The Brazen, Irrepressible and Frank in Bloodless Revolution
Born Ifedayo Olarinde but later earned the moniker, Daddy Freeze, from his adventure on radio, this enigmatic on-air-personality has forged a revolution by daring to say what many feared to tell in the public. Daddy Freeze challenged the doctrine of tithing, pitting himself against the high and mighty Christian clerics, and elucidated the confused precepts of marriage. Interestingly so, in a jiffy, he became an enfant terrible on social media and a hero to those who seek to be free-thinkers above anything else. He speaks exclusively to MediaRoomHub in a no-holds-barred fashion. Excepts
What would you have done differently if you weren’t an OAP?
I didn’t start as an OAP; I actually started off as a musician/rapper. I just felt I was one of those kids who had some bars and I’ll spit bars to my mum and she’ll throw something at me. Then I went to Romania in 1996 and I have a cousin called Gina, she was having a thirty minutes teen’s programme on the radio and I followed her once to the station. And I was like, Gina do you know what? I can actually do this. When I came back to Nigeria, I auditioned and got a job at BCOS Ibadan, that’s how it all started. But if I’m not a broadcaster there are a couple of things I wouldn’t mind doing. I wouldn’t mind being a pilot for instance but that’s a little late now because I’m a preacher now, I’m doing kingdom works (chuckles).
Why did you really settle for the name Daddy Freeze?
I go a long way with that name. McRoy in BCOS gave me Dr. Freeze, we were looking for a nickname and just couldn’t find one and he was like you know what, I’ll give you Dr. Freeze. So the ‘Dr.’ just wasn’t working and then it became DJ Freeze. Eventually I came to Cool FM and everybody was on their first name basis and the DJ Freeze still didn’t go so I dropped the DJ Freeze and took just Freeze. Later on I used to play some silly game on radio and I used to ask people “who is your daddy?” and Dotun mated Daddy with freeze and that was how it was birthed.
You have had a very colourful career, in this some have been very interesting while others are very controversial; one that sticks out is your famous feud with Basketmouth. Can we talk about it?
I think it was my fault. I got too emotional, I was going through a bad state and it seemed that Bright (Basketmouth) was taking shots at me. Maybe I was paranoid and you know that adage that goes ‘any shaking tree is a target’. It was my fault but I’m sure one way or the other, we would eventually resolve everything.
You have been described by Frank Edoho as a broadcaster cut from a different fabric. Have you heard that before? What does that mean to you?
From Frank, Yes I have. I’ve always known I was different, the kind of things I do, not many people can. Not that I am bragging because everybody has their specialty and my specialty seems to be a bit unique, a bit weird, a bit twisted and totally different from what you have on normal broadcasting, cut from a different cloth entirely. I don’t share the same belief system with other people and also I’m very, very, outspoken, vocal and opinionated. As a broadcaster, you are not supposed to have an opinion, you are supposed to be a puppet and I’m like you know what? When the robots come, you can hire them to do the radio work, but if you want hire me, I will give you my opinion whether you like it or not.
While lashing out at some Christian clerics lately, you’ve inadvertently begun a movement that earn you friends and foes from far and near. Why exactly did you start voicing those sentiments?
There was a point in my life where I had an epiphany of sorts. When I realised that everything, the more I studied, the more I prayed, when I became spiritual was when I realised that what we were taught as Christianity was false. It was hinged on money and it had gone to where the problem started initially.
If you remember Jesus was fighting with the teachers of religious laws, scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. It is dedicated to how hypocritical the Pharisees were but guess what? By the time Jesus died, was put in the tomb, he resurrected and ascended to heaven, that same hypocrisy was seen in the disciples.
I think human beings have a problem for being hypocritical. I remember Paul rebuking Peter in public for being hypocritical, initially he was behaving like the gentiles after a while he stopped eating with the gentile because they were uncircumcised. Then in the early church, money entered one way or the other: you could pay and have your sins forgiven. It was called indulgence – you know in the Old Catholic Church and the protestant complained about that and broke out of the Catholic Church (I’m just trying to do a quick summary of history)
After a while, Charles Fox Parham in 1900 along with another gentleman called William Seymour, were the two that started the Pentecostal movement. One of the things they complained about was the hierarchy of the Methodist church. Charles Parham came out of the Methodist church, he was never ordained a preacher. He just started a movement and his sole motive was to seek the fruit of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, prophesy, healing and prayer. That was all. He never collected offerings, he never collected tithes, his school – BETHEL BIBLE COLLEGE was free, no tuition and before you know it 118 years later, we are back to where the Pharisees were. Christianity broke out of Judaism. Christianity was what led to the Catholic church and the Protestant broke out of the Catholic church and we are back to where we originally broke out of from and for the same reason we broke out of Judaism – Hypocrisy and Money.
