Late Elder Moses Augustus Adekunle

BIOGRAPHY OF LATE ELDER MOSES AUGUSTUS ADEKUNLE

Augustus Adekunle Moses began his journey through life in Ponyan on August 3, 1936. Born to the family of Pastor Babatimehin Moses and his wife Ajoke, one of the first families to welcome the ECWA missionaries in the community.

He lost his father at a very young age and shortly after finishing middle school, he left the village at a young age to fend for himself and take care of his siblings. Still in his teens, he moved to Ibadan where he started as a store clerk before getting a clerical appointment at Moore Plantation. While working at Moore Plantation, he continued pursuing his education on the sidelines through correspondence courses with colleges in the UK such as RRC,UK.

In 1959, he left Ibadan for Kaduna to study Community and Auxiliary Healthcare at the then Northern Nigeria College of Health Sciences, Kaduna. Thereafter, he began a career as District Health Officer and Epidemiologist with the Northern Nigeria Health department. This Job took him to Keffi (in today’s Nasarawa State) to Jos (Plateau State) in Jos. While working, he continued to engage in personal development by taking several courses in public health. After the creation of more states, he moved to the Kwara State Ministry of Health in Ilorin as a community health officer working in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO) to improve public health. He rose through the ranks and moved to Kogi State Ministry of Health where he retired as Chief Health Officer in 1993.

After retiring from the civil service, rather than rest his oars, he followed his father's footsteps and enrolled at the ECWA Theological Seminary to train as a seminarian. He graduated as a Pastor in 1999.

Daddy Adekunle was a walking encyclopedia, a voracious reader who enjoyed reading myriad of books, magazines, educative journals and encyclopedias. He had a lifelong yearning to always learn something new, a desire he continued to pursue until his death. As of the time of his passing, he enrolled himself in a computer school to develop a basic understanding of computers and to keep abreast of current advances in technology. Apart from his passion for reading, farming was also another of his hobbies and he cultivated farms in various places during his working years and even after retirement.

He married Grace Ebun Awoniyi in 1963, and together they had 6 children before it pleased God to take her away in April 2005. After seeing all his offsprings off to their marital homes, and after 8 years of being by himself, he married Folashade Olasunkanmi, a secondary school teacher in 2013 who unfortunately passed away in November 2017.

A simple, honest, forthright, disciplined, very hard working man of impeccable moral character. A stickler for punctuality who strives to put his best in any endeavor, he raised his children in a very disciplined way and ensured that they all got the best possible education that he can afford. A true Moses in the educational sense, he never stopped encouraging each of the children to strive for more. Always wearing a smile, he was also always ever positive - only seeing the brighter side of life.

He also impacted the community at large. Apart from his own biological children, he and his wife Grace raised many others (from various cultural backgrounds) as their own. He was very hospitable with an open door policy and welcomed many with open arms. Many people from his hometown spent time in his home - either in transit to pursue opportunities or to be mentored by him. For more than three decades, he was the trusted treasurer of the community development association. His home serves as the meeting venue for the community development association for several years and to this day.

A man of deep faith, who made it a habit to always have the family devotional time every morning and night, he was a church worker all his life and held several leadership positions in the Church. He has been a member of the Elders' team in ECWA church for many years. Up to the time of his death, he continued to teach Sunday School in Church. Until his death, he was the grand patron of the Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN), Ilorin chapter where he was fondly called "Baba Bible" because of his passion for Bible distribution. He was also a representative of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for Ilorin East Diocese. He was a member of the full gospel team, ECWA Amilegbe and he had oversight responsibility for the Church clinic.

On January 15, 2018 he passed away after a brief illness. His last song was “the strife is over, the battle is won”. He is survived by six children and many grandchildren. He was a very loving father, grandfather and his delightful candor will be sorely missed.