Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s pastor at Owu Baptist Church, Rev.
Timothy Fasipe, a retired cleric, shares some of his interesting
encounters with Baba in a chat with Punch. Excerpts:
How did you meet former President Olusegun Obasanjo?
I met Obasanjo first in 1955. I was teaching then. In
the Nigerian Baptist Convention every year, we always had holiday bible
school. During that period in our secondary schools, they would post
pupils from Abeokuta to Sokoto, Kano, and other places for the two-week
duration of the programme. In that year, they posted Onaolapo Soleye and
Obasanjo to Aatan Baptist Church, Oyo. The first child of my
grandmother is the wife of Soleye, more or less the father of Onaolapo
Soleye.
When they posted them to Oyo, that older Soleye brought Obasanjo and the
younger Soleye to live with my grandmother. Obasanjo was in the
secondary school then. After the two weeks, we parted ways.
When I came back from the seminary, people were calling me to pastor
their church. Owu Baptist Church (Obasanjo’s church) told one Prof.
Imasogie that they were looking for a pastor for their church. They had
some challenges in the church. He told them that I would be a good
pastor for the church. That was how I was transferred to Owu, Obasanjo’s
town. When I got there, initially they were calling me Obasanjo’s
pastor because it was Obasanjo and one Deacon Odesina that went to
Imasogie to request for a new pastor. The other people wanted another
pastor and not me. I got to the church in 1988, that was 29 years ago.
What kind of church member was Obasanjo?
He was a very committed member. The only challenge he had was his busy
schedules. When I was at Owu, he volunteered to be the Sunday school
teacher. At this period, he had served as military president. He is
still a Sunday school teacher in the church he attends. Obasanjo hates
church politics and gossips. If you went to him to say, “Mr. so and so
said this and that about you,” he would give you a coke to drink. He
would quietly leave you and call the person you came to talk to him
about. While you are still drinking, the person you accused would come
and meet you. He would then tell you, “Can you repeat what you said
about this man?” Once Obasanjo knows you are telling lies, he won’t
associate with you anymore.
I am saying this for the first time. I did not even tell Obasanjo or
even my wife. I decided to go and pray with Obasanjo about his
presidential ambition in 1999. When I got to Ota, the Spirit of God told
me that one of the close allies of the late MKO Abiola, who was working
with Obasanjo (names withheld), was evil. I could not tell Obasanjo. If
I told Obasanjo that the man was evil, he would call the man in my
presence and say, “my pastor said you are evil.” I told God that if the
man was truly evil, He should expose him before he executes his plans.
He was planted to kill Obasanjo. God exposed him and he was eventually
arrested. Obasanjo then said, “I have been living with evil.” I am happy
God answered my prayers.
Your predecessor was sent away at Owu Baptist Church. Is it true Obasanjo beat the pastor?
No, he didn’t. He fears men of God and he would not do anything like
that. It was even Obasanjo that helped to pacify the church members when
he came to apologise to the church. The pastor was accused of diverting
and misappropriating the church fund.
What role did you play at the time Obasanjo’s administration was accused by some state governors of withholding their funds?
I visited him in Abuja when the issue was getting hot. I was in the room
with him and Prof. Jerry Gana. I told him one proverb in Yoruba. I said
if one wants to sell corn to a blind man, one needs to whistle so that
the blind man would know that one is not eating out of his corn. I said,
“When you give money to the governors and you don’t announce it, nobody
would know whether you gave them money or not.” I advised him that
henceforth, whenever he released the money, he should let the media
publish it. When he took to my advice, the noise the governors were
making went down.
Was there any advice you gave him that he did not listen to?
During one of my trips to Abuja, I met three federal ministers at
Obasanjo’s waiting room. The ministers came late but he attended to them
first. When they came out, right in our presence, they started saying
nonsense. One said, “Look at what he (Obasanjo) said. Will you do that
one?” Another one said, “If you do it, you will be so starved that your
fingers will enter a bottle.” Another one said, “Obasanjo is not ready
to chop government money. But we are ready to eat something.” When they
left, I went in. I did not tell him directly what the ministers said.
He was just lamenting that if he knew this was how bad the situation
was, he would not have accepted to be president. At that stage, it was
beyond my calling to tell him how to run the government.
During the apartheid regime, Obasanjo once said they should go there
with juju and fight the white people. As his pastor, do you think he is a
changed man?
When you watch boxing matches, the boxers engage in a war of words to
show their strength. When he was saying they should fight (whites in
South Africa) with juju, he was merely engaging in a mind game. He does
not have any juju. God has given him that courage and know-how. Even
now, I don’t think you can see him with any juju. I remember one time that someone brought one juju for him for protection. He used the juju to hit the person’s head. He is close to God. When you move closer to him, you would know better.
