Why I parted with the late Prophet Ajanaku –Tope Alabi

Tope Alabi aka Agbo Jesu is a multi-platinum recording gospel singer, composer and ac­tress. Alabi, who was formerly a member of the Jesters International Comedy Group, has worked with a number of popular theatre groups in both Ibadan and Lagos. However, multi-talented Ala­bi became a gospel musician after she became a born-again Christian. In this chat with The Entertainer, the lady
evangelist cum musician takes us down memory lane, recounting her involvement in the entertainment industry and her relationship with her late spiritual father, Prophet Ajanaku with whom she is reported to have had a long running battle before he died three years ago.
Excerpts:
Tell us about your roots?
I come from Imeko in Ogun State. Imeko is a notable town in the Egbado area of Ogun State. It is the home of the late founder of the Celestial Church of Christ, Prophet Bilewu Oshoffa. My immediate family consists of seven siblings; five males and two females. My elder brothers are reverend fathers in the Catholic Church. However, I chose to be different.
How did you come into music?
I ventured into music due to a prophecy that dates back to my birth. My mother who was given the message can tell you more about that. It has been an eventful and interesting journey I must confess. I do sound tracks for home videos; I can’t count how many home videos I have done sound tracks for to date. It all began when I went for a recording and met my future husband, Mr. Alabi. He was a producer at Nicholas Studio in Lagos. After each session, he would praise my ability to sing and urge me to give professional singing a trial. This encourage­ment continued for a while and before I knew it I found myself yielding to him and I got hooked to the idea. What I didn’t realize then was that he was leading me not only to sing but to also sing for Jesus Christ whom I knew little or nothing about then. Due to my play­ful nature and my adventurous spirit, I also went into drama. I joined late Ishola Ogunsola Theatre Group then at Ibadan. Then Ogunshola was popularly known as I-Show Pepper in drama circles; I was involved in dancing, singing and acting. I remember that I played the role of a noise maker in the first stage play I took part in. After this, other roles followed and I became established in the group.
Later, I went into television with Jacob and Papalolo, two notable comedians on television in Ibadan those days. One role I played which I will always remember was that of an old woman in Taloji Koko Arugbo (Who Stole The Pot Of An Old Woman). All together I spent 18 years on stage and television. And when I later came into home video, I did not disappoint in that area as well. By the time I quit, I had appeared in over 22 home videos.
Which is more challenging, stage or film?
There is a wide gap between the stage, home video and television production and presentation. In those days on stage, we had no scripts to work with. The director and writer of the story in most cases was the leader of the group. My own leader, I-Sho Pepper, usu­ally told us the story, gave out parts to be played before rehearsals commenced. There was usually no script for anyone so you had to fall back on your creativity and this brought out the best in talented artistes. Stage dra­ma, script or no script is for people of sound intellectual ability, where they to choose medicine or engineering, they would still excel. The same approach applies to live television drama. It is a live show and thousands of people are watching you at home so there is no room to mess up. However, when it comes to recorded productions, the reverse is the case; you can record a scene several times just like in home video until the director achieves exactly what he wants to project. The two formats; home video and recorded televi­sion programme are less demanding on the artiste, the director and the entire production crew. But for me, any day and any time, I prefer stage productions; this is where the boys are sifted from the men. What I mean is that this is where you know and identify true and gifted artistes. Most professional artistes do not like to appear in home videos because they see it as climbing down the ladder from their professional heights. However, living condition in the country has forced people to do anything to survive; the stage is much more refined and professionally demanding than film. ­
How did you find Christ?
While Mr. Alabi was pushing me towards professional music, I did not quite under­stand the other area of life he was also talk­ing about; I was carried away by the glam­our of going into professional music. It was much later that I realized that he was talking about my accepting Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour with a view to making my music profitable and impactful both for me and my audience. I got to know Jesus through this wonderful producer. He not only led me to Christ, he also succeeded in putting me under his roof as his wife and I have no regrets today. He who has called me to serve Him is ever faithful and reliable.
Are you a preacher or gospel musi­cian?
I am not a preacher but a gospel musi­cian. People who choose to call me preacher should know that my lyrics are dictated to me by the Holy Spirit; I only write what the spirit dictates to me, He gives me the words and even the melody to play. Since I have accepted Jesus as my Lord, what else could I do but obey the Spirit of Christ? I also play at parties and it is not just for the sake of making money but for the opportunity to sing about my Jesus. However, I am selec­tive about the kind of parties I play.
Tell us about your relationship with the late Prophet Ajanaku
In the course of my spiritual journey, I met Prophet Ajanaku. He was the pastor of the church I was attending then. Due to my music ministry, we had pastoral and personal dealings for his church and my ministry. As long as God wanted me to stay, I remained there. But due to my zeal to grow spiritu­ally and to serve God in greater capacity, I requested the Holy Spirit to give me direc­tion on what to do. So, three years before the death of Prophet Ajanaku, I stopped worship­ping at his church. There were no personal quarrels or differences like people are saying today. You could spend years attending or serving in any church or have personal closeness to any minister but God can move you at anytime to fulfil His own agenda unless you are not truly born again and you are serving the church or the minister for personal gains. If you are like that, God will not bother you and this is very dangerous for anyone’s spiritual growth and life. We, as living Christians must be ready to serve God in whatever capacity and wherever He wants us to serve Him; we are not to be dogmatic about spiritual matters.

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