This man claims to be a 189- year-old Nigerian preacher

The rain was drizzling. The surrounding of Pa David was not too good for comfort. There was water everywhere. Visitors had to step on marshy surface to behold the face of the man acclaimed to be the oldest living Nigerian. A DAY AT THE OLD MAN’S RESIDENCE Members of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church where […]

The rain was drizzling. The surrounding of Pa David was not too good for comfort. There was water everywhere. Visitors had to step on marshy surface to behold the face of the man acclaimed to be the oldest living Nigerian.

A DAY AT THE OLD MAN’S RESIDENCE

Members of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church where Pa David is a key figure were not left out of the scene as they turned out to be the host of the occasion. They occupied two canopies set out for the purpose as journalists also jostled for space with them. It was a media parley. And then, the aged man was sand-witched in the midst of two other men who also bear old age as a garb. Sitting to the far left at the event was a Nigerian based in Houston, US. Apostle Abiodun Ogunleye. He was the one who said he had a divine mandate to look for Pa David. He told the gathering that rainy Wednesday that God had told him that a member of the church was still alive who will bring unity to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church. But that was not the issue that Wednesday. What agitated the minds of participants at the conference was the fact that a man whose age was put at 189 was still alive and kicking. And indeed he was alive. Safe for the fact that he is slightly bent and finds it difficult to raise his voice there is perhaps nothing wrong with the old man. Right at the conference he proved to his listeners that he was far beyond this age. He recollects vividly when white missionaries came to Nigeria with the gospel in 1842. Though the Anglicans were first to bring the gospel, he said he could only recollect interacting with Catholic missionaries. He said “I was the one taking the missionaries around. I was taking them on Canoe”. A fisherman by profession, Pa David who has since survived four wives at different times said he was always using his canoe to take the white missionaries from one place to the other across the various communities in southwest Nigeria.

NOLSTAGIA ABOUT THE DISTANT PAST

The old man whose story was first published in PTL News, a Christian, tabloid spoke in vernacular throughout the interaction. He expressed a great deal of nostalgia about the past; wondering what had become of the world. He also recalled when the first Oba Oyekan of Lagos was about to be installed claiming that he and the first Oyekan were relatives. The event of the coronation of the Oba was quite clear in his mind that he would not leave any opportunity out to talk about it.

And then the most cent of what he still had stored in his memory was the time he spent with the late founder of Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Moses Orimolade Tunolase who was born in 1879. He was about 59 years older than Orimolade. He recalled that he had for Orimolade because of had of God upon the late founder of the C and S church and because he had the gift of healing and delivering people from satanic bondage.

Pa David had been saddled with the problem of still birth. All the children his first wife gave birth to prior to meeting Orimolade did not survive. But his encounter with Orimolade who offered prayers for him changed the course of his life. “It was my meeting with him that put an end to the problem of still birth that my wife had. He prayed for me. He was known to be full of the power of the Holy Ghost. God used him to bring succour to my life,” he recalled pointing out that “it was that miracle in my life that made me stay with Orimolade till he died and 1 have remained in the church ever since.”

He claims to have open vision where Orimolade and some other persons from heaven deliver messages to him. Pa David finds it difficult to talk about his children. He said all the people at the event were his children. He does not see the difference between his biological children and every other person around him.

But one issue that stuck out like a sore thumb was the veracity of his age. Paul, 56, one of his biological children also a child of old age said he never saw a black strand of hair on his father’s head. “I grew up to see him with an all-white hair. That got me curious and made me to start asking questions. 1 asked my teacher in school and he told me 1 was a child to the aged. My mother has since died but curiosity made me to start finding an answer to the riddle”.

WHAT HE SAYS ABOUT HIMSELF?

While trying to justify the age of his father he said, “When I was about 30 years, my father had asked me to help him count his age which was indicated by marks on the wall. In those days there was nothing like birth certificate. But they had a crude way of knowing the year they were born. At the count of each year the parents of the child would put a mark on the wall indicating that their child had marked another year. It is this mark that the child will continue I to make when he is of age. In the case of my father he had several of such marks on the wail and he asked me to count the marks. On counting I was able to arrive at 163 and when you add 26 to that you get 189 because the counting was done 26 years ago.”

He noted that the wall has since collapsed but explained that his father’s age is something of shock to all those who knew him. The point however is that Pa David will leave no one in doubt about his age. He keeps talking about events that have gone by and kept wondering what has become of the world.

But what keeps this aged man going? Does he have a special diet? “I don’t eat anything that has been fried” he declared adding “fried foods are not good for my health. It is repulsive to me. That is the only thing I don’t eat”.

HIS EATING HABIT

He however enjoys eating Turkey and fish. But since he crossed the centenary age he eats sparingly. There are days he stays without food. “When I’m sleeping and I face up I have angelic visitation. I see myself communing with the heavenly host and when I’m experiencing this I can stay without food for days”.

Presently there is no woman in his life but scores of people throng his residence which is built with palm fonds in Magbon community Badagry where he lives. He would not leave the environment where he stays for any other place claiming that his residence has been blessed of the Lord. Though there were indications that he had access to better accommodation, the make-shift structure seems to please him. “I prefer where I stay presently and I cannot trade it for any other place,” he says.

Church members however said the place would be reconstructed so that it will look decent. The General Overseer of Christ Authority and Power Ministry, Prophet Gbemiga Samson who was at the press conference corroborated some of the claims of Pa Okedaho. He stated that he had access to a book where documentation the aged man had been made. He said his being alive is a blessing adding that there was a need to take drastic steps about his accommodation and also ensure that he does not go through of pain at this incredibly old age.

Culled from Church Times