Kolade Segun Okeowo : A great achiever and quintessential leader at 50

By Charles Segun Adegbite

Evang. Victor Kolade Ayodeji Segun-Okeowo, President of Christoline Ministries(an evangelical Christian organisation), is the MD/CEO of Zionstones Media, Founder of Zionstones Film Village( the first Christian Film Village in Nigeria), Provost of the Christoline Film Academy, Director of a family life TV drama series; “House on the Rock”, which shows on AIT, STV, TVC, LTV, Dove Vision, MZTV, RTV and several online platforms.
KSO, as he is fondly called, is the Producer of a Couples Reality Show; “Beyond the Honeymoon”, and a marriage counsellor.

KSO: Evangelist, Politician and Business Man

Without mincing words, KSO is a man of many parts and a great achiever. This former National President of the All-Nigeria Conference of Evangelical Drama Ministers, ANCEDRAM, is an outstanding gospel movie actor, successful film producer, veteran drama evangelist, author, publisher, politician, estate developer and property merchant, farmer, lecturer and a college administrator.

This month, he is joining the club of Quinquagenarians, as he will celebrate his 50th birthday in grand style on 26 January. Since it is a golden celebration the birthday activities have started since December 2020. It is to usher him into his Golden Age.
To add media flavour to the birthday ceremony and make it more historic, Successful People Magazine honoured him as Successful People Man of the Month for this January 2021. And that will run through February.

His Birth & Early Life

He was born in Sagamu, Ogun State, on Tuesday January 26, 1971, into the family of late Akogun Segun Okeowo, the leader of the Nigeria's most historical students unrest of 1978; the Ali-Must-Go riot. His mother, late Deaconess Alice Kemi Okeowo, a caterer, retired as a matron from the Ogun State Teaching Service Commission, after many years of meritorious service .

He attended the Children Home School, Quarry Road, Abeokuta; All Saints Anglican Primary School, Ado-Odo, both in Ogun State, for his nursery and primary education respectively. He completed it at the Local Government Primary School, Ijagba, Sagamu, in 1981.

His Great Achievements From Teenage

Same year, he entered Makun High School, Sagamu. The desire for better education however, took him to the then  prestigious Mayflower School, Ikenne in 1983 while in class three. At the Mayflower, he excelled greatly; graduating in 1986 as the Best Student in the Arts Class with six distinctions, which fetched him the Dr. Tai Solarin Award For Excellence.

He then proceeded to the Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University) Ago-Iwoye immediately, to study History when he was around 15years old.
He graduated in 1990 with BA (Honours) in History as a teenager and was posted to Ondo State for his one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, while he was 20years old.

From Masters Degree To "Mission To Destiny"

This man of destiny had planned to become a career diplomat. For that reason, in 1992, immediately after his NYSC programme, he proceeded to the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, for his Masters degree in International Relations.
However, series of events unfolded from the moment he started his postgraduate course at the OAU in 1992. Those events made it clear to him that God had led him to that university to have a change of direction in life; for him to fulfill his destiny.

An Encounter With Pastor Adeboye & The Great Turn Around.

On March 9, 1992, while trying to play smart on a fresh JAMBITE student, by toasting her, the girl wisely turned around the toasting discussion into preaching and in the process, he got converted to a born again Christian. 

The third day, on March 11, he attended Pastor Enoch Adeboye's crusade held inside the OAU stadium, where he answered the altar call to formalize his conversion fully. The series of prayers offered that day obviously marked the beginning of a great turn around in his life.

He soon joined The Christ Ambassadors Students Outreach (CASOR), grew rapidly in spirit and got more committed to the things of God. Within six months, he was appointed a student missionary attached to one of the new churches under the parent church of CASOR; The Assemblies of God Church.

Meeting Evang. Mike Bamiloye & The Outcome

In 1993, while he was still doing his Masters degree programme, he attended a film show organised by The Mt. Zion Faith Ministries  on the campus. After watching their movie, "Lost Forever", and seeing how powerful it was as a tool for evangelism, he got the inspiration to go into drama ministry.
When he eventually met Evang. Mike Bamiloye and had discussions with him, another chapter was opened in his book of destiny.

From Diplomacy To Drama

Ministry

With the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election by the Federal Government, which brought great political crises that rocked the nation for a couple of years thereafter, his Masters degree programme was disrupted, such that he couldn't bag the second degree until 1997.

