How patience, determination helped to realize dream

Though even his wife and some close friends were not in support of his idea to write a book on Bishop David Oyedepo, Morack Akin-David did not relent on his efforts to research, towards realizing the book Leadership Secrets of David .O. Oyedepo.

At the official public presentation of his book Leadership Secrets of David .O. Oyedepo, which took place at Winners Chapel International, Orile, Surulere, Lagos, Akin-David expressed gratitude to God and all who supported him during his research.

Lekan Otufodunrin, online editor of The Nation Newspaper, who presented the book, represented the chair of the event, Victor Ifijeh, Managing Director, the Nation Newspaper. According to him, “the blessing is not only in reading the book but in the practical manifestation of the content.”

Prof. Wale Okunuga, who reviewed the book, spoke on the importance of leadership in the church, saying, “leadership is not about someone in front or ahead of others for him to see some people or multitude following him, but it is about someone in place to benefit lives of others.”

Also speaking on the life of Oyedepo, Okunuga said, “David Oyedepo is a man of many values, he is a man that you will not only trust but will love to be in his company, he is not just a man of God as saying men of God, but a man who is an addict of the word, living proof of the word, a miracle by the word and above all living the word by practicality of faith.”

To give the keynote address was pastor Niyi Beecroft, and he described the book as timely and full of testimonies, with prophetic power for replication in the life of the believing reader. “Not merely Oyedepo; this book also brings us nuggets of truth from works and lives of the leading Pentecostal Leaders of our time, from all the revered Mentors of the Principal Character to several others outside their fold, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson & Jonathan Edwards. The Book’s chapters deal with 15 secrets which Akin-David considers defining to the success of David Oyedepo,” he said.

According to Akin-David, who is a transformational leadership advocate, “I have been studying the personality around which this book revolves for over 10 years.” He said he was one of the pastors ordained by Oyedepo in 2009, “we had to do a training between 2009 and 2010, during which Oyedepo told us some stories about his life, and he said I am telling you this because I know some of you are writers, so I took it upon myself to write a book on him.”

“I started researching as a personal project; nobody commissioned me,” he added.

Akin-David faced some challenges during his research, “I needed to leave my environment because the people around me did not believe in me, so I left my family for two weeks to be in a secluded place,” he noted.

His dream is to launch a campaign on promoting transformational leadership in the society using his book as a tool, adding, “using every technique and tool required to teach people on what leadership entails, we will organize events, do book reading in big bookshops.”