Interrogating Adebayo Adeyokunnu's Mother of Nations
Book Title: Mother of Nations
Author: Adebayo Adeyokunnu
Publishers: Shiloh Ministries Inc. 13701 Old Annapolis Road, Bowie. Maryland. 20720. Year of Publication: 2020.
Number of Pages: 158
THE book Mother of Nations is a biography of Pastor ( Mrs.) Foluke Adenike Adeboye. It is in a separate nonfictional literary genre that employs available proofs – written and pictorial - to recreate in words the life of the biographee from both historical and personal perspectives. In this 14- chapter book, Adebayo Adeyokunnu investigates what qualifies Foluke Adeboye as a mother of nations, including her worthy ancestral background, her global extraordinary achievements, her resilience in the face of adversities, her flash point, her metamorphosis, and her transformation. Although interested in several themes, the author engagingly focuses on three major issues encapsulating Foluke’s entire life - relationships, leaderships, and fruit- bearing – and provides enough details, from what she says, what others say about her, and her action, in such a way as to provide the reader an intimate understanding of her.
On the theme of relationships, Adeyokunnu begins from Foluke’s family, relating her relationships with her father, mother, grandparents, and siblings, and concludes that they have helped her develop a “penchant for hospitality.” He goes on to consider relationships developed at school with school mates, beginning from her primary school days back in 1954 to 1959, through the modern school ( 1960- 1963), the teachers’ college, the University of Lagos, the RCCG School of Disciples. He remarks that her relationships in this regard have helped to expose her teacher- educationist impetus and to catapult her to the enviable position of an honorary professor of education. Drawing substantially from Enoch Adejare Adeboye’s book, Whoso Findeth a Wife, the author also captures Foluke’s relationships with her husband, her children and her inlaws and confesses to a kind of harmonious unbroken connections, laced with love, faithfulness, kindness, and admirableness. Besides, her connectedness with Christ relates a relationship that is characterized by devotedness, obedience, faithfulness, love, and uniqueness, identifying her as “a woman without pretenses.”
Talking on the theme of leadership style, Adeyokunnu elucidates on Foluke’s leadership in the ministry, her mentoring of the political class without being a politician, her business acumen, and her penchant for initiating and leading several programmes into extraordinary good success. Most uniquely, the author must have derived the book’s title from the motherly leadership of Foluke to several female general overseers, wives of general overseers, and other leading female figures, in various ministries across the globe, as a mentor, an encourager, a catalyst, and an influencer, especially with her “Feast of Esther.”
Adeyokunnu’s fruit- bearing theme is underscored by Jesus’ popular mantra in Matthew 7: 20: “By their fruits, we shall know them.” Here, the author elucidates on Foluke’s fruit- bearing propensity in the areas of education, missions, righteousness, and benevolence ( as evident from several testimonies).
Commenting on Foluke’s propensity for fruit bearing in education, the author recalls her simultaneous strategy of catching the children at their young age into the kingdom and using the same children as an impetus for bringing their parents into the Kingdom. He catalogues her first role as a teacher ( for 12 years without salary), administrator, and her metamorphosis to Chairman of the Redeemer Schools Management with oversight involving taking responsibility for the operation, implementation, and success of the over 262 nursery, primary, and secondary schools, nationally and internationally, Vice- President in charge of education and Head of RCCG School of Disciples, and a worthy contributor to the success of Redeemer’s University. On fruit bearing in missions, the author recounts Foluke’s footprints in global ministry work and notes her life of sacrifice, prayerfulness, and doggedness in zealously and enthusiastically monitoring RCCG Conventions, Africa Missions Global ( including the youth wing), several business ventures, and projects that are beneficial to the people.
Adeyokunnu also talks about fruit- bearing in righteousness and repeats Foluke’s support for women in ministry, Feast of Esther, Wholistic Ministry, Christ Against Drug Abuse Ministry ( CADAM), and Habitation of Hope, where lives of converts have been regularly rehabilitated.
He recalls several testimonies on the fruitbearing propensity of Foluke Adeboye, notably by Princess, Ify, Nkoyo, Awonosi, Uduak, and Chizoba, all pointing to her help, support, and love to the hopeless, the helpless, and the unloved in the society.
