How I Tried To “Bribe” God And Avoid Working for Him – Pastor Wole Oladiyun, Senior Pastor, CLAM

Today, April 2, 2026, he celebrates his 67^th birthday, while CLAM commemorates its 28^th anniversary. In this interview with Ademola Akinbola, Publisher of The Podium Media, Pastor (Dr.) Wole Oladiyun, the Senior Pastor of the Christ Livingspring Apostolic Ministry (CLAM), discussed how he started his ministry, the challenges he faced, CLAM’s milestones, his vision for the ministry, and the role of the church in Nigeria. Enjoy …

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How I Tried To “Bribe” God And Avoid…🤖 AI Summary

How did you come about the name “Baba Aladura”?

I want to thank the Lord for this privilege He has given me, and to express my appreciation to Oloye Ademola Akinbola, the CEO of The Podium International Media Network, for bringing me onto this platform. I want to express my appreciation and commend the good work you have been doing over the years. I want to appreciate your dexterity and your focus. I want the whole world to know you are doing excellently well. You are adding value globally. My prayer is that the Lord will keep you and your family in the name of Jesus.

Everything I am going to say is by the grace of God, because there is nothing to boast about. I think my background has to come into play. I was born and raised in the Christ Apostolic Church, founded by Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola, and very early in life, my parents dedicated me unto the Lord. Growing up, I always knew I would work for God. I obeyed God, answered the call of God, and I found myself in this space whereby I have to engage myself in an intensive crusade all over the world and in prayer. So, over the years, the Holy Spirit has enabled me to be up and doing in the prayer spectrum. I am a prayer priest by the grace of God and an intercessor. People in this area started wondering how I could balance my core background as a CAC with excellence. One day, a friend of mine said, “You shall be called the Baba Aladura of this generation,” and since that day, it has become my prayer appellation to date.

You lost your father so early in life. How did you feel the day you heard about your father’s death, and what was going through your mind at that very tender age?

I was brought up by a father who was actually mentoring me, unknown to me. We had to trek about five kilometres daily from our house to the church to chant Psalms. I thought my father was a very hard man. He disciplined me. He was a Goldsmith; he ensured that at that tender age, below age 10, the craft was imbibed in me. He made me learn Goldsmith at that age. I will work in the workshop, go to school, come back to the workshop; you won’t talk to anybody, put down your bag, pray, then, having prayed, you go back and meet my dad. That was how I was brought up, so I saw my father as harsh. He was a disciplinarian. Unknown to me, that having the eyesight of working for God, he was actually shaping me for the future.

The day he died, I wasn’t at home; I went with my maternal grandfather to his farm outside Ile-Oluji. Someone came to pick up my younger brother and me on the way. When I got home, I saw people crying. I really felt the pain of his demise.

What defines you? What’s your philosophy of life? Your generic values as a man of God?

(Laughs). There was something inside of me while in Ile-Oluji. I would write at the back of my books, No king as God, One with God is a Majority. My friends would call me Joseph Olawole Oladiyun, alias No King as God. When they hail me, I would say, No King as God, One with God is a Majority. I would mobilise my mates, and they would be drumming for me, calling me Jagunlabi, eni to jagun la ibi koja. I am an embodiment of grace, hyper-grace, I know, because my life is not normal. Two, I believe that with God, anything is possible if you want it. I over-trust God, I over-depend on God. I like hard work and smart work. I believe in continuity. I believe in nurturing people; I believe in human capital development. I was doing that when I didn’t know that anything would come out of me. During the summer holiday in Ile-Oluji, I would mobilise my friends and go to all the secondary schools, teaching them Physics, Maths, Additional Mathematics, etc.

I believe in benevolence. Giving is the easiest thing for me in my life. Money, service, myself, that’s my life. I don’t look down on people. I believe that tomorrow is a weapon that can make the tables turn, so for the person you look down on today, anything can happen. I also believe that there’s no age that God cannot lift you. At 50, I had my Master’s degree. I could have had that when I had a scholarship for Structural Engineering when I was practising Engineering, but because I was training my siblings, I decided to forgo it. I wanted to do a Master’s in Structural Engineering and a PhD in Structural Engineering, to lecture and to practice. So having my PhD now makes me happy and fulfilled. I know when I am not doing well, and I quickly adjust. I am a learner, and I am willing to be corrected in love.

