By Wale Lawal
In life, it has often been said that, no matter how good or fair a man can be, you simply cannot be everybody’s friend. No doubt, you will have those who will adore you, but you will also have those who will despise you. Not everybody will love you. Yet, there will be countless of others who will be willing to take a bullet for you and show you tremendous love and respect everywhere you go. Primate Ayodele Elijah, the leader and founder of INRI Evangelical Spiritual church is a man that fits perfectly into this bill.
Primate Ayodele is a man with a great personality. You cannot help but like him even when you meet him for the very first time. He has a legion of followers who stand solidly behind him at all times. Their loyalty to him is unquestionable. They love and adore him to bits. Even those who have never met him but only follow his activities via the social media and conventional media have grown to like and respect him. And its not just for his astonishing prophecies which often always come to pass, but also because of his rare courage to always rise up to speak against actions or government policies that he considers unfavourable to the masses. Over the years, Primate Ayodele has consistently shown that he is a dependable ally of the Nigerian masses, never letting the lure of massive government contracts extinguish his passion for standing up for the suffering Nigerian. As he is pressuring the government to do the needful by providing basic amenities and making life easier for the people, he also spends everyday a large chunk of his hard earned resources supporting and empowering the needy. Yet, there still are people who for no reason condemn this same man and his methods. They question his prophecies and critcise his methodology rather absurdly instead of doing so constructively.
But if you know Primate Ayodele at all, you will understand that he is a man who stays focused on his goal at all times. No matter what you throw at him, he keeps his eyes on his target, never letting distractions get in his way. “I do not need anybody to be my friend,” the globally revered man of God says often. “I will never go out of my way to solicit for anybody’s friendship, all I focus on is to always do what is right and speak the truth at all times, no matter whose ox is gored. And if that truth I speak ve the envy and treachery of his enemy. And Primate Ayodele, no doubt, is a good man. Testimonies abound to prove this. People have shared breathtaking testimonies about this phenomenal man of God. They all speak with one voice and say it loud and clear, that Primate Ayodele is a rare breed, a man whom God has blessed immensely so he could be a blessing unto others. Indeed, the people have spoken, and the voice of the people is the voice of God. Hate him or love him, Primate Ayodele will always be loved and respected in the society no matter what anybody says.
One of the reasons why many can’t but respect Primate Ayodele is the fact that he has consistently proven over the years, that his prophecies are from God and not that they were concocted by man. And it’s hard to fault him. One of his most recent popular prophecies that I still find confounding is his prophecy, which also came as a form of warning, that Nigerians should not vote Tinubu into power. He warned repeatedly and vehemently that any vote for Tinubu or APC would bring untold hardship upon Nigerians. And the records are there to show that he said this several months before the presidential elections were held. I personally disliked that prophecy because I trusted in the abilities of Tinubu to turn things around and couldn’t see how our situation could go from bad to worse under his leadership. But here we are today, everything the man said about the prices of food stuff shooting through the roof and fuel pump price going up by several notches have all come to pass. And he says we have not seen anything yet. The accuracy of the man’s prophecies scares me sometimes. It has been nothing short of impressive. Little wonder why today he has a compendium of over 30, 000 fulfilled prophecies under his belt and still counting, why won’t such a man be respected?
Another very significant reason why everyone respects this man is his honesty. And he is extremely dependable too.There are indeed very few men who are as honest and as dependable as Primate Ayodele. He will never lie to you or try to deceive you into doing something that will be favourable only to him. He is a straight forward person. If you need him to do something for you and he tells you that by noon tomorrow you will get a call from somebody whom he has asked to help you sort out whatever you need him to sort out for you, you can go to sleep because you will surely get that call. He will never lie to gain favours from anyone and neither will he promise you what he can’t give. Primate never fails on his promise, if he says it’s done, you can take his word to the bank and consider it done. People respect this a great deal about him.
Primate Ayodele never bears grudges. Like any other human being, he has his own inadequacies. He gets angry if you upset him. He can lose his cool the moment you step out of line with him, but once he lets out his anger and expresses his displeasure to you, that is where it ends. He has moved on. Once he lets out his mind, the anger disappears and he continues with you like the issue never happened.
He also forgives very easily, especially if you ve shown some measure of repentance for your wrong doing. I remember my very first encounter with this renowned man of God.. This was quite a while ago. I was editing HINTS magazine, one of the largest selling publications at the time. This was sometime around the year 2008. The publication was doing creditably well under my watch and we never had issues with public figures until one of our reporters published a story on Primate Ayodele that was unpleasant. I had no relationship with the Primate back then, I only followed his exploits from a distance and secretly admired his doggedness and determination to push through his aspirations, no matter the obstacles that stood in his way.
