Celebrating Our Heroes and Heroines

The Celestial Church of Christ was established through the calling and anointing of God upon the Pastor Founder, Prophet Rev. Pastor Samuel Bilehou Joseph Oshoffa, and through the contributions of several people whom God used in different ways during the Church’s formation and early growth.

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Throughout this month of celebrating our heroes and heroines, we are remembering those contributions with gratitude. We have reflected on the police officer in Porto Novo, Alexander Yanga, Iya Yaman, Emmanuel Mawunyon Guton and Prophetess Wolisata.

Today we honour Ramotu Emmanuel, the owner of Makoko, who gave the Church the land on which its headquarters church in Nigeria stands. She was not a member of the Church. She was a Muslim woman. Yet the Constitution records her gift by name and ends the account with a prayer: “May God bless the family.”

The Church arrives in Lagos

In Passion Week of 1951, after refusing twice, Papa Oshoffa travelled from Porto Novo to Lagos with the emissary Moses Ajovi (paragraph 43). Within days the young Church was known in the city. Makoko, near Yaba, was then, in Papa Oshoffa’s words, “largely bush” (paragraph 51), and it was there that the work in Nigeria took root.

A growing Church needs a place to gather. The land that would become that place belonged to a woman of another faith.

A dream, a white candle and an answered prayer

Papa Oshoffa told the story himself, at Makoko, on 18 January 1969:

“

The owner of Makoko, the late RAMOTU EMMANUEL, a Moslem woman, approached me to say that she had a dream that a holy man had just entered Makoko, and that if she wished the landed property of Makoko to be hers, she should go and see the man. … She came with her son RAIMI, her clerk and BALOGUN, her caretaker. I replied that I took nothing. I asked her to bring a single white candle which I used to pray for her. Her prayers were heard.

— Papa Oshoffa, Makoko, 18 January 1969
CCC Constitution (Nigeria Diocese, 1980), paragraph 52

Two things stand out. Ramotu Emmanuel came openly, bringing her son, her clerk and her caretaker. And Papa Oshoffa asked for nothing in return: only a single white candle for the prayer. The Constitution says that within the third month, the town of Makoko became her undisputed property.

The gift of the land

She did not forget. The same paragraph continues:

“

Even though she was a Moslem she remembered that God had helped her through this Church and so she gave the Church the land on which the present Church is situated. Because of future possible litigation after her death, she conveyed the property to the Church … and obtained one KOBO in payment. It was thus a gift because of the miracles observed. May God bless the family.

— Papa Oshoffa, Makoko, 18 January 1969
CCC Constitution (Nigeria Diocese, 1980), paragraph 52

The token payment was not a price. It was a careful legal step so that the gift could not be undone by disputes after her death. She was thinking about the Church’s future, not only about her own gratitude.

That land is Makoko. The Church’s Nigeria Diocese headquarters stands at 12/15 Church Street, Makoko, Yaba, and the Church was first registered in Nigeria as “Celestial Church of Christ, Makoko Village, Yaba”. It was at Makoko that Papa Oshoffa told the Church’s history in 1969, and it was at Makoko, the Constitution records, that the Lord Himself visited the Church in 1954.

Gratitude that builds

Many people receive help and move on. Ramotu Emmanuel turned her gratitude into something permanent. Every service held at Makoko since then, every anointing, harvest and Easter gathering, has taken place on ground she gave.

Her story asks each of us a quiet question: when God answers our prayers, what do we give back, and will it outlast us?

A heroine from outside the Church

Heroes Month honours people who contributed to the Church. Ramotu Emmanuel reminds us that God’s helpers do not always come from inside our own walls. The Constitution does not hide her faith, and it does not hide its gratitude either. It names her, records her gift and blesses her family.

We can do the same: honour generosity wherever we find it, and remember with respect those who helped the Church when it had nothing.

Our heroine deserves remembrance

The Constitution records that Ramotu Emmanuel died on 23 March 1952, only about a year after the Church came to Lagos. Her gift has outlived her by more than seventy years.

The next time you worship at Makoko, or see a picture of the headquarters church, remember the woman who gave the ground beneath it.

Our celebration of heroes and heroines continues, with gratitude for the different people whose contributions form part of the Church’s story.

We remember the people. We honour their contributions. We give the glory to God.

Historical basis: Constitution of the Celestial Church of Christ (Nigeria Diocese, 1980): the history told by Papa Oshoffa at Makoko on 18 January 1969, paragraphs 43, 51, 52 and 58; and the Deed of Constitution and registration certificate, which give the Makoko address and the Church’s first registered name. The English text records the token payment as “one kobo”; Nigeria’s kobo coin dates from 1973, so the translation uses the coin of its own day for what in 1952 was a nominal sum. The Constitution does not record her year of birth or other details of her life. Reflections on gratitude and giving are devotional applications of these sources. The picture is an illustration: no photograph of her is used.

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