Success means different things to different people. To some people, it is all about material wealth. What does success mean to you, sir?

When we talk about success, it depends on the individual. For me, success comes from God. He bestows it on people in measures. No one can claim to be successful in life outside God. The success I have enjoyed so far is from the Almighty God. Firstly, success must be to glorify God. Two, to help humanity, and that is what I have been doing. Because I am not a custodian of success, God has made it possible. I glorify Him with everything He has given me, the wisdom He has given me, the foresight, resilience, and the versatility that he has bestowed upon me.

I just discovered that God has so much favoured me with so many things I put my hands on. So, I glorify God and help humanity in everything. Success is not about money. It can be because of your designation in life or the position you find yourself in. Let me give you an example when I was in secondary school at Gboluji Grammar School. Because I had lost hope when my father died, my father’s cousin, the late Joseph Akinrinmade Adewakun, a diplomat and the father of Olori Adetokunbo Adetimehin of Ile-Oluji Kingdom, visited and asked, “Out of these seven children, I need someone to go with me to Ibadan.” I raised my hand. It was by the arrangement of God that I found myself in Ibadan.

When I was going, I took my Lacombe, the mathematics textbook. His brother, Engr. (Chief) Moses Oluremi Adewakun (Confidence) discovered that I was very studious, and he said to me, ” Would you like to go to secondary school”? I said yes, sir, I want to be an Engineer like you. He discussed with his brother and the then Director of IITA, Chief Michael Akinjisola Akintomide. The three of them pooled their resources, sent me to their younger brother, Chief David Adewakun (Jawando), at Ile-Oluji, and sent me to secondary school.

When my hope was revived, I was so happy, and I started studying. I studied so hard that I was awarded a Western Region Scholarship. That was the genesis of my being studious till tomorrow. So far, I have written 64 books. So, if I have come from this background, if any success comes my way, I must glorify God, help humanity, and remember that some people were, and still are, my benefactors. I must reciprocate their good gestures. If you are successful today, you need to let the whole world know the root of your success, how you have evolved. That is my story. God lifted me from the dust, from the dunghill, to make me who I am today, so I give him all the glory. I discovered that God has deposited so much in me. So, I celebrate Him for all He has done for me.

My brother, success is sweet. It is also dynamite; it can blow you up if it’s not well managed. Success is good; if you are selfish about it, it will blow you up; if you mismanage it, it will blow you up. But success is good, and God gives it.

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I feel thankful to God. Grateful because God has done well, making great things out of what looked so ordinary at that time. To me, it’s a big deal. It can only be God for the enablement He has given right from day one till now. Just like one of my ministers, Pastor Joy Ebora, observed during a recent ministration in the UK, she said, ” Sir, the intensity of your ministration that I have been seeing over 20 years ago has not reduced. It’s even more, and you see, it can only be God. So, I feel thankful to God, and I appreciate him for everything He has done. I feel so happy.

How has the journey been?

Of course. The ups and downs must be there because without them, one would not appreciate God. Two, there wouldn’t be any achievement because during those times, you need to overcome challenges, you need to confront situations, you need to proffer solutions, you need to depend on God, you need to come out in your element to survive and ensure that the vision God has given you does not just fizzle away. So, God allowed the ups and downs for training and, in particular, to remind me that He is the one doing it. In the beginning, many people didn’t believe the call and the vision. They were very sceptical. What is this man up to? Ok, we know him as an engineer, yeah, we know he loves God, but let us see.

