Jesu Oyingbo

The 1950s in Lagos, Nigeria witnessed the shocking declaration of a middle aged Ijebu man named Olufunmilayo Immanuel Odumosu aka Jesu Oyingbo as the long awaited Jesus Christ. Many people laughed, shook their heads in utter disbelief while those who believed him thanked their stars for witnessing the second coming of Jesus Christ. The latter set of people packed their belongings and deserted their homes and families for the communal enclave of Jesu Oyingbo.

His real names were Olufunmilayo Immanuel Odumosu, but he fondly called himself “Jesu Oyingbo”. He was highly revered, adored and venerated by his disciples and followers, who believed that he loomed larger than life. He taught his adherents that he was the real Jesus Christ and his presence on earth was his second coming. Indeed, many of Odumosu’s adherents had to sell their properties, forsake their families and joined the religious leader to build a spiritual enclave.

Although the self-styled religious leader proclaimed himself Jesu Oyingbo, he never shared any trait with Jesus Christ who resurrected the third day. In actual fact, he failed to resurrect the third day as he had prophesied.

Odumosu was born in 1915 to Jacob Odumosu, his grandfather was Joseph Odumosu, a famous traditional healer in Ijebu Ode. Trained as a carpenter, he served with the Post and Telegraph Department during World War II. An active member in the postal workers union.
A general strike in 1945 led to his disengagement from the department. He took on carpentry work and opened a shop on Lagos Island close to Oil Mill Street. However, he struggled as a carpenter and was constantly in debt, he was jailed for six months on charges brought by his creditors.
During this period, Odumosu attended various Protestant churches in Lagos, but soon claimed he received visions and dreams from God. He interpreted some of the visions as messianic visions and that he was chosen as a messiah that has come to redeem the world.
He began his rebirth by holding evening meetings close to his shop.

His religious movement started in 1952 at a location in Lagos Island. At onset, initial congregation was small, about 30 members could be counted in 1954. During this time, he instituted tithe giving to assist the poor, Odumosu also encouraged members to fund his evangelical missions. His movement began to grow and better organized, the growth assisted with a donation by a wealthy convert who provided his property for Odumosu's use.

Since the founding of the movement, members lived at their own residences, but after the movement to Ebute Metta, Odumosu asked them to leave their houses and live in rented properties close to the church building.
Members declared their wealth to Odumosu who took 10% of the tithe and charged them rent. To expand his movement, he began preaching his sermon with loudspeakers placed outside in the church hall, at a location close to Oyingbo Market, where he was sometimes derisively called 'Jesu Oyingbo'. To initiate new male members, he will whip them with nine strokes of cane.

“I am He. I am Jesus Christ, the very one whose second coming was foretold in the New Testament. I have come, and those who believe in me will have an everlasting life and joy. I am the missing of the trinity. I have come to prepare the faithful for the judgment day.”
It was this declaration made in June 1959 that officially marked the transformation of 43-year-old Immanuel Olufunmilayo Odumosu to Jesu Oyingbo

He reduced his sermons and began to initiate various business ventures to fund a New Jerusalem. Among the ventures were Jolly Makers and Happy Day food canteens, Deluxe bakeries makers of Goodluck bread, the properties housing this venture were then expanded to include barber shops and lodging. Economy wise, the various businesses provided wages to his followers.
Odumosu's sexual practices were less conservative than other Christian denominations and he was said to have established sexual rights over many females within his sect.

Jesus Oyingbo was religiously tolerant, mixing, for example, Christian statues with Islamic and pagan symbols on his compound. But he was, perhaps too tolerant, in ways that drew accusations that he was operating a cult.
Passers-by would notice that some of his buildings on Immanuel Street, Maryland had the inscriptions such as ‘’Merciful and Mighty’’ and ‘’Everlasting Father,’’ surrounded by statues of Christ, caterpillar tractors, sculptures of lions and mermaids with water spurting from their mouths.
Other inscriptions on the buildings included “Prince of Peace”.

People often traced his power and charisma to attract followers to a cane he allegedly used to convert new adherents through supernatural means.
But, a source claimed that the cane was bequeathed to him by his grandfather.
In this light, there was an occasion when he married a man’s wife in order to punish him for his errant behaviours. On another occasion, he handed over the wife of an unruly member to other men in the flock. Not to mention that at his will, he could choose to call any of the women who pleased him to satisfy his needs at any time.

Notwithstanding any of these, he married a large number of wives ranging somewhere between 30 and 80. The real number of his wives was not possible to determine, as the communal lifestyle adopted where any members’ wives could be found in acting capacity.

In June 1959, as at which time he already had seven wives, when he was asked about his polygamous intentions, he said: “I have not finished with wives yet. I am going to marry more. To save the faithful, I must behave like one of themselves. I must marry more women, for are they not the sheep and I the shepherd?”
However, most official reports place the figure of his personal wives somewhere around 34, about three of whom were his biological daughters.

The number of his children was also impossible to pin down since some of the members of his enclave went as far as adopting Odumosu as their surname, but about 80 were officially listed and recognised.
Most of his children were sheltered and protected within the enclave, and did not even get formal education except for a few whose mothers took charge of it. However, they enjoyed other privileges like cars and drivers at their disposal to move around as well as financial benefits.

On a personal level, he was described by neighbours, friends and even his children as a lively, nice and humorous man who was friendly with all, and never got tired of trying to convert them. Most of his neighbours said the only issue they had was the noise caused by their activities from the early hours of the morning, even though they could not complain.

He, however, entertained them in the evenings by projecting movies for people to gather and watch, creating a sort of cinema-like experience for them. Even though he later relocated to Maryland, the name Jesu Oyingbo stuck, having been where he started.
There is even a Yoruba song that acknowledged his divinity claim despite not quite accepting of the claim which goes thus: Emi o mo Jesu Oyingbo, Emi o mo Jesu Agege, Emi o mo Guru Maharaji, Jesu ti mo mo l'apata ayeraye!!!. Meaning; I don't know Jesus of Oyingbo, I don't know Jesus of Agege, I don't know Guru Maharaji, The Jesus that I know is the rock of ages! Most Lagosians who were born long after his death, most likely first heard the name through this song.

Unexpectedly, nature called and the supposedly immortal “Jesu Oyingbo” answered. He was gripped by the cold hands of death in 1988 when he was aged 73, and he died in an hospital outside the commune. Most of his followers did not believe that their messiah had died, and waited for him to resurrect after three days, and when he failed to, most of them got disheartened.

As could be expected from a husband to many, and father to dozens, he died without a will and a mini civil war began soon after concerning the sharing of the assets. It was wives against wives, children against children and even some long-term members of the movement who felt they were entitled to the properties joined in the battle.

I have heard about this man before. Very funny dude. He was occultic tho.

Ok

He tried for his age during his time...

Very interesting story. That his style of deceit still exists among some of the present day pastors.