"Three issues obviously agitated their minds as they began what turned out to be a 12-week stay in the hospital. Would she survive? If she did, would she be able to walk again? And was she going to be well early enough not to miss her examinations and if she did take them would she be able to do well? But by the grace God, she not only survived, her legs were fully restored and has been able to walk normally again. The recovery of her ability to walk was however gradual. When she left the hospital, she did in a wheel chair for some months, graduated to crutches, and then started to manage on her own until she became fully restored. On the academic front, she eventually took her papers and graduated with an excellent result and at the time of this interview was studying for her master’s degree in a South African university."
In the midst of all of that, a transformation was going on in the heart of this young man. In penitence, he began to ask God the way forward for him. And the Lord spoke. As he remembers it, the Lord told him: “now are you done with running away from me; see what running away has gotten you into”. This got him thinking and questions began to pop up in his mind. Questions that he would have loved God to answer. But one day as he rode in the same car with his brother-in-law, God answered all the nagging questions through this man. He gave him scriptural and satisfying answers to all that was in his mind. Right there in the car he made up his mind to go back to God. The following Sunday he went to church and gave his life to God afresh. He became really born again. That was in 1985 and it marked new beginning in his life.
After about two years without a job, respite came. He was employed as a trainee engineer in an engineering firm. He was promoted twice during his second year. All this while, the fire of God was burning in him. He virtually turned his home to a Bible school and after one year of intensive personal studies, he then decided to start a fellowship in his company and within a limited time the fellowship grew so big, with other people outside the company were coming to join. People suggested that the fellowship be turn to a church, but pastor Oshokoya said the Lord did not ask him to do that. The fellowship was to later produce members who are all over the world today, including the US, Europe, Canada etc; some of them running their own churches.
Oshokoya’s life was now on a roll. He got jobs at will, with stints in a number of organisation, the last of which was founded by an expatriate. About one and a half years on the job, the so-called “June 12 crises” (occasioned by civil uprising against the annulment of the election of Chief MKO Abiola as President on that date in 1993) started, and people were forced to stay at home. When work resumed generally, Oshokoya and his colleagues were asked to remain at home without loss of income. After three months of getting paid without work, he had had enough. He decided to move on.
In the process of trying to get something else to do, he met Mr (now Oba) Oladele Olashore, a former Managing Director of First Bank Nigeria PLC. Their path had crossed while with one the firms he had earlier worked. Then he would lead the company’s team to Olashore’s house to carry out some electrical repairs. This was a big house with a lot of valuables, sometimes with money lying around. He would ensure that nothing was missing. Olashore noticed and thus developed trust and likeness for him. It was such that he would specifically request of his boss that he be the team leader whenever there was any work to be done in his house. This earned him the nickname, Olashore’s son.
Upon telling Olashore that he had just quit his latest job with the white man, the man snap at him: “you this young man, can’t you start something on your own?” He then challenged him that if could muster the courage to start something of his own, he would give him business and contacts. He took Olashore up on his offer and Oshea Projects Ltd was born in 1993. True to his word, for the first 10 years, all the major accounts of the new company came from Olashore and Lead Bank of which he was Chairman.
There was now no stopping this enterprising engineer, company chief executive and child of God, or so it seemed. Business was good and he was diligently serving the Lord, as best as he could. In this latter connection, he went on a missionary journey to Gambia, a nation 97% Muslim in 1999. By all accounts, it was a successful mission. There were deliverances, he gave out many Bibles and ministration tapes and compact discs, as well as, and helped other Christians financially. The journey opened his eyes to ministry opportunities in that nation and he couldn’t wait to return there.
But, it was as if all the demons in Gambia got on the aircraft with him to Lagos. His business began to crumble almost immediately on arrival. One after the other, contracts were cancelled for diverse reasons. A Christian programme he had started on television became an excuse for some of the cancellations. His teachings were so radical that it made many uncomfortable. Among other things, he taught on the second coming of Christ and some controversial doctrinal issues. His teaching from the Book of Revelation and his understanding of the biblical position on the Catholic Church cost him friendship and business from among Catholics. He recalled the particular case of one of his big business associates, who called him to ask if he was the one he had seen on television. When he confirmed it, the man retorted: “I didn’t know you are such a fanatic; how come I have been doing business with you.” He promptly cut off all business links.
From that moment in 1999, right up to 2002, he went through hell. His business collapsed totally. It was a throw back to the dark gloomy days he experienced just after he got married. Things were so terribly bad that he had to let some staffs go, and hunger set in his family. His children where withdrawn from the relatively expensive although fees were far lower, he still could not pay.
In the midst of all of that, however, the TV programme still managed to remain on air, and through it, he was getting invitation to minister at some church programmes. At a point beyond this, all he did was go to the office and sit down. With no clients, no phone calls and no money to move around for contacts, there was little else he could do. As it turned out, it was all he needed to connect to his restoration.
Sometimes in 2002, he accepted an invitation from a church in Benin, Edo state of Nigeria to minister to their youths for three days. It took the help of his Senior Pastor who bought his ticket and a brother who gave him some money, to make the trip possible, as he had no money. On the day he was to travel, he arrived at the airport at 1pm for a 2pm flight, only to be told that he was late that the flight had left. He protested vehemently because the time stated on his ticket was 2pm. The Managing Director of the airline intervened and he was subsequently checked into the plane as the sole passenger that the plane flew to Benin. On the flight, the airline boss came out from the cockpit, formally apologised to him and gave him his card. On alighting from the aircraft in Benin, the man shook hands with him and apologised again. Pastor Oshokoya said, by this time, he knew in his spirit that something was in the offing.
