Rev. Samuel Akinbode SADELA was born in the last Saturday of August, 1900 at Ifon, Ondo State, South-West, Nigeria. His parents were Chief Olomonehin SADELA of Imoru (Second in command to the Olumoru of Imoru) and Princess Adetiye SADELA, a princess in the Adaniker ruling house in Ifon.

It was not difficult for him to remember the year of his birth because it was the year the District Officer (a white man) under the colonial rule assumed duty at Ifon.  Hence he was fondly called “Aboyinbode” (which means born the same year the white man arrived) by his parents, relatives and friends from childhood till he became adult.

Rev. Sadela’s first encounter with God was in 1928 when he was a tax collector. It was a time of great revival in Nigeria led by men of God like Moses Orimolade (Founder of Cherubim and Seraphim Church). It was also the time of the great Evangelist Apostle Ayodele Babalola who had a reputation for the performance of astounding miracles. Rev. Sadela, like Matthew the tax collector, met Moses Orimolade in 1928; Moses prayed for him and predicted he would become a great man of God.

He started his career with The Apostolic Church (TAC), but later pitched his tent with the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC). In 1931, he met Babalola at Oke-Oye, Ilesa. Babalola later became his leader and mentor. With him he commenced the ecclesiastical journey, and together they travelled to most parts of western Nigeria on crusade. As a close associate of Babalola, Rev. Sadela lived with him and shared his travails and his joys. They also fasted together for forty days and nights.

According to the Guardian: “In 1959, just two weeks before his death, Apostle Joseph Babalola instructed Rev. Sadela to establish a church with the word “Apostolic” in the middle of its name. Consequent upon this instruction, Sadela eventually established his own church – the Gospel Apostolic Church (GAC), which he pastored for decades. The church now has several branches in Nigeria and some overseas countries.

Certain observers within the gospel circle are of the view that just as Elisha was conferred with the double portion of Elijah’s anointing, Sadela inherited the Spiritual mantle of Ayodele Babalola. His church, the Gospel Apostolic Church (GAC), was fashioned after the doctrines prevailing in the Christ Apostolic Church. Also like Babalola his mentor, he was a conservative who frowned at excessive emphasis on wealth and materialism at the expense of the gospel.

He was a very devoted minister of the gospel who had a passion for the word of God and soul winning. Evangelism was a task very dear to his heart. An ethically sound minister, he forbade the use of church funds for personal purposes. As a result, all the things he owned were gifts from people who believed they had been blessed by his various ministrations. Rather than covet the wealth of the church, he used his personal funds to develop other upcoming men of God whom he considered to have performed creditably in their soul winning assignments. He built houses and bought cars for them to encourage their ministerial assignments.

In spite of the threat of prosperity theology which pervades modern-day Pentecostalism, Sadela’s message did not change throughout the entire eight decades of his ministry. It remained: “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” This is also evident in the simple lifestyle he adopted throughout his lifetime.

Rev. Sadela’s ministry was attended with signs and wonders. A few of these will suffice as examples.
Rev. Sadela is credited with healing Jegede, a twenty-five year old man with mental afflictions, in 1947;
In 1948 the corpse of a young man was miraculously brought back to life at a revival meeting in Akure. In 1949, a woman suffering from an issue of blood for nine years was healed at Akure; another woman who was under the spell of a nine-year pregnancy which defied medical solution was delivered of a baby and both mother and child survived. In 1946, lepers were healed including a man at Idogun, Ondo State. Rev. Curtis of Foursquare Gospel Church was healed of a dangerous boil inside his ear in 1956, after he was anointed and prayed for by Rev. Sadela and several epileptics were healed including a man who was healed on Oloruntoyin Street Bariga, Lagos in 1977. In 1992 Rev. Sadela prayed for a woman who had been barren for 10 years and whose husband was said to have a low sperm count. She became pregnant and was delivered of the baby exactly on the day predicted by Rev. Sadela.

During his lifetime, Rev. Sadela was the grand patron of both the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Lagos State Chapter and the Christian Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (CPFN) Lagos State.

According to the Guardian, “Sadela’s longevity was always an interesting subject of discussion, especially because he combined it with unusually robust health.”

One usually expects that a man who gets to Rev. Sadela’s great age would have grown weaker with the passing years. However, the reverse was the case. “Even in old age, Rev. Sadela was strong and agile, with a healthy body, good dentition, sharp memory and good eyesight. He resided in a storey building where he descended the stairs once daily to carry out his daily routine. He was renowned for his energy and even athleticism on the pulpit as he preached. He never let any opportunity pass to advertise in words and actions his physical strength even when he was more than a century old.

He was married three times, each one after the demise of his former wife. When he marked his 113th birthday in 2014, Rev. Sadela said: “I feel happy to be this old. Actually, I feel like a young man. I still enjoy my meal of Iyan (pounded yam), Eba and bush meat. I sleep whenever I want to and wake up stronger. I want to live longer to prove to all that God remains the same as He was in times past. If Methuselah could live for 969 years, God can make me live well beyond 113. If Noah could be 950, it is not too much for Him to make me live up to 200”.

However, Rev. Sadela eventually departed this world on Sunday morning of August 24, 2014 at the advanced age of 114. The incident that led to his death was not slow in coming. He had taken ill and had gone for his medical check-up at the Sacred Heart Hospital, Lantoro Abeokuta. On Sunday morning, at 4:30 am, he had taken his bath and got dressed. He then said he wanted to rest. He laid his head on one of the church leaders and passed on.

In a tribute the editor of the Guardian newspaper, Nigeria, described him as the evangelists’ evangelist and the one preacher who saw it all and preached it all; churches rose and churches fell, priests came and left, but Rev. Sadela was constant in the firmament, articulate, energetic and tireless in preaching the gospel.

His voice on the pulpit was no less sonorous in old age than it was in the early days. He was something of a “lonely voice” in Nigeria’s increasingly glamorous Christendom. Disinterested in priestly accoutrements or empire building, yet ministering to the flock from a single church, Rev. Sadela’s attitude was markedly different from the attention-seeking and wealth-flaunting phenomenon that has enveloped Nigerian churches in recent times. His was a voice that all respected and his was a life that beckoned to all to follow his example.

He was a good and kind-hearted man, who did great good in his lifetime