Reverend S.T. Ola Akande, former General Secretary, the Nigerian Baptist Convention, has reportedly passed on at age 94.
The President, Nigerian Baptist Convention, Dr Samson Ayokunle, broke the news on his Facebook page on Friday.
Ayokunle, who doubles as the President, Christian Association of Nigeria, wrote, “Baba S.T.Ola Akande, former General Secretary, Nigerian Baptist Convention, has changed address today at a ripe age of 94.
“Rev. Samuel Titilola Oladele Akande has answered the glorious call! Baba relocated to the great beyond a few minutes ago after a brief illness. Good night baba. May God console and comfort the Nigerian Baptist Convention and his immediate family.”
The deceased, fondly called ‘the Archbishop of the Baptist Church of Nigeria,’ is held in high esteem by the Baptist family at large. Akande was the third indigenous General Secretary of the Nigerian Baptist Convention.
He served the Convention in various capacities from 1951 to 1991. He was described by his admirers as a dutiful minister, a courageous preacher, a talented teacher, and the “best Nigerian Baptist leader ever produced.”
Born in Awe, Oyo State on March 31, 1926, to Pa Oyetunde Akande of the Onsa-Olapeleke’s Compound in Awe and Susainah Ayannihun, his mother, Akande attended the A. M. E. Zion Primary School, the Salvation Army School, and the Aggrey Memorial Primary School, Ghana before returning to Awe in 1937.
He later atteded Awe Baptist Day School in 1938. He returned to Ghana in 1943 and completed his secondary education at Adisadel College in 1949, receiving a very good grade on the London Matriculation Examination as well as on the Cambridge School Certificate Examination.
The Baptist Mission in Ghana, under Reverend W. N. Claxon, offered him a conditional scholarship to enable him to complete his education after his mother’s death in 1948.
In 1959, while serving as pastor of First Baptist Church, Fiditi in the present Oyo State of Nigeria, the Nigerian Baptist Convention awarded him a scholarship to study at the Wayland Baptist College, now Wayland Baptist University, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, from 1959 to 1962.
In 1969, while serving as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, he secured another scholarship from Union Theological Seminary in America for his postgraduate studies in the New Testament. He was in America from August of 1969 to December of 1973.
On his return to Nigeria in December of 1973, Akande taught at the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso. He served as an associate professor at the seminary until December of 1976 when he was invited to become pastor of the Oritamefa Baptist Church in Ibadan.
Akande served as the president of the Nigerian Baptist Convention between March 1977 and April 1979. In 2018, the Oyo State Government named the popular Bashorun-Ashi, Bodija Road as Rev. S T Ola Akande Way.
