An Influential Generation By Dele Olawanle

On 8 February 1990, I arrived in the UK on what was to be a 3-day journey but now it is 31 years since I left the shores of Nigeria though I have been back to the country many times than I can remember over the years. I love Nigeria and she will survive its current challenges.

On getting to the UK, I was shocked at what I saw. The cold weather, the menial jobs and the uncertainties surrounding a black man’s future. I then met my wife, Bimbo, a UK-born citizen of Nigerian descent. Thankfully, her parents took her to Nigeria, and she imbibed the Nigerian culture before returning to the UK in 1991. We got into a relationship and we have now been married for over 28 years blessed with three children aged 26, 23 and 19. She is a university graduate and an educationist specializing in Early Childhood Studies. She is also an Adult Lecturer. By the grace of God, our two eldest children are practising lawyers. You can say like father like son.

Life has not been smooth sailing. After we got married in 1992, I applied to the Home Office, the immigration authority of the UK to be allowed to stay as a spouse of a British Citizen. That was how the trouble started. They refused my application and they asked me to be reporting at police stations. I did this for 8 years. On the 7th year of reporting, I was to be ordained as a Deacon by the late Prophet Timothy Obadare on that fateful Sunday. I went to report at the police station before going to church. I was arrested and detained at the police station. On the 4th day, they took me to Gatwick Airport to deport me to Nigeria. The court intervened some hours before my deportation and they took me to a detention centre where I was detained for 5 weeks. At that time, we already had two children who are British citizens by birth but that did not deter them from trying to deport me.

Whilst waiting for my immigration case to be decided, I decided not to waste my life. I started studying law and it was during the first semester of the second year at the university that I was detained. I completed the law degree and went to the law school. All these were self-sponsored as I had to pay for my education privately through serious pain but today, I give glory to God for his grace.

It turned out that there was a divine plan for my life as I believe that everything I went through was planned by God. I have helped thousands of immigrants from over 50 countries to settle in the UK as a lawyer through my legal practice Del & Co. Solicitors in the heart of London. Because I had been through immense hardships as an immigrant, it was very easy to help them. My problems became the instrument of solution to others. That is why no man should give up as no one knows tomorrow.

Apart from the legal profession, I am also a pastor. I was ordained on the 13th of October 2002 by my late spiritual father, Prophet Timothy Obadare and I started pastoring in his ministry before I left to found Winners Kingdom International Christian Centre on the 1st of August 2004. The Lord has been good since its inception and he provided us with our International Headquarters on the 15th of June 2011 when we purchased a state-of-the-art building in London. I have also written six life-changing books and I present the legal panorama, a daily TV programme in the UK where I advise citizens and immigrants alike on UK and European Immigration Laws.

I want everyone reading this article to have hope in their future. Things will turn around for the better. I will be in Nigeria for a programme titled: Influential Generation to be held on 19th and 20th of February 2021 at De Rembrandt Hotel, (NEXT TO SHOPRITE), 172, Obafemi Awolowo Way, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos. There will be three services: 6pm on Friday the 19th, 8am (Morning Dew) on the 20th and the closing programme at 6pm on 20 February 2021. Guest Artiste is EBEN and other artistes. It will be a Covid-19 compliant event and as a result of that, attendance is strictly by registration. We have to obey the law of the land.

I am confident that your generation will know you and you will influence your generation. I look forward to a time of teaching, preaching, mentoring, praise and worship. See you there and God will be glorified.

Register through these pages: WWW.WINNERSKINGDOM.ORG.UK
WWW.PASTORDELE.COM
Or Use the Link: https://pastordele.com/online/event/influential-generation/