My husband died a fulfilled man -Idahosa’s wife

Recounting her last encounter with the late Archbishop Idahosa in his latter days, the woman who is also the incumbent archbishop of Church of God Mission told Church Times recently that: “I do not think there was anything he wanted to do that he did not do. He died in March.  In February, he called […]

Recounting her last encounter with the late Archbishop Idahosa in his latter days, the woman who is also the incumbent archbishop of Church of God Mission told Church Times recently that: “I do not think there was anything he wanted to do that he did not do. He died in March.  In February, he called me and said, Margret, I think I have done everything God had asked me to do, and I said, it is because we were still in February and that was because he had not travelled. I said he needed to travel and if he did that, he would come back with a fresh idea. And he said he would travel in March and he will be by himself and will not interact with anybody. I was abroad when he died; I was planning to travel that night to Nigeria when the report came that he had gone to be with the Lord. That, to me, was a great shock. Before he died, he had preached a message titled “The Benefit of Death” and he preached so hard and made death so useless. He made it clear to us that he had finished the work God gave to him in that message.”

On some of the challenges she and her late husband had to surmount in the course of running the ministry when Idahosa was alive, she recounts: “there was a time the witches were going to hold a conference in Benin and he went on air and said there was no way they could hold a meeting where he was and he said the meeting would not hold. And it did not hold even when the chief priest had threatened that it would hold.

There was also a time the Oba of Benin died and there was an order that every man in Benin should shave their heads and he said there was no way the living should shave hair for the dead; that we grow our hair for the living. He told all the church members not to comply with the order and they did not, but those in the palace were not happy. They did the burial of the Oba for seven days and they pronounced death on those who did not comply with the directive and particularly my husband and gave him seven days to live. But he did not die. He only died when God said it was time for him to leave the scene, and that was many years after the incident.”

Also responding to a question on how she felt, attaining the status of being ordained the first female archbishop in Africa, she said: “I do not know how it came. For many years, I belong to different Christian bodies, but in the last 10 years, I have been functioning in the position of archbishop and the bodies that I belong to said it was time to recognize me. I do not feel the difference, but I feel the responsibility. And I have asked God to give me the ability to perform and do what I am called to do, and see and hear the hurt of those around me.”

This year marks the 12th anniversary of the death of the late archbishop and founder of Church of God Mission, Archbishop Benson Idahosa, who was called to rest in the Lord in February 1998.