11/08/2018
EPISODE 6
About MOSES ORIMOLADE TUNOLASE
Now, let's talk about His Adventure in Lagos
According to the records of the Eternal Sacred Order of C & S Mount Zion, Ebute-Metta, Orimolade arrived in Lagos on July 12, 1924 and lodged with the sexton of Holy Trinity (Anglican) Church, Ebute-Ero, Emmanuel Olumodeji, believed to be from Orimolade’s home town or district. The Advisory Board of the C & S (with its headquarters at 94, Railway Line, Odi-Olowo, Mushin) holds that the Rev. D. J. Oguntolu of the African Church, Ojokoro in Ijaye area was the person who directed Orimolade to the Ebute-Ero Church. Senior Apostle J. 0. Coker, then a member of Holy Trinity Church, but later one of the founding members of C & S, recollected that Olumodeji and Orimolade lived together in a small building, close to the archway in the Ebute-Ero Church [28].
With the church as his base, Moses Orimolade, as he became popularly known, began his evangelistic campaign in Lagos. One incident mentioned by Coker concerned the rumour that Lagos was going to be submerged in a tidal wave. Orimolade helped to avert this with his prayers at the United Native African Church Cathedral [29]. His connections with the African Church began back home in 1919 when the Rev. E. D. Sodeinde wanted him to become a full-time evangelist [30]. It might be true then, as Peel has suggested, that Oke’s prophecy first prompted Orimolade to settle in Lagos, especially if we know that until he arrived in Lagos he was an itinerant preacher. Now in Lagos, he felt very much at home with African Church leaders, one of whom, identified as Chief J. K. Coker, always took him in his car, to preach in African Churches in the district.
He lived in Ebute-Ero for only two months, leaving the parsonage on September 11, 1924. His close association with the African Church might have displeased leaders of the Holy Trinity Church. The minister of the church, Ven. Archdeacon. T. A. J. Ogunbiyi, later criticized the C & S on the basis of Orimolade’s earlier campaigns. It has been alleged by the C & S that the minister personally hated Orimolade and all that he stood for.
According to one tradition, Moses went straight to Ebute-Ero where Rev. Ogunbiyi lived. When he saw Moses he invited him to preach the sermon on an appointed Sunday. Moses preached to the gathering. He was reported to have read from Genesis to Exodus without opening the Bible and interpreted it verse by verse to the congregation. Everybody in the church was transfixed. When Ogunbiyi saw that Orimolade’s sermon was moving and spiritually uplifting he told the congregation that Moses was a liar [31]. Ogunbiyi challenged Orimolade to tell them the school from which he had learned all the theories and translations of the Bible.
This tradition further claims that Archdeacon Ogunbiyi tried to harm Moses with charms but that, as a vindication of Orimolade’s inviolability, it was the warden of the Church who became the victim. He collapsed but Orimolade’s prayers resuscitated him. As a consequence of this incident, Moses Orimolade was nicknamed Baba Aladura (The Praying Father) in Lagos.
J. 0. Coker reportedly said that Orimolade left Holy Trinity parsonage because of his refusal to sell the water he always gave out for healing. The archdeacon, the apostle maintained, felt that Orimolade’s blessed healing water should be a source of money for the church. He also felt uneasy about the overwhelming popularity the lame prophet was acquiring through his efficacious prayer, thrilling sermons and sound Bible knowledge, his lack of formal education notwithstanding [32]. The Advisory Board asserts that Moses was dragged out of the church and sent out of the parsonage. This humiliation of a harmless and physically disabled preacher aroused the sympathy of some church members, including J. 0. Coker and Gabriel Ogunyadi who were among the earliest members of the C&S Society [33].
Orimolade went back to the Ifako farm of Chief J. K. Coker and lived there for some time before returning to Lagos Island on December 20 of the same year to live in Chief Balogun Street residence [34]. He continued his open air preaching in Lagos, stressing the need for absolute faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit, the efficacy of prayers for healing purposes and the use of Psalms. His outstanding ability was reflected in his proficiency in quoting passages from the Bible.
After five months in Balogun Street, Orimolade moved to the house of a Muslim leader, Momo Giwa. J. 0. Coker is of the opinion that Orimolade and Momo Giwa had met in Lokoja during the early days of Orimolade’s evangelistic campaigns. When Giwa met him in Lagos years later, he easily recognized him and invited him to live with him in his house in Kester Lane, otherwise known as Ago Isofin. He moved into the house on May 7, 1925 and continued to make his presence in Lagos known through his regular open air sermons, his public disputation with Muslim teachers, his moving prayers and through his peculiar songs: Lori Oke Jordani l’anpe mi (On far away Jordan hill am I being invited) and E jek’afiinu didun… (Let us with a gladsome mind…).
Miraculous feats were credited to him during this period. A masquerader who tried to harm him with juju collapsed and died just as he (Orimolade) was reciting Psalm 91 in front of him and a baby boy who had swallowed a needle vomited it after he had prayed for him. He also began to have a definite group of admirers. They were always present at his campaign meetings and called on him from time to time for prayers and spiritual guidance. Notable among these “disciples” were Sarah Phillips,–the mother of H. A. Phillips,–Sabinah Roberts (now mother cherub of E.S.O. C & S and Mt. Zion) the late Isaac Adebulewo and H. A. Phillips, who said that he knew Moses Orimolade personally as he called regularly to invite his mother to his open air meetings. Such was his fame in Lagos before the June 1925 incident culminated in the founding of the C & S Movement
