Seraph Dayo Oyewo
The name, Olarinde Ogunkunle, without having to state the obvious, rings a bell within the Cherubim and Seraphim fold. With his trajectory in leadership position and the impact he has made in such capacity, he may not be the most perfect of all, but scales weigh in his favour when quality leadership is the topic of discussion.
He took a shot at the national leadership of the C&S youth fellowship about 7 years ago – 2012 to be precise – when the fellowship was formed at Seraphim Land, Maba, in Ogun state where he emerged as the pioneer president. He, however, spent four years with two terms of two years each in the saddle, just as he traversed the length and breadth of the country before handing down to the current president. Prior to this was his much coveted leadership dispositions at the state level where quite a number of youth divisions sprang up under his watch as the third chairman of the Lagos State youth fellowship.
But upon coming in contact with him for the first time, his unassuming physical mien is such that makes invalid your expectation of meeting someone with self-conscious gait equivalent of the high regard he is being accorded. And for his baritone voice which passes for a kind one could use to take advantage at will, Ogunkunle rather explores it to charge the youths on things that mainly relate to God’s kingdom.
Just recently, the Ogun state born cleric turned fifty years old which has always been dubbed to be the golden age. Such attainment, for him, is no mean feat but for the grace of God that has kept him alive over the decades of his sojourn on earth. More so, with evidence that he is loved by all and sundry, torrents of wishes and prayers poured in for him on the 7th of January, 2019 – most of which are laced with series of commendations.
Suffice it to say that words, apparently, were not enough to express how God has indeed been faithful to him, overwhelmed Ogunkunle in a sheer expression maintained that God has blessed him in so many ways. “I bless God for making me to be 50. It is not an easy feat but to the glory of God. When I look back to where I was coming from, where I am today and where I am heading to, I will say thank you Jesus because he has done so much for me. I deserve little but he has given me much more than what I deserve. In every situation, he has blessed me. I am with Lagos state government, God has done wonderfully well for me in the service. In church, God has done so much for me as well. I never thought I could rose to the position I attained in the Christendom. It is God. And to the position of being in the inner caucus of Mama Esther Ajayi, It is indeed an honour I will always cherish. Starting from humble beginning to where God to where God has taken me to, whatever any successful man can achieve, God has given it to me. Is it house, car, children, health? God has given me everything That is why I will forever remain grateful to God.
Meanwhile, the celebrant could not help but also cast his mind back in retrospect of his humble but “very rough beginning”. But there appears no better way to describe the sharp contrast between the past and the present as he explicitly bore his mind on his teenage years in what the future appeared to him then as nothing but bleak. According to Ogunkunle, his father’s status as a clergy and a common belief that offspring of men of God often end up like the sons of “Belial” made people thought his case stood no chance of being an exception.
As for his academic pursuit, his experience at such teenage period of his life is not close to what one may have imagined about him. Although, he attended one of the best secondary schools in Nigeria – Methodist Boys High School but he claimed to barely attend classes. According to him, “I will be playing football and mingling with bad friends. So when it is time to write exams, i copy people to pass. When the person I was copying failed at form three, I had to repeat, too. And then, if you repeat twice, you will be advised to leave the school. So when i repeated my form 3, my dad just said to me that he knows i can’t go to school. He also said he knows that I can’t graduate because I move with bad gangs.”
But Ogunkunle would not have thought of making any difference afterwards until his mum changed the whole narratives. According to him “my mum was the secret behind my change of life, because she wept that day. And that touched my heart after which i asked myself – Is it difficult to read? What is so difficult in these things? So, by the time we resumed, I did not sit beside the guy that I used to copy and he was baffled. And to the glory of God, I passed with flying colours and the rest is history.
On his subsequent academic feats, Ogunkunle studied banking and Finance at Ogun state University where he obtained his first degree. He thereafter had his Masters degree in Business Administration. He also lectured briefly and worked with UBA after his service year at NYSC.
Ogunkunle who is now a business man, a civil servant and a pastor further reiterated that “God has done so well for me. He has made everything I touched to be gold. I could not have expected much than where I am today.”
Being a family man that he is, he gleefully said “God has given me a wonderful family, a wonderful wife, Esther Ibiyemi Ogunkunle and four children. The eldest is Agboola Ogunkunle who is in high school followed by Oluwapelumi who is in middle school; followed by Opemipo who is in primary school and Oluwaseyi who is going to be five this year. Those are the wonderful kids God has given to me. All of them are in the United States with their mum. I just go visiting three times in a year because of the church and my civil service work here since I have not retired.
He further reminisced on the goodness of God in his life saying “God gave me a house. He clothed me with glory. What else could i have wanted? I think i am fulfilled, because God did not only do that for me in the world; spiritually, he increased me. Whatever task God gives me, He always take charge of it. So why won’t I give God the glory for being so wonderful to me.
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