I remember Barrister Wole Olufon, who met me in my wife’s Nursery and Primary School. He said, Wole? I said, Sir? He said, I have not been seeing you in our meetings, and someone told me you went into ministry. I said, yes sir. He said, what do you mean by that? What is ministry? I explained to him. He said, ” Do you know what you are doing? I said, I know what I am doing, sir, by the grace of God. He said you’ve left Engineering? I said, yes sir. He said, ” Do you know what you are doing? I am asking you for the third time, do you know what you are doing? I said, yes sir. He said we shall see. Today, God has vindicated and justified me.

When you started, were you not daunted by the challenges ahead? Were you not doubtful at any point? You never said, I know God has called me, but is there no escape route for me? Can’t I dodge it?

The beginning was extremely rough, very, very rough. At the time I surrendered to God, I was in a battered stage because it had been a big struggle for me. I married Bukola at age 31, and my Engineering firm was flourishing. In addition, I had a Chemical marketing firm, JNISSI Chemicals. I was also into bulk spare parts sales. I would send people to France to knock off Peugeot parts and import them. I would then sell to the Igbo guys. I was making good money. Then, my cousin, Gbenga Akintomide (of blessed memory), who was a Pharmacist, I had an investment of close to $10,000 with him. I was equally a partner in his Pharmacy in Kano. I was also into the wood business.

So, for a young man of my age, having his hands in those businesses, and the businesses at that time were thriving, at the back of my mind, I knew I would work for God, but I thought that would be when I was 68 or 70. I must not lie; that was what was at the back of my mind. Then, God started talking to me, but leaving those businesses was very difficult for me; that was where the struggle started.

So, it got to a stage where I couldn’t resist God any longer. I was battered and bruised, and I had to surrender. I was in a tattered state. It was so bad that I couldn’t pay my house rent, I was embarrassed and taken to the police station. It was so bad that we depended on my wife’s family members for survival. So, in it all, and through the gracious help of Mrs Adun Akinyemiju, one day she said to me, “Wole, we have always known that you will do well in ministry.” Why don’t you obey God, so that all these struggles will end? Then I told her, where is the money to rent a space? She told me that at Dansol Tutorial, where you currently have Triple Cross, there is a man of God called Pa Ige who uses the hall. Meet him, discuss the days he’s free, and use the remaining days. That was how she gave us that place to start.

On getting there, could you imagine, starting a ministry without one single chair, without a lectern, without any musical equipment, only the bible in my hand and the grace of God upon my life; that was the beginning. But anything that God has a hand in must survive. That was how I started. It was a herculean task at the beginning; people could not see the ministry’s future, but with hindsight of the various visions God had shown me, I had the confidence that tomorrow would be wonderful. I was using my small car to bring people to vigils. God said I should not start with any Sunday service, that I should be doing vigils on Fridays and another revival service on Thursdays; so, it was quite unusual. So, going after the people, managing them, and people telling me, yes, we will come, but we can’t leave our church, I said, ” Don’t worry, it’s an interdenominational ministry, and that was how the thing started.

Let me ask you a hypothetical question: if your businesses were still flourishing, and you had not run into that stormy weather, would you still have listened to God?

Hmm … it would have been very difficult, so God himself preserved me. Humanly speaking, I negotiated with God to give me about seven young people or older adults who are into soul-winning and evangelism. I saw one or two. I was pumping money into their ministries, trying to bribe God. But, God said, I need what I have put inside of you, if you don’t do it, I will not change what I want to do but I am going to change you as a vessel, I will raise someone else who will receive every detail of the vision, who will run with it and everything I have packaged there for you will be for that person. At that point, I surrendered. God himself disciplined me.

How were you able to convince your wife?

My wife was confused at one stage. So, she sought counsel. She was told that I had the call of God upon me and that she should prevail on me to obey God. When she came home, she said, excuse me, do you have the call of God? I said yes. She said, but you haven’t told me? I said, well, I couldn’t have told you at the beginning, so that you would not run away. She said, “Ah, a pastor said this and that,” and I said yes. She said, please, you know what you are going to do? Hear God very well, the way you see the marks on my palm, ensure you have details from the Lord, anything He says, please do. Where you go, I will go. That was her statement till we moved into it, and God helped us.