The political crises, nevertheless, gave him enough time to immerse himself fully in drama evangelism and film production. This led to his making a U-turn in the initial life direction of pursuing a diplomatic career to drama evangelism.

Training For Exploit In Drama & Film Production

He consequently attended the Mount Zion Institute of Christian Drama to learn evangelical drama and film production.This historian consequently started a drama group in the Assemblies of God Church where he was worshipping then in Ile-Ife.
The drama group later metamorphosed into Watchtower Drama Ministry which he founded in November 1993.

Adventure Into Full Time Drama Ministries

Following the completion of his training at the Mount Zion Institute of Christian Drama, he was given the first opportunity in 1993 to act in a movie titled "Gold Vessels" .which an Abeokuta based ministry, Steps Ministries, headed by Evangelist Taiwo Oyeboade, produced.
"It was after our training in Mt.

Zion Institute of Christian Drama. We got to know each other at the institute. He then invited me to take part in his movie." KSO said.
He thereafter took part in the English version of "Agbara Nla" produced by Mike Bamiloye in 1994 titled "The Ultimate Power", which was his first time of being a guest drama minister/actor in Mt Zion movies.

Since he wasn't working and the nationwide strikes had affected academic institutions in Nigeria, he used the ample time available to him as a postgraduate student to venture into full time drama ministries. He soon began to feature in Mount Zion movies and carrying out drama evangelism. In that 1994 he came out with his own first movie, titled: "Omoge Omi"

His Father Kicked Against The Calling

His father, Chief Segun Okeowo, who was already looking forward to seeing his brilliant son working as a diplomat in any of Nigeria embassies abroad, got sad and disappointed when he saw him becoming a dramatist.
It was at the time when there was nothing like Nollywood in the lexicon of Nigeria movie industry; although the movie industry was already showing signs of boom then.
To his father, whose personal motto was: "Live or die: Don't subsist like a living dead", Kolade must have been completely brainwashed with religious stuff.

KSO however said, "My father was a liberal man. He had wanted me to become a lawyer. But I told him law was boring to me. This was because when I finished secondary school around the age of 15, I had attended the Ogun State High Court, Sagamu, and witnessed some cases thrice and they were too boring for my liking. I realised I wasn't cut out for law.
"When I told him I didn't like law. He said well you can have your way. So, when I told him I would be going into drama evangelism, he didn't like it. He later said, at age 15 you had your way to choose the course you like. You can have your way now also. But he was not happy with it.

"However, he later began to appreciate and love what God was doing through me. And he supported it." KSO disclosed.

The Impact His Father's Name Made In His Life

According to KSO, his father's name, Segun Okeowo, has opened a lot of doors for him. "Recently I met the former President Olusegun Obasanjo. As I went to him and he heard the name Segun Okeowo he got interested in me. I had been to several places like that and the doors were flung opened for me just because they heard the name Segun Okeowo." He added.

Secret of His Fast Education & Early Success In Life

Looking at his fast education and early success in life, he attributed it to some privileges he got through the grace of God, the great impact his father made in his life and his relationship with Mike Bamiloye, among others.

"As early as age 11, my father began to treat me like an adult. He told me it was a foolish thing to say 'a fool at 40 is a fool forever'. He changed the saying to 'a fool at 14 is a fool forever'. So, I began to move with that consciousness that I didn't want to be a fool at 14. I began to live like an adult because my father was relating with me like an adult. As He would sat me down, asked me questions on national affairs and made it compulsory for me to watch, "NTA News At 9" to be current and be abreast of time" he disclosed.

The Impacts His Knowledge of History & International Relations Made In His Drama Work

According to him, his studying of History and International Relations have helped him a lot in analyzing information properly and asking a lot of critical questions. It has helped him also in writing good scripts for drama, movies and books. He cited his latest novel, "If Witches Were Horses" as a book that contains real life events, historical facts and fictions; weaving national and international history into script writing, such that when people read the novel they will say, this story is real because the things narrated in the book actually happened.

The Roles Mike Bamiloye Played In His Life

He disclosed that he never knew drama could be used to win souls and how until he watched Mike Bamiloye's movie, met him personally and attended his drama institute.
"He has also remained a major motivator to me. I can remember a time I wanted to quit the drama ministry. I was totally discouraged and wanted to pack up. But he was there for me. He encouraged me to keep pressing forward. He is my benefactor.

