources to serve God more than she has ever done; to do what will benefit the whole of the populace of Remo and even the generations yet unborn”, said H.I.D’s bishop.
For someone whose life as well as that of her late spouse constitute the very embodiment of the positive consequences of the enlightenment project founded in Yorubaland by the Christian missionaries, particularly in terms of education and the eradication of superstition. H.I.D knew the huge impact that she would make by helping to sustain the legacy of her parents and her husband’s parents in the Remo area.
The Bishop’s request was without prejudice to the huge support that the old woman and her husband had rendered to the church over the years. Only in 2004 as the bishop divulged, she handed over a parcel of land at Victoria Island extension which Chief Awolowo donated to the church in his will. Therefore, Bishop Fape already acknowledged that the Awolowos deserved honour over their “contributions to the growth of Remo Diocese”. But like Oliver Twist, the church is always asking for more.
After Fape’s sermon at the service to mark H.I.D’s birthday in 2007, the old woman promised to reflect over this admonition.
“When, by the grace of God, I approached Mama sometime later, she agreed to host the first session of the 10th synod of our Diocese…. In May 2011. And I said the best way to make real what I told Mama in 2007 was to use whatever we realized from the synod to do something in honour of Mama since she would sponsor the synod”, Fape explained.
By sponsoring the synod, H.I.D made history of the first individualto solely sponsor the annual event. In her address to the synod which included a fund raising ceremony in May 2011, the Yeye Oba of Ife said when she first told her daughter, OItunba Ayodele Soyode about the “singular honour” of being asked to sponsor the synod, she responded “we will do it”. H.I.D added sadly, “Little did I know that she would not be with us physically today”.
Because of the death of her daughter, H.I.D told the audience that she considered asking for the postponement of the event or her being excused from attendance, however, she said “with prayers and the ministration of the Holy Spirit I knew that I had to “take up my cross and follow (Jesus)”. I (therefore) decided to act like a true disciple by not allowing personal emotions to stand in the way of God’s work”.
Twenty years before Fape encouraged H.I.D to deploy more of her resources in the service of the Lord, his predecessor, Right Reverend E.O.I. Ogundana, now retired, had made a similar call to the general laity. In his charge given at the Synod Session of the Dioceses held at Iperu about a year before Chief Awolowo died, that is, on July 6 1986, Revd. Ogundana asked “persons of substance with the means (to) spend their money for the work of God”. Ogundana’s position was adopted in the Second Session of Synod held at St Paul’s Cathedral, Sagamu on June 22, 1988, a year after Awolowo’s death.
“We must build more churches in Sagamu, Iperu, Ikenne and Ilisan where our people can worship without having to travel long distances and spend money on taxi fares”, Ogundana charged.
On the second anniversary of her husband’s death in 1989, H.I.D laid the foundation of the church to be built and named after him. The church auditorium could accommodate 500 worshippers. Named Obafemi Awolowo Memorial Church, the church was dedicated on Awolowo’s posthumous 81st birthday on March 6, 1990.
Ogundana was sure that his 1986 charge and 1988 adoption of that suggestion by the Remo Diocese were “instrumental” to H.I.D’s decision to build the church.
H.I.D confirmed this.
“The decision to build the church came up in 1988 at one of the synods of the Remo Diocese. Then the Bishop talked about the need to build more churches in some of the towns in Remo, including Ikenne”.
The building of the church, she added, was fulfillment of a solemn understanding between “me and my Almighty God and the naming of the church after my beloved husband, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in recognition of his contributions to the growth of Christianity and evangelism within and outside Remo Diocese and to express my appreciation to him as a devoted and loving husband”.
H.I.D and her “beloved husband” have been patrons of the Anglican Church since the early 1962. In that year, Chief Awolowo donated a Hammond organ to the St. Saviour Church, Ikenne. Even while in Calabar Prisons in 1965, to celebrate HID’s 50th birthday, Awo contacted Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony and asked him to buy a special pulpit from Italy to be delivered to the church in Ikenne to mark his wife’s fifth decade. At first, she felt it was not good for her to make such a donation while her husband was in jail. But he was persuaded by Awolowo’s private secretary, Falade, to go ahead with the plans.
Said H.I.D later, “On reflection, I now realized that Papa had the foresight of donating a pulpit to the church that day, and it was good that Mr. Falade had advised that I should not stop it. The singular event (that is) the donation of a pulpit….remained the memorable achievement of my 50th birthday ceremony”.
TO BE CONTINUED
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