A former president of the country, Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed how he became an instrumen God used in builing a church and winning souls while he was in the Yola Prison.
The former leader of the country revealed that God used him to win the souls of several inmates including a notorious robber and murderer who later became a pastor with Baptist church.
Olusegun Obasanjo while speaking at the Shepherdhill Baptist Church in Lagos during a Thanksgiving Service held last Sunday to celebrate his 80th birthday made the disclosure.
He said: “One, God made me to build a church.”
He continued: “It’s very unusual, I asked the authorities for land, they were reluctant, but eventually they gave me land and immediately we started getting donations.
“It was started before I left Yola. Wherever you are, you can still be useful to the work of God.”
The former president further revealed that he was granted permission to farm during his incarceration and he cultivated “enough beans to feed all the inmates and warders.”
He added that he became the prison pastor after he was transferred to the Kirikiri Prison in Lagos.
“There was a boy whom they had introduced to me, his nickname was Baba Ali.
“Baba Ali was the head of the armed robbers in the North. And if you were an armed robber and you came to prison, you must first of all go and pay homage to him. If you were going out, you must go to him and ask for instruction on what to do next.
“So I called Baba Ali one day and said, ‘You are not coming to fellowship, I want you to be coming to the fellowship.’ And he said, ‘Baba, don’t worry me, don’t worry me at all because God can never forgive me. I have killed so many people in my life, I have drunk the blood of so many people, I have eaten the flesh of so many people and God will never forgive me, so don’t waste your time about me.'”
He added: “I went back and said, ‘Baba Ali, you know all you said that you are a murderer, whether you killed only one person or a thousand people, you are a murderer; but you have forgotten that Moses was a murderer but God used him to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt?
“David was a murderer but God called him a man after my heart. By the time I was leaving the prison, I told Baba Ali that if he was able to make it and he would like to go to Bible school, I would send him to Bible school.”
Obasanjo disclosed that Baba Ali was released from prison two years after he was released and at that time he had become the nation’s president.
“It took him two years to get through to me, when he got to me, I reminded him of our agreement and he said he was ready to go to the Bible school.
“So I sent him to the seminary, Baba Ali spent two years in the seminary. Today, he is a pastor of a Baptist Church. What is more? Baba Ali’s junior brother took after him and has also become a pastor”