Letter To My Son In Heaven On His Birthday
My dear Toks, as we all fondly called you; but I proudly called you Apostle of the Most High God, and will continue to do.
This letter ought to have been sent to you, July 26, 2024, on the first anniversary of your glorious exit, but I had been too overwhelmed by my emotions to do that. It’s incredible it’s been a whole year since you left us. It’s just like yesterday! The tears have not ceased, the pains still gnawing, tugging at my fragile heart. Your siblings are yet to recover from the shock and agony of losing you.
Dear son, you left footprints on my heart that time and sorrow can never wash away. I never could have imagined that you would, like a candle in the wind, be blown away so soon – 40 years, overlooking your 41st birthday.
Today, August 2, you would have turned 42, but we are constrained to celebrate you posthumously. I have no doubt that the saints triumphant are celebrating with you your brief but impactful life. If there’s ever a shindig in heaven, please my love, enjoy every bit of it. You deserve it.
My darling, like I promised you, your loved ones have been in safe hands. Your humanitarian works have not suffered. Your siblings and I have made sure of that. Ogooluwa, your beloved son, is growing very fast. I am comforted that he called you daddy even before he could call mummy, though his memory of you has gradually faded away. It hurts. He talks well now, and like the one-man army I call him, he is everywhere turning things upside down around the house. He’s quite a handful.
There are times he would stray to the back of the kitchen overlooking the slum behind us where you normally sat with him, especially in the cool of the evening. There were times he would cry as if longing for you. You were a doting father. You indeed amazed me the way you splashed so much love on him and provided generously for his every need. You found it a great delight and sense of duty bathing him, baby-sitting him, and changing his diapers; making his food and feeding him, acts you mastered so fast. Even when his mother felt frustrated by his cries, you magically pacified him, and rocked him to sleep. It came so naturally to you.
When people say you cannot give what you don’t have, or that your experience defines you, I dare say you and your brothers were exceptions. The love, care, and attention you didn’t get from your father, you gave generously to your children. In fact, what you went through with him seemed to have acted as catalyst for your resolve to dare to be different. He hurt you, but you were forgiving.
Judith is fine. She’s now getting ready for call-up for National Youth Service. She’s into business now and trying her hands on other things to be financially independent. But I must say the business environment has been very challenging, and economic survival in the country quite daunting. On this day you would have been celebrating your birthday, you would have been witnessing demonstrations that Nigerians protesting hunger and economic hardship in the country tagged ‘Days of Rage’. It began yesterday, and already, some lives have been lost. Seeing what is happening now, you would have exclaimed, as you were wont to do, ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee!’
By the way, it would have been so apt because this has been our new national anthem since May 29 when President Bola Tinubu marked his one year in office. Behold, the old has become new, and the new confined to the dustbin of history. Talk about a misplaced priority amid hunger and starvation.
This brings me to the next issue. Apostle of the Most High, just as you prophesied in one of your video messages released shortly before your exit, famine is here. Hunger is ravaging families. The poor are selling some of their children to buy a bag of rice to feed other members of their families. Let me shock you; a bag of rice sells for as high as N90, 000 and above, far higher than the celebrated new minimum wage of 70, 000 Naira. Nigerians are no longer able to buy a whole tuber of yam, which sells for about N9,000 to N10,000 and traders have devised the means of cutting one into three or more so that those who crave it can afford it. We now ingeniously cook our stews with carrots and cucumber because the prices of tomatoes and pepper have gone sky high.
I remember you also personally warning your siblings and I during one of our Bible studies to prepare ahead like it was done in Egypt. You said a Joseph needed to arise to plan for the imminent days of leanness and famine. We never thought it would come upon us so soon, and that you would not be around to experience it. But we are comforted by the words of Apostle Paul in Philippians 1: 20 – 23. You chose the far better option of going to be with Christ. Yet, we thank God for His mercies that when people are saying there is a casting down, His beloved are saying there is a lifting up. (Job 22:29)
Just as you also prophesied, a lot has happened in the African continent, and a lot still unfolding in line with the vision God gave you as documented in your hurriedly produced book, ‘God’s Vision And Purpose For Africa’ published in October 2016.
You said, “The writing of this book is in obedience to His instruction to “publish it all over Africa”. The message is: “God is doing a new thing in Africa; “Shall you not know it?” (Isaiah 43:19). This new thing is succinctly summarised thus: “An African continent that is wholly Christian; First World; and galvanised by a new generation of young Christian leaders … As with God, whenever he wants to do anything great with any generation, he usually sends someone who would champion that cause.
“We have received the revelation from God about his plan for Africa and the things that are going to be coming to pass shortly in Africa. Being revealed are already prepared young Christian leaders that God is going to bring to the limelight to champion the cause he has for Africa in these times. These young Christian leaders have already been prepared and are still being prepared and will continue in the work that God has called them to do. They will also raise other Christian leaders who would succeed them by duplicating themselves such that the vision is continued, and everything goes smoothly as God has planned.