So, what were the success principles you put in place from the beginning? I know that everything wouldn’t have happened just by prayers. There would have been administration, management, and so on. For the benefit of young ministers, what were those success principles you put in place early in your ministerial career?

By my nature, nomenclature, and configuration, I have this winning attitude and mentality. Right from childhood, I have been an optimist. I don’t believe that there’s anything I can’t do once I have been led by God. Perhaps the sudden demise of my dad helped me in a way. When I was in Ibadan as a houseboy, the Adewakuns and Akintomides, through the grace of God and providence, asked me to attend Gboluji Grammar School. When I got there, I realised that my mates had gone far ahead. I started reading and studying aggressively to catch up. That was how I inculcated the studious nature you see in me today. I kept saying to myself, I must make it, I must make it, till I graduated.

So, apart from prayers, my Engineering training helped me become detail-oriented. In my secular work, I was detailed, structured, and meticulous. We were well organised, and each business had a section manned by competent hands. We had managers, accountants, administrators, etc. Those things prepared me for the ministry you are seeing today. I was on top of many things and managing them effectively in Lagos. I would have meetings with my engineers, have meetings with people in the chemical section, you know, sectional meetings like that, I would demand executive summaries from them; so, God was using those things to prepare me for ministry.

When I started the ministry, I told God, ” Don’t let this ministry be like the conventional CAC ministry, whereby the pastor would go to church if he wanted to see anyone, he would see them in front of the altar. He would go to the vicarage and lock the church until the next service. I said, Lord, mi o fe se CAC onipako, sugbon fun mi ni CAC ti gbogbo agbaye ma wa ko ogbon ati adura (Lord, I don’t want a ramshackle, struggling Ministry, give me the CAC where people from all over the world would come to learn prayers, power, and wisdom). God did His part, and I did my part. That is 1 Corinthians 1: 24, to the Jews and the Greeks, Jesus, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

I demanded of God that I receive a ministry that would be a hybrid of God’s power and wisdom dimensions. I wanted a ministry that would be a prayer ministry, coupled with practising God’s principles. I wanted a ministry where God would do His part, and I would do mine, a cosmopolitan ministry. So, that was how I started applying all those business and managerial principles.

You have a very unique apostolic brand. Was it by design or default? Because, and I say this with all humility. I don’t think there’s another Pastor Wole Oladiyun all over the world today. Your style is unique, direct, and very impactful. Was it part of what you prepared for, or did you find yourself evolving into that role?

I placed a demand on God that I didn’t want to be a conventional CAC Minister. As a result of my business management experience, I asked God to help me integrate that part. So, it was by design, and I progressively evolved into it. That was how I started applying the management tenets – work ethic, communication, office culture, etc. I can’t stand doing God’s work from the vicarage because my brain is too active.

How has the journey been? What are the milestones you want to celebrate in the last 28 years?

The first and primary milestone is God starting me from level zero. The ministry started without money; I wanted to borrow money from one Mr Otedola, my lawyer (now deceased). God said, “No, I am sending you into this ministry empty. Obey me, and you will see what I will do.” I want us to celebrate God for that. Another major milestone was when it was extremely difficult for us to secure a place. The parents of the students in the boarding house in Dansol asked Mrs Adun Akinyemiju to please choose between her church and the boarding house. It was difficult for my aunt, but I understood. We moved from that place to Omole.

At Omole, the community said they’ve never seen this kind of prayer before and that we were disturbing them. We were chased from that place. I moved to ICC, Solid Rock. When we were at ICC, Solid Rock, people in Redeem didn’t want to come to their Bible Studies again; they would rush there and chase us out. At a point, I was ministering by the roadside until I called on God, and the Lord said, “Go back to Mrs Akinyemiju,” and she returned us to Dansol. It was then that the Lord said, there is a place for you at the border of Omole. In the third year of the ministry, God took us to this present place; that’s a milestone. We moved in here 25 years ago, and the Lord said He would give us the whole place, and He has.

