January 14, (THEWILL) – A Few weeks ago, veteran artiste, Evangelist Bola Are celebrated her 50th anniversary as a minister of the gospel. The celebration also coincided with her 69th birthday.
The event held at the Halls of Grace, Jogor Centre, Ibadan, the Oyo state Capital. Many important personalities, cutting across various spheres of life came from far and near to celebrate with her. Proceedings at the event was steered by Master of Ceremony, Kofoworola Olofinyo, popularly called Mc Kofo The ceremony was declared open with an opening prayer, followed by the ushering of the celebrant into the event venue. Thereafter, there were ministrations from different gospel artistes, such as Evangelist (Dr.) Bukola Akinade; Esther Igbekele; Folasade Taiwo; Adeynka Alaseyori; Elijah Akintude Olorun; Harmony Band, and a host of others.
A welcome address was immediately followed with a keynote address by the Mother of the Day, Prophetess Esther Ajayi. In her goodwill message, she lauded Evangelist Bola as a woman who is always in the spirit of God whenever she calls for ministration, stating that she has continued to be a source of inspiration to most gospel singers particularly in the Yoruba genre and is still relevant today. She then charged the gospel singers of today to emulate Evangelist Bola who has taken gospel music to the next level, while praying for her to live a long enough to continue to reap the fruits of her labour.
Bayegun Oluwatoyin, popularly known as Woli Arole, as well as Ayo Ajewole, aka Woli Agba, spiced up the ceremony with hilarious rib-cracking jokes. A former President of the Gospel Musicians Association of Nigeria, Evangelist Bola has successfully churned out over 100 studio album to her credit. The 69-year-old holds a honorary doctorate degree in Music from St. John’s University. she also runs the Bola Are Gospel foundation international aimed at catering for the needs of the less privileged in Nigeria, it was founded in 1995. Her recording studio, school of Gospel Music International was founded to give gospel musicians a platform that would lead them in the way of the Lord.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