"He had also helped me financially. He remained a mentor and motivator, even in area of our marriage. He has been a mentor. His marriage to Mummy Gloria Bamiloye is successful. And it has remained an exemplary marriage for us to emulate. We see the way they raised their children, and it encouraged us and influenced us in the way we raised our children too". He added.

His Marriage To Princess Adesumbo

He met a damsel, Princess Catherine Adesunmbo of the Lafogido Royal Family of Ile-Ife, in 1994. She was then a young drama minister from other parish of their Assemblies of God Church in Ile-Ife. After about eight months of courtship, which began in April 1995, they wedded on January 20, 1996. 

While he was 25years old then, Sunmbo was 22years old, at the time of their marriage.

The marriage is blessed with five children; the eldest being Erimipo Segun Okeowo, a film editor and cinematographer. He is a graduate of Applied Geophysics from Covenant University. He now shoots their films and edit them.

Marital Challenges & The Success Story

After venturing into full time drama ministry and later getting married without having a stable source of income, they soon began to experience what they call "Wilderness Experience in ministry". They faced a lot of tough times. The attending financial challenges could have made the marriage collapsed but for the ability of the wife to endure the hardship with him, and above all, God who kept them.

Through her submission and support she grew up in the ministry, which enabled her get sufficient experiences she has been using to write the scripts for a family life TV drama series “House on the Rock” which shows on AIT, STV, TVC, LTV, Dove Vision, MZTV, RTV and several online platforms; while KSO is the director.
Based on their marital experiences and the success story, they are now marriage counsellors.
They organise a quarterly Couples' Fellowship tagged “House on the Rock Couples' Fellowship” and a youth workshop; “Gistin’ With Singles”
KSO is also the arrowhead of a Couples Reality TV Show; “Beyond the Honeymoon”

Ministerial Challenges & Success Stories

When he started his ministry on 6th. November, 1993, it was named Watchtower Evangelical Drama Ministries, which he said he got through the inspiration he received from the Book of Ezekiel in the Holy Bible, to be a watchman, giving warning and instructions to people through drama.
However, they soon ran into the problem of rejection as people began to mistaken them for Jehovah Witness members, because of the name Watchtower. 

This fetched them about five years of rejections until they changed the name to Christoline Ministries before they began to enjoy great acceptability. Another challenges they faced at the beginning was the initial wrong belief by many people, especially church leaders, that drama ministry is not in the Holy Bible and so shouldn't be accepted as such. Consequently many people were looking at them as mere entertainers.

After they succeeded in convincing whoever cared to listen, to look at what God has been using Mike Bamiloye to do through drama and what God has been doing through them as well, they began to enjoy unprecedented acceptability.
After over 26years years of producing good results, it is obvious that they have come a long way. He has produced 43 movies, apart from featuring in over 100 movies and directing/producing 50 others.

The Christoline Film Academy

In August 2000, he set up Christoline Film Academy (CFA) for training drama evangelists on Christian moviemaking and film production. Since then they have trained over 600 students in the art of film-making.
Before they started the training school they realised that a lot of the cameramen they were hiring then always sneaked out to smoke hemp or drink beers whenever they wanted to shoot their movies, because they weren't born again.

"So, we decided to start an academy where we could train professional cameramen, make-up artistes and other filmmakers who were already born again Christians. We brought in Christian professionals like Doyin Hassan, Ralph Mustapha, Pastor Segun Bankole and so on, to come and be training our people.

Today, "after over 20years of being in this training business, we have produced a lot of filmmakers who are doing well. Now we have our alumni in almost every Christian film locations. The likes of Abayomi Ojo, Sesan Afolayan, and many others who are doing well now"he said.

Building The 1St Christian Movie Village In Nigeria

When he became the National President of the All Nigeria Conference of Evangelical Drama Ministers, ANCEDRAM, in 2009, he realised that one major challenges that every film producer in Nigeria was facing then was getting locations for shooting film.

"To solve this problem, I sold the idea of jointly buying a parcel of land for us to build a housing estate as a film village, to our members; where each interested member can build a house and we can interchangeably be using them as film locations whenever any member wants to produce.

"Either for lack of interest or the financial implications, they rejected the idea. So, because I didn't want that my vision to die, I decided to execute it through our own Zionstone Media" he added .

Consequently, his organization bought a 24 acres of land(and later increased it to 54 acres) and began to sell them in plots to individuals with the agreement that once a film is to be produced, the owners of the houses built there will make places needed for shooting movie available for the short time needed.

