Benson Idahosa, fondly called Papa Idahosa was born in Benin City, Edo State, southern Nigeria in 1938 to non-Christian parents. Due to his sickly health, he was condemned to die by his parents and despite this he thrived and defied all odds to live. Due to poverty, he lived in terrible conditions and attended school for the first time at the age of fourteen.
He gave his life to Christ as a youth under a certain Pastor Okpo. He developed much zeal and passion for evangelism, and soon after was called by God to go into full-time ministry. Bishop Idahosa later founded the Church of God Mission in Benin and soon established himself as a fiery preacher who never shied away from speaking the truth.
Benin is generally believed to be one of the cities in Nigeria with the highest concentration of occult activities but Bishop Idahosa was not cowed as he spread his influence across the city, shutting them down and sometimes getting involved in public show-downs on national TV. A memorable moment is when it was reported that the association of witches worldwide would come to Nigeria to have their meeting and their representative in Nigeria boasted that nothing would stop them.
Bishop Idahosa took up the challenge and prophesied that the conference would not hold. This resulted in a televised debate where Bishop Idahosa, quoting the scripture that says “suffer not a witch to live”, asked the representative to confirm that he was a witch so he could call judgement down upon him as written in the Bible.
Discomfited, the man was said to have stammered and refused to acknowledge that he was indeed a witch and left shame-faced. Bishop Idahosa later got a call from the then Head of State, General Ibrahim Babaginda who said he had watched the debate and had banned the people from coming to Nigeria.
One of his most popular messages is titled “If I Be a Man of God” in which the man of God spoke on how being a baby Christian, he heard a sermon from his Pastor on how the believer had been given authority by Jesus Christ to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead. He said he left the church and went from house to house asking if there was any dead person in the house.
People thought he was crazy but he persisted until he came to a house where there was a dead girl and doing exactly what Jesus did in the scriptures, Idahosa everybody out of the house, and prayed to God and the girl was raised back to life in the name of Jesus Christ.
Bishop Idahosa was known for his radical faith, prosperity-based message and sheer boldness both in the pulpit and in national life. At a point he became the foremost voice in the Christian community and is fondly remembered as the “Father of Pentecostalism” in Nigeria, having played a major role in the spread of the Pentecostal fire in the country through his ministry and as a founding President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN).
His influence was not limited to Nigeria, as he linked up with foreign-based ministers such as Benny Hinn, Billy Graham, Kenneth E. Hagin, Oral Roberts, Reinhard Bonnke, Morris Cerullo and T.L. Osborn who referred to him as “the greatest African ambassador of the apostolic Christian faith to the world”.
He died on the 12th of March, 1998, leaving The Church of God Missions under the care of his wife, Bishop Margaret Idahosa and his son, Pastor F.E.B. Idahosa.
Bishop Idahosa was a revivalist and a trailblazer in his time, who paved the way for the younger generation to dig deep and experience the power of God in their time. Some of his protegees include Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, Bishop David Oyedepo, Chris Oyakilohme, Johnson Suleiman, David Ogbueli, and Bishop Mike Okonkwo.