Increasingly, Nigerian dramatists, playwrights and writers are turning stories of some important personalities, dead and alive, into stage plays. Some of these stories have become epics already. Some have been staged several times on stage. Some are still in the works. But what is important is that, through these stories, history is being made; some people key into them to learn new lessons about how to live outstanding life that benefit the society.
Recently, Makinde Adeniran, the president of National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) was commissioned to produce a play on Moses Orimolade. Orimolade is the founder of Cherubim and Seraphim Christian Movement in Nigeria. Adeniran, a thorough-bred theatre art practitioner spared no time to set out to the core of the story. At the moment, the story is being cooked, the play is on for rehearsals and will be staged soon enough. He speaks to The Nation on the perspectives of the life and times of this wonderful servant of God that has so inspired and energized him the most.
He says: ‘The story, even though it is the story of Moses Orimolade but the title is going to be Baba Aladura. The reason for this title is not far to seek. The story is an important one, chronicling the stories of religion, the movement of this type of Christian religion in Nigeria. They came before Pentecostalism in Nigeria. Pentecostalism is not the beginning of firebrand Christian movement in Nigeria. No, it is not. Orimolade actually came out before all this religious movements to form C and S. Even before then, there was Ayo Babalola which is CAC. Even the Redeemed Christian Church of God came after these ones. So the Orimolade we are talking about here can be said to be one of the earliest pioneers of this Christian movement. His stories strike us so much. The history is relevant. Therefore, what is happening now is that the sponsors, all members of Cherubim and Seraphim are celebrating the one hundred years of the foundation of this church movement and what Orimolade passed through and was able to achieve so much as a prophet and servant of God’.
He goes on: ‘He called it movement, the C and S movement. Yes, they refer to it as one of the biggest in Nigeria. So, they approached me to first and foremost put the story together. They gave me the research materials and what they felt were the main issues I had to consider in the process of the research. With my own bits of research here and there, I have been able to pick some salient information necessary to make the story quite exciting on stage. And I am quite fascinated about the dossier on him. He lived a remarkable, indeed, powerful spiritual life as a prophet of God.’
According to Adeniran who is also the director of the play, Moses Orimolade’s story was a common story. ‘I refer to it as a common story. You have to see it from that common view to be able to evaluate and appreciate what he did and passed through to be a huge success in his mission. It is by this way, you can see the uniqueness of his calling and how he went about it. He is someone who came from one of the greatest Babalawo families in Ikare, Ekiti State. According to his story, when they gave birth to him, in fact before he was born, he was already talking in his mother’s womb. It was strange but this is the story. In fact, he later became disabled. He was not born with any deformity. No. As soon as he was born, he began to walk’.
Adeniran says further, ‘This infuriated his father who ensured something was done to slow him down. The father felt this abnormal tendency was a total disgrace to the family and he needed to protect the family name.` As he grew up, so many things happened that took him out of Ikare. At a point, the journey also led him into evangelism in parts of South west. In his journey he was known to have been to Benin and so many other places. Thereafter, he ended on Lagos Island where he joined the Baptist Church or so. He was there and all sorts of politics began to take place. You know church is where you play the highest level of politics’.
The story, henceforth, became more intriguing, more engaging. In the words of Adeniran ‘All kinds of politics set in from this moment. Orimolade was just a member of a church who liked to pray, he prayed all the time. He loved consistent, fervent and powerful prayers. Leaders of the church at that time then felt he was taking over their position and power and authority. He could turn evil to good easily through his prayers. Others were not comfortable with this. For me, and from a bit of research there have been only two people who have such power. Two powerful men of God who were able to stop the surging of Lagos beach along Victoria Island. The beach almost took over Lagos. These are Celestial and Cherubim. And recently I did that of Cele’.
Moses Orimolade stopped the beach from overrunning the whole of Lagos. He did it in a very miraculous way through prayer. ‘The Governor-General then who incidentally was a white man and all the chiefs in Lagos did not know what to do. As the ocean surged on and on, fear held everyone. Every day more houses, more roads and more lives were lost to the ocean surge. And then came Orimolade with his prophetic power. They had heard about him. So, they went to him to intercede. And Moses Orimolade came and the beach receded. It happened so fast and sudden that even the white man was shocked, surprised. He called on God to stop it. And God heard him and answered his prayer’.
Adeniran is not done yet. ‘It is true. This happened and God is always at work in the lives of His chosen ones. The Queen of England was sick at a time, very sick. They thought she could die of the sickness. So they sent for him. He told them not to worry that the Queen would recover. As he said it and he prayed and not quite an hour later, they sent a telegram that the Queen had recovered. These are the stages of his life as a man of God. But you know, it is drama now. It is a stage thing and we have to bring them all into acting. The stages of his life would be made believable. Thespians would have to see how the stage characterization would add life to all these deeds and events in the history of one man whose prayers did the impossible’.
In other words, the play would be situated to touch on what common life Orimolade lived for the sake of the kingdom of God on earth and through which he also lived a common life for humanity, for the sake of evangelism and evangelization. The ones he did were so strange that even as of today many doubters still find it difficult to believe that those deeds were possible. Yet some of those more difficult spiritual exploits were performed by Elisha, Elijah and some more prophets. Even Peter did one at the gate of Solomon’s temple, when he made the lame to work by the name of Jesus.
The director is still a bit aloof from it all. He said ‘the one at the beach still shocks me. I held on to only that of Tinubu. It was the only one I saw in my generation. You know what I am saying. I am a spiritual person myself and I believe truly that God can give power for us to move the earth. We have the power to command the beach, yes. It is only God that can give you that power. You can not acquire it. Any time however you see someone with such power, well, he has another strong power. So it is part of his CV. He kept telling people that I stopped the bar beach in Lagos. That means there is hand of God on that person. And we have to be more careful with that sort of person.’
So the play would espouse all these and more. The espousal will become a thriller on stage. The characters are ready to give the scenes their best shots ever to allow for more revelations to subsist on stage. The story is an interesting one because the producers do not want it to be a religious piece. But it has to be a play anchored on the general things of life revolving around one man and what he did to effect the desired changes in the society. People have to have learn from it. What happened before can still happen today. So, we all can go back to the days of these old guys to learn to live cleaner, saner and more positive life that changes things from bad to good. They want the story as simple as that so that irrespective of your denomination you learn from it.