A Nigerian man has narrated a painful story of how he lived abroad for 30 years but returned empty-handed.
Pastor Joseph Ibironke said he moved to the UK around 1983/1984 in search of the proverbial greener pastures.
He left his job at Union Bank to look for a better life in the UK, where he lived for nine years.
He told his story:
“I left Nigeria in the 1980s. If memory serves me right, I was in my 30s when I left Nigeria, and that should be between 1983 and 1984.”
During those nine years, he worked as a security guard.
He continued the story: “I was working. I worked as a security officer after I was trained as a security guard at Burns International Security Services Limited, United Kingdom. I was trained as an armed guard. When I moved to the US, I also worked with them for a while.”
Not satisfied with the UK, he moved from the UK to the US, where he ended up spending 21 years. He told Punch Newspapers in an interview:
He said he became a very successful electronics dealer in the US. His words:
“As I earlier said, I worked with Burns and I also worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Police Department before I resigned because God called me to be a pastor. That was when I resigned in Los Angeles after working for about two years. Also, I had a store in Orange County, California, which was predominantly occupied by whites, no blacks lived there. In Orange County, I sold sophisticated electronics. I was always going to Japan to buy electronics and sell them. I was also the only black in Orange County at the time who made it (was successful).”
He was blessed with four children in the USA, but he does not know where they are right now.
He said: “I was married with four children. Right now, I don’t know their whereabouts and it’s very painful knowing you have children somewhere and you don’t know where they are. But I know that they can’t suffer over there. Their mother left me after my sickness.”
Narrating how he got sick and eventually returned to Nigeria, Pastor Ibironke said his American wife left him when he couldn’t recover. He was married in Nigeria with two children before moving abroad. His Nigerian wife had to leave his house because she was kicked out by relatives after he left for the UK. His first son from his Nigerian wife is now 43 years old.
He told how he got sick in America:
“My wife told me that one midnight after making love together and we slept, I started barking like a dog, and that I was foaming in my mouth. She told me that she was scared, called for help and an ambulance was called and they rushed me to Cal State Teaching Hospital, California. I was there for 14 months and the doctors couldn’t detect what was wrong with me. Nigerians over there (in the US) who saw me and my condition said it was a spiritual attack and advised that I be taken back to Nigeria for treatment.”
The pastor said he suffered man years sleeping under the bridge in Lagos until a certain pastor intervened with prayers.
He said: “It was Labe Orun who took me to Pakoto Prayer Mountain in Ifo, where I spent six years before I recovered, even though not completely. It was under the leadership of Prophet Ezekiel Oladeinde, popularly called Baba Pakoto, that I recovered.”
