Pastor Dr. Mrs. Oluwaseyi Bakare, popularly known as Mama Gboromiro, is a woman whose journey from business to ministry reflects a remarkable response to divine calling. A product of the famous Queen’s College, Ibadan, and the C&S white-garment church, Pastor Mrs. Bakare has distinguished herself by building Gboromiro Prayer Ministry on prayer, the Word of God and sound teaching, without the rituals commonly associated with most white-garment churches. Her ministry also transcends denominational boundaries, taking the Gospel to diverse denominational platforms globally. As she puts it, “Thank God, people are now becoming more Bible-based in C&S. We are changing fast.”

Pastor Dr. Oluwaseyi Bakare’s impactful prayer ministry has earned her a nomination for the 2026 BAME Award for Impactful Prayer Ministry. In this interview with Christian Benefits Magazine, she shares her transition from being a Christian student fellowship leader on campus to becoming a successful businesswoman, her calling into ministry as a prophetess, and her philanthropic activities, including running a tuition-free school in Ibadan and providing various forms of charitable support to poor widows and other less privileged members of society. Excerpts below.

How would you like to be introduced?

I am Pastor Mrs. Oluwaseyi Bakare, popularly known as Mama Gboromiro.

Briefly tell us about your background.

I was born before Nigeria gained her independence into a Christian family. I attended Queen’s College, Ibadan, and later proceeded to Ogun State Polytechnic, where I obtained my HND in 1982.

After my education, I went into government service and later moved into private business. I became an area manager for seven years before eventually opting out. I then started a big business and became one of the major distributors of Eleganza products, which blossomed very well. I became a household name and was ranked among the top distributors, sometimes coming third or fourth.

What was your experience growing up in a Christian family?

My mother was a prophetess and the founder of this particular church, from which my own ministry, Gboromiro Prayer Ministry, was birthed in 2000. My mother, now late, had difficulty having children. When she became pregnant with me, another prophetess told her that the baby in her womb was a girl who would become a prophetess across the nation. At that time, the pregnancy was only about two months.

I was born into the Cherubim and Seraphim (C&S) Church. As a young woman, I was very focused on living a life of purpose as a career woman, but I knew God would use me.

How did you receive the call into ministry?

I heard the voice of the Lord in 1999. I went to theological school and started the ministry in 2000. The Lord kept telling me to tell people to meet Him every Tuesday.

I combined the ministry with my business until God told me to choose one. At that time, I was selling millions of naira worth of goods every day. Eventually, I chose ministry.

How did your own ministry, Gboromiro Prayer Ministry, germinate from your mother’s C&S Church?

As I said earlier, I was born into a C&S church, but God still gave me my own ministry, Gboromiro Prayer Ministry, within my mother’s C&S assembly.

I started the ministry with only women. We called them women of prayer. I gathered them together and encouraged them to stop running “helter-skelter” in search of solutions to their challenges and problems. Later, their husbands also started joining us. That was how we started.

We are a ministry solely based on prayer, the Word of God and sound biblical teaching. My mother gave me Tuesdays for my ministry. I was later ordained a pastor in her church. Eventually, Gboromiro grew bigger than the church and brought the church into the limelight. After seven years, I became the minister in charge of her church while also overseeing the Gboromiro ministry.

What gifts has God endowed you with for the ministry?

God has given me the gift of teaching and prophecy. I am a pastor and an Alore Elemi, which I carefully submit to the Word of God because I don’t want to be like some other pastors who work only on miracles. Let people know God first, and His Word, and then miracles will follow.

What are your church’s major programmes and their testimonies?

Majorly, it is the Gboromiro Interdenominational Intercessory Prayer Meeting every Tuesday, with thousands of worshippers from all walks of life attending weekly. We hold the popular “7 to 7” programme on the last Tuesday of every year. It is an annual programme, and people come from all over the world.

It is not only people from the white-garment church who attend. It also attracts unbelievers as well as casual believers.

We have had many testimonies. A woman without a womb got pregnant and gave birth to a child. We have seen people whose hope was restored and people who experienced breakthroughs. Barren women have also given birth.

We are a global ministry because many people have travelled from the ministry to overseas countries, doing exploits globally in various spheres of life, to the glory of God, as members and ministers in Gboromiro Prayer Ministry.

Share with us your experiences and challenges as a female preacher, and how you surmount those challenges.

My experience as a female preacher has been beautiful. I have been resilient, and if God has spoken, so be it. God made it easy for me.

I go on air preaching, and people love me for my boldness. I am blunt and radical as a white-garment minister. I am not ready to compromise; I say it as it is. People generally see me as a minister, not merely as a female preacher.

There were challenges from some of my male counterparts in C&S. We have gifts of the Spirit, but we sometimes lack knowledge of the Word of God. That made me go in search of the Word. I am a teacher, and I wanted to understand the Word properly.

How have you overcome these challenges encountered in your ministry?

The foundation of the white-garment C&S tradition presented some challenges. They saw me as a born-again Christian who wanted to change the pattern. I told them that I was only practising what is in the Bible. I study the Bible and face it squarely.

The criticism started with little things. I told my mother, “If you want me to stay here, let me do what God has asked me to do.”

Thank God, people are now becoming more Bible-based in C&S. We are changing fast. Before, Pentecostal churches took our people away, but now we are talking to them and bringing them back.

The youths are also doing marvellous things.

I travelled to America. My first trip was through a Pentecostal church, and later I ministered through a Baptist church. On these platforms, I saw beyond denominational barriers. I decided not to box myself in. I do things the way I am led by God.

How do you balance being a wife, mother and pastor, and also how will you describe your family’s support for your ministry?

I am a mother, wife, pastor, grandmother and prophetess. It is the grace and strength of the Lord that sustain me.

Faithful is He who has called me; He has empowered the unqualified.

What are your ministry’s most significant milestones and achievements?

One of the major milestones is the growth of Gboromiro from a small gathering of women in prayer into a ministry with global reach.

The “7 to 7” annual programme has become a major gathering, attracting people from different parts of the world and from different Christian backgrounds.

Gboromiro has also brought the church into the limelight. We are changing fast, and we are seeing people return to the faith. Our youths are also doing marvellous things.

What impact is your ministry making beyond the church?

Gboromiro has reached people beyond our immediate church and denominational background. People from different Christian backgrounds attend our programmes.

Talking about impact beyond the spiritual, we run a tuition-free school in Ibadan with hundreds of pupils and students. We also provide welfare support to poor widows, the aged, the vulnerable and other less privileged members of society.

Through invitations and ministry opportunities on Pentecostal and Baptist platforms, I have been able to see beyond denominational barriers. I do not want to box myself in. I follow the leading of God.

What advice would you give young women entering ministry?

Let them seek God and know Him first. They should study the Word of God and not build their ministry around miracles.

They should be focused, purposeful and unwilling to compromise. They should not box themselves into denominational barriers but follow the leading of God.

What legacy do you hope to leave in ministry?

I want to leave a legacy of prayer, the Word of God and sound teaching.

We are called prayer intercessors, so let us practise what our name is. I want people to know God first, and then miracles will follow.

Above all, I want my life and ministry to demonstrate that God can use and empower the unqualified.

Faithful is He that called me; He empowered the unqualified.