Three days of ministration over, he headed for the airport as scheduled, on Sunday. But, in what he later found out to be in answer to the prayer of his hosts, who wanted him to stay one more day, he missed his flight. So, he couldn’t return to Lagos until Monday morning. He headed straight for his office, only to find a letter lying on his table. It was an invitation to come and defend a tender he submitted for a job more than a year earlier. As it was scheduled for that same day, he hurried to the venue and met a crowd of other contractors. Some had been interviewed while others were awaiting their turn. He surveyed the room and with the calibre of people there, he felt he had no chance.
But as he sat there, he heard himself telling God: “I have done your job for the past three days; it is now time for you to do my own”. He felt a supernatural surge of confidence. And with that confidence, he found himself clearing his throat and spoke loudly to everybody else in the room: “gentlemen you all better not bother yourselves; the contract is mine.” Of course, everybody laughed wondering what kind of joke that was. When he was finally invited in to defend his tender, he told the panel the same thing in words to this effect. “I have only come to collect the letter of award for the contract, not to defend anything as there was nobody else who can do the job but me.” The company chairman, an Indian looked at him, laughed and said “what kind of joker are you.” But, when eventually they invited the project’s main contractor to make his choice for the job, he chose him. That was how his company its first contract in three years, a very profitable contract that set his company on the road to recovery. God never calls upon his children to serve him in vain.
On the road to recovery, God revealed a potent truth to him: he was a spiritual orphan, with no father figure, no mentor, no guide. Every man needs a spiritual cover. That was what Apostle Paul emphasised when he said, “For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers” (1Corinthians 4:15). This, unknown to many Christians, is an important part of life. Not that the Holy Spirit was inadequate to guide us, but because we have blindsides, areas in our lives where we are so set in our positions that we find it hard to hear the voice of God. It was worse for Pastor Oshokoya because, he had lost his biological father in 1994. But God didn’t stop at revealing this state of affairs to him; He brought the men he required into his life.
Among them was the Senior Pastor of Christian Brethren Church, Dr Oladimeji Oladele, an erstwhile top official of Nigeria’s national oil firm. He has not only been receiving his regular spiritual nurturing from this wonderful man of God, he it was who subsequently led him to the ministry of Dr Christopher Kolade, a top public and private sector player who, at that time was teaching seminars on biblical principles of wealth creation. That seminar series, which has transformed into an international ministry, Managing Business For Christ (MBFC), brought him under the wings of this mentor of mentors, it also brought him in contact with other brethren who have helped in shaping his business practices as a Christian. Through that ministry, he not only became acquainted with, he got under his wings. They include Dr David Abraham (popularly called father Abraham), Peter Abba and Biodun Akanbi-Oluwa. He had also become a Dominion partner with Later Rain Assembly, founded and run by Tunde Bakare in 1998. This gave him the opportunity of being close to the pastor, whom he cherishes as a father figure and has added a lot of value to his life and those of his children.
Pastor Tokunbo Oshokoya’s family life and business has since moved out of the roller coaster of his early days. But that has not stopped the enemy from aiming shots at him. For instance, as recently as September 2007, his eldest daughter was run over by a car and her two legs completely broken two weeks before her final exams in University of Lagos. The daughter and her friend were walking in the median on one of the campus roads, when a car driven by cult member from one of the polytechnics in Ogun state lost control because he was using a mobile phone and driving recklessly. He ran over the girl, the car somersaulted and rested on her, the guy came out of the car and ran away. The girl was taken to the National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi on Lagos mainland, beginning another traumatic experience for the Oshokoya family.
Three issues obviously agitated their minds as they began what turned out to be a 12-week stay in the hospital. Would she survive? If she did, would she be able to walk again? And was she going to be well early enough not to miss her examinations and if she did take them would she be able to do well? But by the grace God, she not only survived, her legs were fully restored and has been able to walk normally again. The recovery of her ability to walk was however gradual. When she left the hospital, she did in a wheel chair for some months, graduated to crutches, and then started to manage on her own until she became fully restored. On the academic front, she eventually took her papers and graduated with an excellent result and at the time of this interview was studying for her master’s degree in a South African university.
Pastor Tokunbo Oshokoya’s experiences over time have elicited a variety of reactions from acquaintances, friends and associates. He suffered massive desertion. Those who stood by them had many kinds of counsel. Some said God, probably wanted him to go into full time ministry; some said his predicament was as a result of a particular sin in his life; while some concluded that it was satanic attack.
This man of God, however was not distracted and still is not distracted by all that. His belief is that challenges are a part of life and that during crises, the glory and power of God manifest for those who trust in the Lord. He emphasised that he had continuously come out of his storms triumphantly and so, sees his life as a wonderful and glorious testimony from which lessons can be learnt and faith strengthened. For this reason, he said he and his household will continue to be committed to the service of God and mankind.
Wondering how his family had coped in all of these? This man of God told KINGDOMPeople: I am blessed with a very good and strong wife. In the midst of the different challenges, she never lost her composure. She remained loving, not just to me and our children, but also to others. People would confidently come to the family for one need or the other, and she always found a way out.
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