I have realised you cannot worship God with your money. Nigeria about a week ago overtook India. You can check it out on worldpoverty.iog We have more people living in extreme poverty. According to the poverty clock 82.8 million people in Nigeria live in poverty , India has 82.1 million and is rising away from poverty but Nigeria is going deeper in poverty yet one bald headed Chairman that screeches like a fowl said God gave him anointing to preach wealth or create wealth, how? It just doesn’t add up.
We have over 23 000 registered churches in Nigeria and 1 of those 23, 000 has 34 000 branches and now there is still 22, 999. So it’s like the only thing we do in Nigeria is church, it doesn’t show, we don’t love one another. Now the worst part is the hypocrisy, a pastor would tell you that you are cursed if you do not obey Malachi 3:8 -10. Now Malachi 3:8-10 it is an old covenant law for the Jews it is not for Christians. Galatians 5:4 says “if you want to obey the Old law then you have to obey the whole law” and let me explain how hard the law is. If you are caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, you must be stoned to death. A woman who is not a virgin in her father’s house and is not yet married must be stoned to death in front of her father’s house , it is in the book of Deuteronomy. Stubborn children should be stoned to death. Leviticus 19:27 says you are not allowed to trim your beard or cut the hair in the side of your head. Now Afghanistan under the Taliban regime have the beard patrol. It’s biblical, it’s against the law of Moses to cut your beard.
Now most of the G.Os are clean shaven – the one in camp is clean shave, the Shiloh one is also clean shaven and the other one in Abuja is clean shaven. You are not keeping the entire law of Moses but you want us to keep Malachi 3:8-10, it doesn’t make any sense.
Galatians 3:10 says you are under a curse if you do not keep the whole law but you are trying to find righteousness by the law. If you got to the book of Hebrews 7:18 we are under a new covenant with Jesus as our high priest, there is no tithing in the new covenant because Jesus never collected tithe. The first church they set up never collected tithe.
If you collect tithe then you are doing it according to the old law and Galatians 3:10 curse is upon you because you are not doing the rest of the law.
You seem to have a lot of followers and those who won’t like to see you at all because of your position on marriage especially after yours broke down irretrievably. Why do you appear weird in belief of the tenets of marriage?
Marriage is a beautiful thing, it’s just that we have a problem. We base marriage on the wrong precepts. Instead of basing marriage on love, partnership, friendship, we base it on societal demand which is wrong. If you are at a certain age and not married then something is wrong with you. That is how we were raised. I remember when the gentleman you spoke of earlier; Frank Edoho first announced his separation via Twitter. I couldn’t talk to Frank for like two weeks thinking “How can Frank be in a divorce, what kind of rubbish is this?” But guess what, it is hypocritical and I know a woman who has two boyfriends while in her husband’s house yet I heard her pass judgment on a single lady for not being in her husband’s house. So, you can see it is the hypocrisy of marriage.
The marriage we inherited from the Bible was inherited from a time when Ephesians 6:5 reigned. It reads ‘Slaves obey your earthly masters as you would obey Christ’. The Bible whether we like it or not was written during the era of slavery. Jesus fed over 5,000 people the women were not counted. Today women are counted, they didn’t have a voice. Women are not allowed to even preach to men in the old testament but today women can preach.
I believe that that freedom should be extended to their choice, right from when they are young, they can choose not to be married and I can choose to end my marriage because I’m unhappy. So many people have ended in the grave, developed cancer and all sorts of negative ailments because they are in the wrong place and there is no account for that. If you see a woman that has been beaten, you see the scars but what about the emotional torture. How can you be in a relationship and the man sleeps with you once a year. The pastor would tell you to go and pray. Pray about what? Half the time you are done praying, the pastor helps you out; he services you. I have stories I can publish all of them. The hypocrisy of marriage is something I’m very against. Look that young man insulting me about marriage the other day and a few days later, his side chicks started springing out of the wood work. In his own mind he is justified because he is married. My take on marriage is if you are unhappy in marriage, if you are bitter, if you are being cheated upon, if you are unhappy please leave, it’s not by force. Don’t be a prisoner and don’t hold somebody else in prison.
At what point did you decide to move on from your first marriage?
That marriage was doomed from the start. We were not friends, we were not partners, we were weary of each other. Like my current wife now, Tastebud, now I can tell her give me your phone, my finger print opens it and her finger print opens mine. There is nothing I need to hide. But in that other marriage, we were all watching each other, it was just wrong.
Marriage is bigger than let me open my phone or let’s close my phone. It is very important but it’s not the only pillar upon which marriage is built. It’s like you can’t lean on a house with one pillar. Marriage needs some support and some of these things is openness, love, communication, friendship, spending quality time together, are some of the pillars with which you can lean a marriage. And none of that was present in my former marriage (I am not saying this to put her down, rather I’m putting both of us down because it was not working). But the society kept us together (I’m speaking for myself now), I was in the marriage because of the society, I didn’t want to be divorced despite the fact that I knew it wasn’t working. When she left, I was broken for about two weeks. I was like oh my God, my life is over. You know I used to stay at the official quarters and when she left it was like a big void. Everybody saw me and was like my life is finished. I was almost suicidal. But after the first two weeks, I was like wow, I like this feeling. I had gotten over the whole shame part, and now I wake up in my room, I can arrange things the way I want. I felt relieved and I was like this should have happened a long time ago.
