He was very active in evangelizing, seeing many come to Christianity. Early ministryĪs a youth, he got converted to Christianity by a certain Pastor Okpo, and joined his fledgling congregation as one of its first members. This reality denied him access to education until he was fourteen years old, when he was able to attend a local government school. Like most of the surrounding houses, his family home was a mud house. Hours later, he came to, and began wailing and was rescued by his mother. He constantly had fainting spells as a child, and on one of his spells, his mother, Sarah, abandoned him at a rubbish heap presuming him dead. Osborn remarked on him as the greatest African ambassador of the apostolic Christian faith to the world.īorn to non-Christian parents in a predominantly non-Christian community, he was rejected by his father, John, for being frail and sickly. As the first Pentecostal archbishop in Nigeria, he was renowned for his robust faith. Benson Andrew Idahosa (11 September 1938 – 12 March 1998) affectionately called PAPA or BABA by his followers, was a Charismatic Pentecostal preacher, and founder of the Church of God Mission International with headquarters in Benin City, Edo State.
