{"id":1161,"date":"2021-08-08T20:58:51","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T19:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=1161"},"modified":"2021-08-08T20:58:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T19:58:51","slug":"top-nigerian-christian-leader-wilson-badejo-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=1161","title":{"rendered":"Top Nigerian Christian leader, Wilson Badejo, dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Rev. Wilson Badejo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A former General Overseer of the Foursquare Gospel Church Nigeria, Reverend Wilson Badejo, is dead.<\/p>\n

Rev. Badejo, a trained veterinary doctor, died on Saturday August 7 in Lagos, Nigeria\u2019s former capital city, at the age of 74.<\/p>\n

He was the head of the church between 1999 and 2009.<\/p>\n

The church confirmed the death of the clergyman in a statement by its National Secretary, Rev. Yomi Oyinloye, on August 8.<\/p>\n

The statement said the church was saddened by the death of Badejo and would greatly miss him.<\/p>\n

It however said it would take solace in the fact that he lived a fulfilling, God fearing and impactful life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a great achiever, an accomplished servant of God, a role model, a bridge-builder, mentor, teacher par excellence, an apostle and respected family man,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr Badejo served the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria in several capacities, crowning his stewardship at the apex as the General Overseer of the church from 1999 to 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a man of many parts who was able to unlock socio-cultural gateways, and in the process successfully endeared several friends and loved ones from all walks of life across the divide.<\/p>\n

How he died<\/strong><\/p>\n

A national newspaper, The Nation, reports that Badejo was travelling from Lagos to the Bell University, Ota, in the neighbouring state of Ogun.<\/p>\n

He was the chairman of the university\u2019s Governing Council.<\/p>\n

The newspaper said Badejo drove himself of out of the house but latter handed over to his driver when he began to have difficulty breathing.<\/p>\n

He was subsequently driven to a hospital in Ota where doctors confirmed him dead.<\/p>\n

Condolences<\/strong><\/p>\n

The union of Pentecostal churches in Nigeria under the aegis of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), in a condolence message, said the demise of Badejo was a shocking and significant loss to the Christian community.<\/p>\n

The PFN president, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, in a condolence message in Ibadan on Sunday, said Mr Badejo gave his all to the service of the Lord while alive.<\/p>\n

He noted that his dedication enhanced the spread of the gospel to nations of the world.<\/p>\n

Bishop Oke, who heads the Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Ibadan, South West Nigeria said Rev Badejo lived a worthy life and would remain a challenge to the living.<\/p>\n

\u201cRev. Wilson Badejo was a strong-willed man who pursued righteousness till he breathed his last.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor everyone, death is a garb that will be worn by all at the appointed time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough humanly speaking, one wouldn\u2019t have wanted him to go now; however, God is the ultimate decider of \u2018when\u2019 for everybody,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

He said that death should always serve as a lesson of reminder that nobody would live in the world forever.<\/p>\n

Rev Oke lamented that many in society still behave as if they would never leave the earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the case of Rev. Badejo, our joy and solace is that, having fought a good fight of faith, he has gone to rest with our Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s what every Christian should work toward and crave for,\u201d the renowned cleric said.<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s leader, Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement by his spokesperson, Femi Adesina, on Sunday, described Rev. Badejo as \u201cdedicated servant of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the late cleric was \u201ccommitted to standing in the gap for not just his organisation, but Nigerian as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Buhari prayed to God to comfort the entire Badejo family just as he asked his family to take solace in the fact that the deceased lived and set a standard to be emulated by all and sundry.<\/p>\n

Profile\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Rev Badejo was born on May 19, 1947.<\/p>\n

He attended the University of Ibadan where he studied veterinary medicine.<\/p>\n

While at the university, Badejo was active politically as he was president of the Students union.<\/p>\n

He did his compulsory youth service (NYSC) in Obudu Cattle Ranch as a resident veterinary doctor.<\/p>\n

He later joined the National Veterinary Research Institute, Jos, Plateau State after which he proceeded to the University of Connecticut, United States where he took a post graduate degree in management.<\/p>\n

He also worked with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Ibru Organisation before resigning to go into full time ministry.<\/p>\n

He got married to Yinka Badejo in 1975 and they had children together.<\/p>\n

Rev. Badejo succeeded Rev. G.O. Farounbi as the General Overseer of Foursquare.<\/p>\n

While in office, he planted about 2000 churches under the initiative of Barley Harvest Church planting.<\/p>\n

He was the founder of Wilson Badejo Foundation (WBF) which has given scholarship to hundreds of young Nigerians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  A former General Overseer of the Foursquare Gospel Church Nigeria, Reverend Wilson Badejo, is dead. Rev. Badejo, a trained veterinary doctor, died on Saturday August 7 in Lagos, Nigeria\u2019s former capital city, at the age of 74. He was the head of the church between 1999 and 2009. The church confirmed the death of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1162,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions\/1162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}