"I am personally grateful to God for granting me the privilege of interacting relatively closely with Dr Kolade in the recent past. My prayer and I know it’s that of so many others, is that his godly deposits in me, such as they are, through his words and actions will continue to bear fruits in my life; the selfsame fruits that have stood him out as an exemplary leader"
Yesterday,
Dr Christopher Agbolade Kolade, a Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON)
turned eighty. Appropriately, a birthday seminar held in honour of the
cerebral, technocrat, boardroom icon, man of integrity and an exemplary witness
of Christ. Professor (Pastor) Yemi Osinbajo, a former Lagos State Attorney
General and Commissioner for Justice spoke on the topic, “Teach Us To Number
Our Days – A Legacy of Accountability” at the strictly by invitation event.
Venue was Freedom Park on Lagos Island.
Yes
indeed, his is a legacy of accountability. His character, his integrity, as I
have had occasion to say before, is one of the very few consensuses among us
Nigerians. That is a feat, given the paucity of trust in our land caused by the
almost hourly incidences of betrayal of trust by leaders who turned out to be
clay-footed giants.
I
join members of his nuclear family, the Managing Business For Christ (MBFC) and
his many other families to wish this man of God all the joy that his heart can
carry, continued peace and rest in God and continued excellent health, physical
and spiritual as he begins the last third of the Biblically promised minimum of
120 years on this side – if the Lord tarries.
I
am personally grateful to God for granting me the privilege of interacting relatively
closely with Dr Kolade in the recent past. My prayer and I know it’s that of so
many others, is that his godly deposits in me, such as they are, through his
words and actions will continue to bear fruits in my life; the selfsame fruits
that have stood him out as an exemplary
leader.
Incidentally,
one of the things I have learnt from this great man of God is his total and
complete dependence on the Holy Spirit. That is what all Christians ought to
do, but because we’ve had year and years of self-dependence through secular
education, we not only fail to do it; we virtually deny that it is possible. To
those of that school of thought, here are a few examples from the book, “He
Made The Difference, The Dynamic Story of Ambassador Christopher Kolade in Britain”
written by Pamela Chinekwe and published in Nigeria by KP Books.
Why he allowed the book
to be written
“I walked into the large office and the
first thing that struck me was how a room can tell so much about the person who
inhabits it. The simple, neat and elegant furnishing carefully devoid of any
frills, stated a lot about my host.
“‘Welcome Pamela,
what do you have to show me?’…I dug into my
folder and came up with it. Taking a deep breath, I placed it in his hands, and
then waited in anticipation. He looked at the contents of the folder I had
given him. As he glanced up at me, my
heart lurched wickedly in my chest. What is he going to say? His face had this
look of total disbelief. He said nothing for a moment. The quiet humming of the
computer on his desk sounded louder than my grandma’s old clock in my
tense mind. I wanted this so much... He finally spoke, ‘I do not think I should be allowing
this. Everything I have done here has been my job, nothing out of the ordinary.
‘
“‘No, it is not.’ I looked around for where that had come from
and saw no one. Somehow, I had opened my mouth to speak my thought out loud!
“‘I beg your
pardon?’ he asked. I am sure he could
not imagine he had heard right as well.
“I cleared my throat, took a gasp of air and blurted with all
the passion I could muster, ‘Sir, if I may say so, you did your job.
But your job is a job no one was ready to do. You did something no one had
dared to, until now. This is not something we should just brush under the
carpet, but something that must be documented so that others can learn from
your experiences and techniques. I have carried out my research, all I need is
your approval to publish the truth, and I hope you will let me…’ I waited for him to say something and finally after two minutes
he looked at me again and said, ‘Go ahead and do
it, let me know if you need anything from me.’ My jaw actually
dropped wide open. No words could come out of my mouth.
“He continued by way of explaining his change of mind, saying, ‘I asked the Holy Spirit what to tell you and He said to me, if
she says she wants to do this, let her. Although I would never have approved
this ordinarily, you can go ahead. Only stick to the facts.’”
Why he accepted
the job as High Commissioner to Britain
“When I
asked him what had been running through his mind during this period (when he
was appointed), the High Commissioner answered, ‘Well, I told myself that if
there are truly problems of this magnitude happening in our High Commission,
someone had to try to solve it. If the Lord has called us to go there, we might
as well obey.’”
Dichotomy
between his work and his faith?
“…I
asked him how he managed to balance his faith and life as a man of God with his
secular job as a High Commissioner. He
gave me that smile that I had now gotten quite accustomed to and he replied and
said, ‘My starting position is that there is nothing that I am involved in that
God didn’t lead me into. I took up this role as High Commissioner because God
indicated to me that he wanted me to take it… He would give me an assignment or
permit me to take it because He knows that I will do my best to be faithful to
him. In my day to day decision making, my day opens with the conviction that
whatever opportunities come to me that day must be used to serve God. I must
not assume that there are certain times of the day that I work for myself or I
am working for someone else because God is interested in everything I do; He
can give me an opportunity to serve Him through anything.’”
Happy
Birthday sir.
PS:
I seize this opportunity to say Happy Birthday tom y wife, my Treasure, whose day it is
today. LOVE YOU LOADS.
