At age four, the world looked bleak for young Peter Jasper Akinola following the sudden death of his father.
The unfortunate situation forced the young Agoba; Abeokuta-born boy out of school!.
However, Manna later came through an uncle who took up the responsibilities of raising him after relocating from Abeokuta to Lagos.
This was after young Akinola got admission into a school at age ten and later finished at age sixteen.
A brilliant lad, Akinola, born on January 27, 1944 had wanted to continue his education, but the situation on ground saw him relocating to Lagos.
While in the city of excellence, young Akinola learnt carpentry and furniture making with a sideline in patent medicines.
Oblivious of where God was leading him, Akinola, for greater part of the 1960's thrived and made fortune in carpentry, the preferred choosen profession of our Lord Jesus Christ before He ventured into Evangelism.
The octogenarian, who reminiscenced with nostalgia during an interview with Times of London years past said he was to be sacrificed for money making rituals.
His words:"very urgly things happened to me while I was there (Lagos).
"Another uncle of mine was not thinking well of me. He was going to sacrifice me for a ritual to make money.
" I had premonitions. I saw a very clear vision of what was going to happen. Events then began to mimic his premonitions.
"I came out of the house to go to where I was supposed to be sacrificed and I saw this figure far away at the other end of the road, beckoning me to come. In white. I ran and ran and ran".
"The faster I ran, the further distance between me and the figure. I never found it. I believe very strongly that the Lord was taking me away from that dungeon."
The Nigeria's uncommon Christian visionary leader before 1973, when he entered the Theological College of Northern Nigeria, where he later obtained a diploma of theology in 1978, he had trained as a catechism.
He was later ordained a deacon in the Anglican Church, later as a priest and later in 1979 he went on to earn a Master of theological studies from Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia.
After being made a vicar in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, he was consecrated a bishop in 1989.
Through the unprecedented growth of the Anglican Community in Nigeria which led to the creation of new dioceses, Akinola, in 1997 was elevated from diocesan bishop to the office of archbishop.
The spiritual leader, headed Province III in Nigeria for three years before being made Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria in 2000.
While calling the shots, the membership of the Anglican Church in Nigeria nearly tripled during his reign as result of his sterling leadership styles and qualities,
An uncompromising Anglican, Akinola presided over the most vibrant and almost certainly the largest Anglican community in the world—at a time when the Anglican world's true center of gravity has shifted to Africa.
Akinola was awarded the National Award of Commander of the Order of the Niger CON in December 2003.
In 2006, he appeared on TIME magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people in the category Leaders and Revolutionaries.
Again in 2007, the international magazine also mentioned him, just as ThisDay Newspaper listed him among 17 others as "Lifetime Achievement Award" winners.
An imposing figure, tall and graying, Akinola, who was born on January 27, 1944 has been married for decades and blessed with six children.
In 2010, after retirement as primate of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Akinola established the Peter Akinola Foundation, a Non profit making and non governmental organisation.
The story of Akinola will be incomplete without a mention of his nasty experience in the hands of kidnappers in December, 2013.