When the edition that ran the unpleasant story on Primate Ayodele hit the newsstands, I already knew there was going to be trouble. I had gotten calls from colleagues and from top society personalities who told me the man of God was not happy with the story we wrote because it was untrue and that he suspected somebody sponsored the story to be used against him. It didn’t take long before we were slammed a Law suit by Primate for defamation of character. As the Editor, that put me under tremendous pressure. I knew I had to act fast. Promptly, I put a call through to his long standing Lawyer, the very beautiful and efficient Madam Bolanle Oyinlola. She was visibly upset about the story but I expressed my unreserved apologies to her and requested I meet with the Primate. She told me Primate was extremely busy at the time but would try to see what she can do. That meeting didn’t take place but she was able to arrange a telephone conversation between me and the Primate.
Our conversation on the phone was very brief. I was expecting to speak with a man that would be very angry and probably raising his voice at me over the phone, but Primate Ayodele acted like a true man of God that he is. The minute I introduced myself and told him I was sorry we ran such unsubstantiated story about him without reaching out to him, he interjected and said to me, “Listen, I have no issue with journalists writing anything they want to write about me, whether positive or negative, all I demand is just make sure you do your findings and confirm that what you’re writing is the truth, that’s all!” End of story. The conversation went no further than that. He withdrew the case and no word of it was ever mentioned again.
A more recent instance was the 18th of February, 2023, grand finale of INRI Anniversay celebration. Popular gospel artiste, Yinka Ayefele was billed to perform by 10.30 am but did not arrive until 1pm. Primate was furious and insisted Ayefele must refund payment made to him and tender a public apology and that there was no need for him to perform again, after all, the important dignatories he wanted him to entertain had left. And as Yinka Ayefele approached the stage, Primate furiously left the stage. But after Yinka had played tirelessly to everyone’s delight, Primate returned to the stage to tell him he had forgiven him. Not too many big and powerful men do this. Even some of the so called men of God find it hard to let go. Rather, they will use their high and mighty status to bully you even more. Ask a lot of people who have come in contact with him, they will tell you they respect this about Primate.
Primate Ayodele never discriminates against the opposite religion. He opens his doors to Muslims around and supports them regularly. Just last month, he already began plans to build a mosque for the Muslim community in his Oke-Afa area. He has sent a handful of Muslim faithful to Hajj pilgrimage in the last few years and has continued to surprise many with his incredible support for the aged and widowed Muslims in the community.
Everyone knows about Primate Ayodele’s philanthropic activities. It is one like no other. No man of God on this side of the globe supports the less privileged with his hard earned resources like he does. He has done so much for so many people. We can go on and on about his many empowerment programmes aimed at uplifting the people and raising them above the shackles of poverty. This has earned him enormous respect from people. Men of God these days are known for using church money to fund their lavish lifestyles to enable them enjoy life at the expense of their church members who are squeezing from their meagre funds to support the church. But not the Primate. He spends his own money on the needy in his church and within the community. He never tires to support and empower people. He gives out cars to people to use for Uber business, he gives out tricycles (Keke Marwa} gives out scholarships, pays school fees at all levels, empowers men and women to start up their businesses, gives out numerous cars as gifts, etc. And again, I ask, why would anyone not respect a man like this?
Another part about this man that astonishes many is the fact that he does not even expect you to start showering him with endless ‘thank yous’ and praises whenever he does something for you. Once he does you a favour, he moves on, not waiting to receive a word of gratitude from you. Let me use my case as an example. I had attended Primate Ayodele’s February 14th annual event, just like I’d been doing in the last few years. Yes, I have been fairly close to the irrepressible man of God, offering media support every now and then. I personally didn’t think I was doing anything out of the ordinary. Everything I wrote about him was done out of genuine admiration for him as a person and what he represents. Indeed, it came as a huge surprise and an exhilirating moment for me when I heard Primate Ayodele call out my name as one of the beneficiaries of the five brand new tokunbo cars he was giving out on the occasion. I was speechless. I didn’t see that coming. It was a clean looking, spotless Ford salon car. In this austere period that even the very rich are now mindful how they spend their money, somebody is now gifting me a car? It was almost unreal.
But let me share the most shocking part of it all, Since I picked up the car, I have called Primate Ayodele several times on the phone so I could thank him but he has declined picking my calls. He knows why I have been calling. He knows I want to express my profound gratitude to him. But the man is not interested in all that. As far as he is concerned, he has done what he needed to do and he has moved on. I have sent him a message though, thanking him profusely and asking that he gives me an appointment so I could come see him and thank him. He read my message but gave no response. I spoke to his PA, trying to get an appointment, but the young man said to me, “Sir, do not bother yourself, Primate has forgotten about all that, he is focused on other things now..when next he calls you to do something for him, don’t bother bringing up the issue, he won’t even listen to you!” I was confounded, a whole brand new tokunbo car, in this hard time? Not even a word of thank you? I said okay o, so men like this still exist! And you still wonder why so many people love and respect this man? Please, tell me, considering all that this man has done and still doing for humanity, why would anyone not give him the respect he deserves? If only a quarter of our men of God were like Primate Ayodele, how beautiful would the world be for everyone….
WALE LAWAL (08037209290)
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