Solomon Adeniyi Babalola

In December 2002, Babalola and Mrs. Babalola fully retired from official and unofficial pastoral/academic activities to Oke-Ila Orangun, capital of Ifedayo Local Government, in Osun State. At Oke-Ila, they continued to provide free counseling services as they attended the two Baptist churches, and provided general community leadership. More formally, Babalola served (since his election at the beginning of the 21st century) for almost ten years as President and Chairman of the Board of Oke-Ila Orangun Parapo, his home-town's umbrella association for community development. The election of a formal Executive separate from the Board in December 2009, finally gave some respite and allowed Rev. Dr. S. Ade Babalola and Rev. Mrs. V.T. Babalola to resume their frequent overseas travels to visit their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Babalola was also a member of the Board of Directors of Egbe Omo Ibile Igbomina a community development association of the Igbomina sub-ethnic group of the Yoruba.

He attended the Columbia Biblical Seminary & Graduate School of Missions, of Columbia International University, in Columbia, South Carolina (United States), and earned his Doctor of Ministry in 1995. Prior to this, he took training as a Mental Health Specialist which qualified him to work in that capacity for the State of South Carolina, and enabled him to pay his way for his Doctor of Ministries studies.

Rev. Dr. S. Ade Babalola had his longest pastorate of 17 years at the Oke-Ado Baptist Church, Ibadan - one of the leading churches of the Nigerian Baptist Convention. During this period, Rev. Mrs. V.T. Babalola worked as a Field Worker of the Nigerian Women's Missionary Union and served across the remote towns and villages of the Yoruba states of southwestern Nigeria. She worked in the most northwestern Yorubaland (old Oyo empire) and riverine southeastern Yorubaland. Mrs. Babalola rose to become a Director with the Nigerian Women's Missionary Union. Mrs. V.T. Babalola elected early retirement in 1987 to travel to the United States to assist her first son's family in the care of her first four grandsons.

Babalola left Nigeria twice for North America for his graduate theological education. He attended Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia (Canada) and earned his Master of Divinity (with an additional bachelor's degree) in 1984.

In the various sojourns in Canada and the United States (for academic pursuits or visits to his children) between 1981 and 2002, Rev. Dr. Babalola also ministered among immigrant African communities (with prayers & confidential family/youth counseling) in Wolfville (Canada), Columbia (South Carolina), Buffalo, (New York) & Houston (Texas). In Houston, they joined to teach in the Yoruba Language School established by the socio-cultural organization, Yoruba Omo Oduduwa, and donated more than two dozen books to the organization.

Babalola was an invited participant and attended (with Rev. Dr. J.T. Ayorinde, General Secretary of the Nigerian Baptist Convention), the First International Congress on World Evangelization, an international invitation-only gathering of “leaders of evangelical Protestant Christians” July 16–25, 1974 for strategic planning, inspiration, and fellowship. Babalola was also a participant at the Nigerian Congress on Evangelization that was held at the University of Ife in August 1975.

Pastor Babalola returned to the seminary for another three years and earned the Bachelor of Theology in 1965. While with her husband in Ogbomosho, Mrs. Babalola trained at the seminary for the three-year Certificate in Religious Education (CRE) in 1965 and won the Top Student Award in her combined class of C. Th. and CRE students. (At the time of her graduation from seminary, the Nigerian Baptist Convention had not begun recognizing women as pastors (see Ordination of women) or ordained ministers, but by the late 1990s, Mrs. Babalola was designated as Rev. Mrs. Victoria Titiloye Babalola, although she was actually consecrated into ministry in 1965). Babalola pastored Laka Baptist Church from 1962 to 1965 while a B.Th. student at the seminary.

At the end of this assignment, Pastor Babalola was awarded a scholarship from the American Baptist Mission Nigeria to attend Oyo Baptist Boys High School at Olivet Heights (later renamed Olivet Baptist High School) where in 1961 he passed the West African School Certificate Examinations that would enable him to qualify for a bachelor's degree program. While at Olivet Heights, Oyo, Babalola pastored the Baptist Church at the Fashola Farm Settlement and later Emmanuel Baptist Church, Oyo. Upon completing his education at Olivet Heights, he pastored Oke-Ado Baptist Church, Ibadan from January to August 1962, where he was admitted for the seminary Bachelor's degree program.

Babalola pastored the Dunkwa Baptist Church, now the First Baptist Church, Dunkwa-on-Offin. Babalola was also a Travelling Pastor across the region. Mrs. Babalola leveraged the vast experience of her youthful activities within the Nigerian Women's Missionary Union to organize similar programs across the assigned missionary territory. On departure from Ghana in 1955, the Babalola family had increased by their first two sons.

Rev. Dr. Babalola was married on Dec 16, 1952, to Victoria Titiloye Alao of royal lineage, a daughter of Prince Isaac Adewale Alao of Ara, the founder of her hometown's First Baptist Church. Babalola and his new wife departed Nigeria by sea barely one week after their wedding, to commence a missionary assignment in Ghana (then the British Gold Coast colony), for which Babalola had earlier volunteered.

Prior to sojourns in North America, Babalola had twice travelled outside Nigeria, the first time was soon after he started his pastoral career, when he travelled to Ghana as a missionary pastor from December 1952 to December 1955. The second was when he was a sponsored candidate to Switzerland (one of only two Nigerian Baptist pastors) attending ICOWE in July 1974, the First International Congress on World Evangelization which was held in Lausanne.

On graduation in 1949 with a Certificate in Theology from the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Babalola was appointed pastor of the First Baptist Churches of two adjoining Nigerian towns, Masifa and Ishoko. During his pastorate in these two churches in the Zion Baptist Association, Babalola met his future wife during activities of the association. Victoria Titiloye Alao was the leader of various Women's organizations in her churches - growing up in Ara and teaching in Olla, and she was Young People's Leader for the Zion Baptist Association.

The Rev. Dr. Solomon Adeniyi Babalola (April 20, 1929 – November 3, 2021) was a Nigerian Baptist pastor who lived and served in Nigeria, Ghana, Canada, and the United States. Born in Oke-Ila, Nigeria, he graduated from his initial pastoral training in December 1949 from the three-year theology course (Certificate of Theology) of the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomosho. He is reputed to be one of the two youngest Nigerian nationals (if not the youngest person) ever recruited into the ministry by American (Southern Baptist Convention) missionaries, during a late-1940s drive led by Seminary President Dr. J.C. Pool, assisted by indigenous pastors. Babalola was consecrated as a Baptist trained pastor at the age of 20.