In this well researched book, the author helps the reader to understand who Foluke Adeboye really is, using primary sources to
give firsthand accounts of her life. Prominent among these are interviews, memoirs, personal website, and social media accounts. The author also has the rare privilege of being Foluke’s biological brother who knows the biographee intimately and has credible substantial access to how she has lived her life so far.
Most significantly, Foluke, her husband, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye ( Daddy GO), and their four children have also provided significant up- front details that make Adeyokunnu’s writing rather compelling. Indeed, Adeboye’s consistency in assessing Foluke, his wife’s virtues, spread all over the book, through unassailable quotes, simultaneously provides an impetus for the believability of the author’s narratives and an encouragement for the reader to read the entire book. Of note also is the list of a few of the honours and awards ( 18) bestowed on Foluke Adeboye. I know it is not a complete list because two outstanding ones are missing – her conferment with a doctorate ( honoris causa) and her professorial chair at Christ the Redeemer College, London.
Most fundamentally, Adeyokunnu’s unique trailblazing contribution to the employment of primary sources is the devotion of a whole chapter to a compendium of notable quotes and testimonies ( 22 in all) by 22 prominent people! Eight of the notable quotes and testimonies are also strategically put at the back cover page.
The author has also used secondary evidence like books by other authors and documentaries to add to the credibility of his accounts.
By all standards, Adebayo Adeyokunnu’s book is a success.
First, when perceived from its broad- based encyclopedic perspective, this work unveils a plenitude of themes, the most dominant being relationships, leaderships, and fruitbearing.
Another good point of the book is the author’s use of simple denotative flawless language.
Moreover, his inclusion of an index serves to provide the reader with an opportunity of quickly scanning with a view to locating specific information easily.
Also, his provision of a 26- page pictorial analysis containing 43 pictures gives life to the book by providing a visual roadmap for the biography, inspiring visual thinking, analyzing the storyline, stimulating lively discussion, and enlivening the reading task by delivering fun.
Finally, Adeyokunnu’s demonstration of a penchant for meticulousness, comprehensibility, lucidity, and understandability, encourages the reader to finish the whole book once he begins.
Be that as it may, as a work of art, the book Mother of Nations has a few semantic infelicities as its flaws.
For example, the author is caught using the past tense to comment on what another writer says instead of the present tense while also using some authors’ offices instead of their names. A few examples are these: “General Overseer testified in his book, Whoso Findeth a Wife” ( page 35); “he ended each section” ( page 43); “The Assistant General Overseer, Administration and Personnel, Pastor J. F. Odesola disclosed this in … Apostle of Compassion” ( page 88); Odesola observed ( page 88). Also, I consider it a minus for a wellresearched book like this not to have a bibliographic section where various authors whose views have been used can be acknowledged. There are also a few instances of the use of neologism without italicization. For example, the use of the word Aso- Ebi ( the same family fabric for important occasions) on page 41 without italicization erodes the necessity of drawing attention to this alien word, thus, robbing it of the necessary emphasis and significance.
Moreover, there are a few spelling mistakes which can be attributed to the printer’s devil. One example is “philantropy” instead of “philanthropy” ( page vi).
These errors are however pardonable since they are rather few and may not be noticeable to numerous readers except only professional writers and editors with eagle eyes. Besides, the very strong points of the book, elucidated above, make these errors pale into insignificance.
The errors also become overshadowed by the fulfilment of the book’s objective of sharing with the reader the awe- inspiring life of Pastor ( Mrs.) Foluke Adenike Adeboye with conscientious latitude. The combinatorial effects of the facts, incidents, dialogues, and quotes in the book are so prevailing as to make the reader empathize with the struggles of a young relatively unknown girl who has been transformed to a mother of nations by dint of industriousness and by sticking tenaciously to those Biblical principles and precepts that recommend themselves to right- thinking people.
This is a book that should be made available to interested buyers. I searched through places where the book could be found without success - the CRM Bookshop, Open Heavens Museum, the Old Secretariat, and the New Secretariat. I was lucky to get a free copy from Mummy GO’S office, ( courtesy of Mummy GO’S P. A). I hope the book will be put in bookshops to enable interested readers to buy their copies and I charge the readers to read the book with utmost concentration and wish every reader a pleasant reading.