As Rev Dr Bartholomew Egbigwe turns 60 years today, he told Taiwo Olanrewaju about his humble beginning, his rise to stardom and his Christian life.

ALL is not lost to him that has a will, sure, there will be a way,” goes a saying. This is true of Rev Dr Bartholomew Egbigwe, who turns 60 today, Monday, 30 January, 2012, had his first leaving school certificate at the age of 26 and by the age of 54, has had his doctorate degree.

Born on January 30th, 1952, a relative and adopted date of birth, due to lack of record; to Mr and Mrs Odo Odo Akawalu Egbigwe in a farm settlement called Odoba, Eguamed, Eha-(umuhu) Amufu, Isiuzo local government area of Enugu State, Nigeria, Egbigwe, did not have the opportunity of going beyond Standard 2 in school.

Rather, he was sent to his mother’s village to learn traditional dance and by the time he turned 15 years old, he had been initiated to all manner of things – farming, idol worship, fetish things and the worship of Odo, the central masquerade of the 50 hamlets which made up his village.

His mother, who had been married with three children, lost her husband and was re-married to Mr Egbigwe, for who she had four children – three females and a boy. Egbigwe attended St Patrick Catholic School, Odo-Oba but had to stop schooling in 1962 after the death of his mother because his father insisted that he must follow him to the farm.

In reminiscence, Egbigwe claimed to have wanted to be a Rev Father because he loved the way of life of the white missionaries. His mother, he said, was well to do and gave him gifts which he gave to the missionaries in school. While he said he bears Bartholomew because someone was bearing it in his mother’s village.

The home front, however, became unbearable for the young man when his father re-married as his step-mother was tough. So, he left home in August 1972 and followed one of his town’s men to Nsukka where he assisted a woman in selling bread and earned one Naira per month.

He later worked at Mary Don Hotel, Nsukka, where he washed plates and earned N2 at the end of the month.  He also worked with the wife of the Editor-in-Chief of The Observer in Benin as a helper but did not stay more than a month because he was pilfering her things.

He, thereafter, left for Ibadan to stay with his town’s man who he had met at Nsukka. He arrived in Ibadan, capital city of the old Oyo State on Friday, 13 July, 1973. Being his first time in Ibadan, the taxi driver who took him from Molete, which was the central park in Ibadan to the Assemblies of God Church, Mokola played a fast one on him, as he collected one Naira from him as fare instead of five kobo.   Egbigwe had to stay in the church till Sunday when his town’s man came to church and he followed him home to Oke-Ofa Atipe area where he was assigned to one Dr Adedeji as a houseboy. He played some pranks too as a young man. For instance, he did not put his offering, given to him by his boss, in the offering box in church. Rather, he kept it and went out to urinate at offering time. When the money added up to one guinea – one pound and one shilling, he took it to the Premier Hotel, Mokola, where he smoked and engaged the services of a white lady prostitute.

In 1974, the 22-year-old had to change boss. He was transferred to Mr and Mrs Yinka who started the Assemblies of God Church, Agbowo. The Bible was the first literature Egbigwe used to learn English. Subsequently, he has read the whole Bible about seven times and the New Testament more than 20 times.

He left the Yinkas for the Akintobis in November 1974. He described Dr Akintobi, an indigene of Abeokuta, who lectured at The Polytechnic, Ibadan as “very nice, his mother taught me Yoruba by force,” he added.    Then, the North Campus of  the now The Polytechnic, Ibadan was Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ife, Ile Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife while the South Campus was the Western Technical College.

In 1975, Dr Akintobi became the head of Physics department of The Polytechnic Ibadan and the family, including Egbigwe, moved from their Agbowo residence to the campus, where Egbigwe was given a room in the boys’ quarters. With the consent of his boss, he took in four students of The Polytechnic to live with him, the first of them being Kola Sodipo. He was often invited to the Poly Christian Union, where he took part in a drama and became popular among the students. Earlier, in 1974, the young man had given his life to Christ in church and had become born-again.  In 1975, having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit at a revival of the Assemblies of God Church, he was praying at about 1am when he saw, written boldly on his door, A day shall come – which became the name of his ministry. He was also directed by the Holy Spirit to go to the Bible School and become a Pastor and start a centre where people can collect literature.

His boss got him a job at the Maintenance department of The Polytechnic as a labourer and also encouraged him to enrol for his first school leaving certificate at the Faculty of Education of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan. So, he worked as a labourer in the morning, helped with the chores in his boss’ home in the afternoon and from 8pm to 10pm, attended evening classes at the Department of Adult Education.

He came out best in the class and got his primary school certificate at the age of 26. Since then, the Enugu man has not looked back. He enrolled for extra-mural classes to be prepared for GCE and out of 300 students, he came third. He registered for Mathematics, English Language, Geography and History while he read Economics by himself with the help of O. A. Lawal’s O’ Level Economics textbook. He passed the five subjects.

Egbigwe also got Certificates and Diplomas, through correspondence from World Bible School, USA in 1975; Diploma from Canada, in 1976; International Correspondence Institute, Jos, Nigeria in 1976; Advance Diploma from LIFE Bible College, Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria in 1986; T.G.WCBS, Switzerland in 1992 and C.O.HCBS, West Germany in 1993; Buromat, Computer Appreciation, Ibadan, Nigeria in 2001 and SOAD, Ibadan, Nigeria in 2005.

He got his Bachelor’s degree in 2003; his Masters degree in 2005 and his PhD in 2006, all in theology from Crown University of Theology, Ibadan, Nigeria.

He met his wife, Clara Olusola nee Oroyemi, an indigene of Modakeke, Osun State in 1983 at the Christian Missionary Foundation (CMF) where she was doing her National Youth Service Corps. He got married to the graduate of French and Portuguese from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife at the Foursquare Church, Bajulaye Street, Somolu, Lagos on June 30, 1984.

The union is blessed with three female children, Ngozi, Nkechi and Uche. Ngozi is already taking after her mother, studying French at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan. Egbigwe’s wish is to have his daughters become graduates.

Rev Dr Egbigwe, who feels fulfilled at 60 says, “No greatness comes with ease,” and of himself, “I don’t jump queue, I don’t cut corners, I go all the way and I feel all the pains.” The man of God, who believes that life is all about seed, “a smile is a seed”, whose ministry has touched a lot of lives in Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and the USA, also runs a Christian Library at Oluyole, Ibadan, which has been described as the first and best free Christian Library in Nigeria.

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