So, the Zionstone Film Village was founded in 2010 in Simawa; behind Redemption Camp of The Redeemed Christians Church of God . And since 2013, they have been shooting movies there. 

In fact, some of the streets in the housing estate were named after top drama evangelists in the country as: Mike Bamiloye Avenue, Sola Mike Agboola Street, Elvon Jarrett Str., Kolawole David Okeowo Str., Wole Olaleye Str. , Prof. Feyi Adepoju Str., Seun Jonathan Str., among others.

Political Adventures

KSO is the Founder/National President of Believers In Politics, an NGO he established towards mobilising and encouraging Christians to be actively involved in politics and aspire for leadership positions in the political landscapes of Nigeria.
While he was the National President of ANCEDRAM in 2009, he joined the then Peoples' Democratic Party(PDP) in Ogun State, ahead of 2011 elections.

He contested twice for a seat in the Ogun State House of Assembly in 2011 and 2015 but lost due to  certain crisis the party was enmeshed in then. He was however appointed later as The Coordinator of the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation (Sagamu Local Government) in 2015.
He also became the PDP Chairman in Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State (April 2016 - August 2017). A member of the State Caretaker Committee of the PDP(Aug- Nov, 2017).

He was Chairman, PDP Reconciliation Committee in Sagamu LGA(Dec. 2017- Feb. 2018) and a former Aspirant for the Ogun State House of Assembly, Sagamu Constituency 2. 

He is currently The Coordinator of The Atiku Campaign Organisation in Sagamu LGA of Ogun State.

"I'm a politician and I don't intend to quit politics. As long as democracy remains the most acceptable system of government worldwide, you cannot do without politics. I'm still a card carrying member of my party. And I remain one of the leaders at the local government and state levels. 2023 is just by the corner and we're already discussing." He said.

His Business Life

To be able to finance his ministries effectively and support his family more, he  embraced the idea of "Other Children of Hannah" by establishing a chain of businesses in addition to his ministerial work. This enables him to generate income regularly without depending on what comes out of his evangelical work.

According to him, "A minister of God shouldn't be a pauper or begging to survive. Once God has given you a gift(Samuel) and you have began to use that gift for God sacrificially, you must also try to find out the "Other Children of Hannah" in area of skills and other talents God has given you, develop them, to make profit in life and ministry." He explained.

So, he discovered property development, school management, farming and animal husbandry (Producing frozen chicken) and ventured into them. Today, Zionstone Film Village, Good Neighbour Courts, GoldMind Primary School, GoldMind Secondary School, Ziongold Chicken, are some of the organisations that are gradually forming his business empire.

Writer, Author & Publisher

KSO, a prolific speaker and writer is the Editor/Publisher of The Christian Movieworld Magazine, author of several books including; "Good Script…Good Film"; "Why Men Marry Two Wives", "Marriage: an Hospital (In print) and "The Believers' Portion in Politics"(In print). He is also a bloggers at segunokeowoblog

A  Product Of The Nigeria Police Training School

A member of the Man O’ War Club, KSO has also attended the Special Supernumerary Police Officers’ Training Programme at the Nigeria Police Training School, Ikeja, Lagos.

The Doctor In Embryo!

This school administrator and Provost of Christoline Film Academy who won the 2018 Gold Excellence Award for Leadership in July 2018 at the Obafemi Awolowo University, will soon be known and addressed as Dr Kolade Segun Okeowo, as he is currently a PhD student of Political Science at Nigeria's premier university, the University of Ibadan.

KSO AT 50

"I'm exited that I reached the golden age. I thank God that he saved my life up to this moment. I have had a number of close encounters with death and only escaped by a whisker in each encounter . In 2005, I was involved in a ghastly motor accident and passed on. I only came back to this world when they were packing me, and the driver of the vehicle I boarded, into the mortuary.

"The nurse who was preparing cotton wool to be put into my nose was frightened when she suddenly saw that I came back to life after the doctor had apparently certified me and the driver dead; while those who were not dead were in the emergency ward, where they were being attended to.
"For being alive 15 years after, I have a lot of reasons to thank God. That's the reason I am celebrating it. It is also 25th years of our marriage" he explained.

In view of all the qualities stated above,
Evang. Kolade Segun Okeowo
Is Our: 

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE MAN OF THE MONTH

TAKE ACTION NOW: Share this story with all your family members, friends and colleagues through the social media icon buttons below.

You can also send your comments in the comments box below.