“When God wanted to take away the sins of the world, he sent his only son Jesus Christ to die on the cross of Calvary to redeem us from the curse of sin and usher us into a new life of salvation. When God wanted to bring out the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, he sent his son Moses to go unto Pharaoh and tell him about His will for His people – the Israelites). And we know the signs and wonders that followed at that time, such that Egypt and the Pharaoh had no option but to let the people of God go. We know also of the story of Joshua and Caleb and how God used them to lead the Israelites from the wilderness into the Promised Land. These were very young men, who championed the cause of leading their nation into the promised land after the death of Moses”.
Even in your lifetime, the vision had started to come to fulfillment with the rise of such vibrant, spirit-filled young preachers like Pastor Arome Osayi, Michael Orokpo, Jerry Eze, Joshua Selman, and a host of others who are shining the light and taking the gospel of Christ round Africa and the world.
Similarly, you prophesied a shaking in the leaderships of countries in the continent. Under the sub-title, Riot Act, you had written: “and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith.” (2nd Thessalonians 3:2 NKJV)
“Old and wicked leaders who are currently benefiting from the poor state of the African continent and continue to perpetuate themselves in office and maintain the precarious status quo will be disgraced, destroyed, and punished by our God. The foolishness of the past has ended. You have had your time. The curtains have been closed on your era. Your time has elapsed. You have expired. This is a new season.
“Any attempt to continue the evils of the past or to stifle the rise of the young will be met with God’s wrath and fury. I advise you not to dare God or believe that you can try His patience and probably gain a second chance at wisdom and repentance. You will be sorry. God is as wrathful as He is loving and merciful. You cannot afford to gamble with Him now. The consequences are dire: death, debilitating and incapacitating illnesses, etc. Be warned!!!”
God’s word to you have not fallen to the ground but found fulfillment in happenings around Africa where, barely four years after the book was published, seven coups had taken place in the continent since August 2020, with the one in Niger Republic, our very close neighbour, taking place exactly the day God took you away to be with Him – July 26, 2023.
Then there was Burkina Faso with two putsches in eight months – January 24, September 30, 2022; Sudan, October 25, 2-21; Guinea, September 5, 2021, after 11 years rule by President Alpha Condé; Mali, two coups in nine months – August 18, 2020, and May 24, 2021.
Three of these countries – Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso in January 2024, announced their withdrawal from ECOWAS which they accused of slamming them with “inhumane” sanctions to force them to reverse their respective coups.
And guess what! Presently, in some African countries, the heat has been turned on the leaders for the unbearable hardship and hunger they have inflicted on their citizens. The youths are revolting and are determined to have the wicked and corrupt politicians for supper. President Tinubu, current leader of West African States, is not spared. The recent uprising started in Kenya; Uganda took the baton, and now Nigeria has taken her position on the track, wielding the baton. Who knows which country will take over and breast the tape. The greedy and corrupt politicians are no longer comfortable in their outlandish mansions, and like the common citizens, they are fleeing, ‘japaing’ out of the country in droves to escape the wrath of the asphyxiated people. The days of rage are here. The youths say they want to take back their country.
My sweetheart, enough of my epistle on our present trajectory in Nigeria, and Africa. It was foretold. Before I conclude, let me thank you immensely for the seed of love and kindness you sowed that we are harvesting now. Some of your family members and friends have been very supportive. Uncle Okuns, (Okungbowa Isaac Ero) as you and your siblings fondly called him, has kept faith with the guardianship role your father gave to him. He has remained a pillar of support to the whole family – your wife, your son, your siblings, and I, your mother. So also, your cousin, Mary-Jane who had been committed to the welfare of your son, Ogo. My big sister, Mrs. Ibidun Olufunwa, and my younger sister, Omowaleola Adeleye, have also been awesome. May the Lord reward and bless them all immeasurably.
Marvin Ogo in the UK, your brother from another mother and ethnic nationality, has been awesome. He is a friend indeed, even though I didn’t know much about him until your passing! I don’t know how to begin to enumerate how he has stood with the family emotionally and financially. There was one thing he said to me that brought tears to my eyes. He said, “if I were the one this happened to, Toks would have done much more for my family”. I pray that God will grant him longevity and perfect everything concerning him. He’s simply been so amazing.
How can I fail to mention my amazing boss, Nosa Igiebor, who daily encourages and lifts my spirit with inspirational and Biblical quotes.
Spiritually, Rev. and Rev. Mrs. David Izuagie and Pastor Samuel Izirein and His Elect Ministry, have continued to uphold us in prayers. They have been good shepherds. So also, Pastor and Pastor Mrs. Ademola Adesina, of the RCCG Gates of Zion, my new family in Christ since I moved to Lagos who never left me alone all through the period of our grief.
Enough of my banter, my love. It is prayer time. I know you will be happy to hear that. You were a man given to ceaseless prayers and fasting. I am praying that God will grant me and all your loved ones that same grace such that with our last breath, as it was reported of you in your final moment, we would still be praying.
Goodnight, my love. A true Apostle of the Most High God.
Your Dear Mama
MRS. ADEKUNBI ERO