Another milestone is the grace that the Lord gave me to make the right choice in marriage. Everything you are seeing today wouldn’t have been possible if I had not married Pastor Bukola Oladiyun. Forget it. That must be celebrated; it’s a great milestone because all along she has been there as an intercessor for me till today, and for the kind of well-adjusted children God has given us.

Another milestone was when the Lord instructed me to start the Wednesday morning prayer service, and I started struggling with God. I said, “Lord, this is Lagos. Morning Prayer?” And He said, just the way your father was taking you to CAC at 5 am in Ile-Oluji, go and start. Wouldn’t people go to work? The Lord said, ” Don’t argue with me, go and start, I will tell you what to do. Today, the Wednesday service has become our flagship service with people attending from all over the world. So, hearing from God for divine direction has worked for me from the beginning to today. On the first day of our Wednesday service, God told me he would show me a sign. I briefed my followers about what God said. They retorted: “Sir, 7 o’clock?” I said yes, God has spoken to me, and the Lord said He will show me a sign.

While I was in my office that day, they brought in a pastor who could not speak. The Lord said that’s the sign that I have asked you to come and do this meeting. The family members were panicking, and the Lord said this man would speak, and he did. That was the beginning of the Wednesday service. The Lord said the man was disobedient. They would normally write on paper for him to read and respond. The Lord said, ” Don’t do that. Tell him to hear in the realm of the spirit, repent, obey what God is doing, and you will speak in the name of Jesus. So, I asked the man, ” Will you obey God? The man nodded. I said, in the name of Jesus, begin to speak now, say Hallelujah. The man shouted Hallelujah. The family members fell and rolled on the floor; a miracle happened on the first day of the Wednesday service. The man is my disciple till today; he’s a General Overseer in Oshogbo. So, we must celebrate that.

I also can’t forget how God acquired these premises for us. As of today, CLAM owes no bank one naira. In my private life, I do not owe anyone; the ministry does not owe anyone, and we need to celebrate that. How about God’s preservation and security? We need to celebrate that. Another landmark is CLAM Global Outreach, the crusade. Then we need to celebrate the way God arranged the workers per season. The first set of disciples I had were my enemies; God just fizzled them out. A close friend of mine took away the second set. God fizzled them out until God started stabilising the ministry. Too many things that we have to celebrate, and there are too many landmarks in the ministry, to the glory of God. In the ministry, in 28 years, no sexual scandal, no financial scandal, no scandal of any sort, we need to thank God, it’s not by our power.

Let’s talk about your emergence as a globally celebrated man of God. The Wole Oladiyun, the church (CLAM), has gone global. How have you been running it, especially to avoid a scandal?

I want to thank God for keeping me safe till tomorrow and forever. The fear of the Lord is a major mantra for me in the episcopal circle. The Lord gave me an encounter, taking me to heaven three times to see what it looks like. If I want to mess up immediately that picture comes, the fear of the Lord will overwhelm me because it is not good to miss heaven. I have eternity in view at all times. Anything I do, I relate it to eternity. I want to thank God for the good people working with me. I want to thank God for good mentors. God has enabled me to have good people around me, to overcome every temptation.

As a matter of policy, I don’t go out alone. You must always surround yourself with people because there is no strong man anywhere. I am aware that anyone can crash, so I make sure I don’t work alone. I make sure to include my wife in everything I do. Also, I know that my mentors must not hear anything negative about the ministry; Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo must not hear anything negative about me; Dr D.K. Olukoya, Dr D.K. Aboderin, Bishop Oyedepo, and Barrister Wole Olufon must not hear anything negative about the ministry. These are my mentors, putting me under check. People are still ensuring that I do things right.

The fear of God is my primary weapon for doing things right. I have faced so many temptations, but God bailed me out to His glory. I can’t because of cheap sex, money or affluence mess up the many destinies that are attached to me. God has lavishly given me this platform, and I don’t want the platform broken, so I defend it with everything God has given unto me. I make sure that I put my hope in God. If I need anything, I talk to God; I don’t depend on anybody.

To be continued tomorrow

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