If you have an option to change something about your life generally, what would that be?
My account balance of course (laughs). Add a couple of zeroes, like 7 zeroes to my domiciliary account.
What’s your end gain as regards ‘Freesheeple’ movement?
There was time, it was ministered to my spirit, that there were lots of people dying in bad marriages. So I did a video and said anybody that dies in a bad marriage after watching this video is going to hell fire. Get out of the marriage now. Two weeks later, a woman killed her husband in a high profile case in Abuja. She killed her husband and she’s now in prison. She has a daughter so believe it or not, now the girl is without her mother and father. Father is dead, mother is in jail, they should have left when I said so. I feel that it is my duty since nobody has assumed that responsibility to keep Nigerians away from the prosperity doctrine because in a real sense it is actually a poverty doctrine. China got out of poverty without preaching the prosperity doctrine. As far as I’m concerned, China is a Buddhist nation because churches were banned. Look at India for instance, it is a predominantly a Hindu nation and was getting out of poverty, how come we, with our 24 thousand churches, we are still in poverty? Definitely our solution out of poverty is not in the church and it’s my duty to wake my people up and say, hey you are not going to get any richer by paying tithe the only person getting richer is your Pastor and there is no tithing in the Bible. Jesus didn’t collect it. So the end gain for me is to the people, if we all wake up, we can build a greater nation.
Tell us about Tastebudz (your wife), how did your paths cross?
I have known her since late 2012, I think it was at House on the Rock, I can’t really remember but it was a church setting I was doing something for them and we met. I used to help her but we never clicked like that. Our paths crossed on business basis. She had yoghurt factory in Portharcourt then and she needed publicity and I was like no problem. I remember calling her once or twice and I got pissed off because her ringtone was one Daddy GO’s preaching. So, I never called again until much later.
As we got talking eventually, around middle of 2013, she told me she filed for divorce and I was like what?!! No, you have to fix it , marriage must be fixed and all that. Then she told me why she filed for divorce which I can’t say here. Eventually we became friends and the friendship started growing. I was also in a bad relationship at the time, we were not friends, we were just fooling ourselves. When my ex moved out, that was around June 2014, I had the luxury of being alone and the void needed to be filled and somehow, it was filled.
Would you say your love for her grew over time then?
Yeah, it came in from my blind side, it was purely business initially. Friendship didn’t come until much later.
On your social media you show a lot of support for your wife and her business, are you in any way pressured to do this?
When she left Portharcourt and came to Lagos we didn’t know what she was going to be doing so now I love to eat and loves to cook and I like showing off my wrist watches too. So I was like it was going to be nice to display my watches alongside with the food she prepares because I didn’t have money again to buy new watches. So, I needed to recycle the pictures of the old ones. That’s how the idea was born and her Instagram handle started growing. One day I shared a plate of Indomie specially prepared by her and before you know it, Don Jazzy said he wanted and he ordered a lot of things. I owe it to Don Jazzy. And that’s how it all started.
Your wife was recently on Linda Ikeji TV where she talked about her ex-husband and how she caught him having a gay sex, did you know she was going to discuss this prior to the interview?
You know because all these things would be brought before a high court, she has been restrained so she cannot comment on the matter anymore. Since the matter is in front of the court, I firmly believe in the power and ability in our judiciary and I do believe that we will get justice or she will get justice because it has nothing to do with me.
What would you say about free the sheep movement? Do you think there are still lost souls and how do you intend to further reach them?
We have been a bit harsh and we have decided to tone it down because we have started teaching the love doctrine but the message has to be gotten to everyone and since you are not serving God with your money because he doesn’t need your money as a matter of fact you are wallowing in poverty, you don’t have money. The Bible in the book of Deuteronomy 14:22 says when you have a good harvest, your salary is not a good harvest, unless you increase salary from 30,000 to 800,000. If you are earning the same salary you are not having a good harvest. The Bible says when you have a good harvest you ought to give tithe to the Lord. I was having a conversation with a lady the other day and she says she pays tithe and I asked how much is her salary and she replied 30,000 and it means she pays 3,000. Does it make sense to you? We need to get people and wake them to stop trying to bribe God, He is not a Policeman at a check point, that’s not God; He is not a bartender that needs a tip.
Still on free the sheep what’s your wife’s take on it, does she oppose?
Since I am the one speaking I might just speak on her behalf, she stopped paying tithe long before I stopped paying tithe, so she has been free before I was.
Now apparently she used to do a lot of charity, go to hospital, go to motherless babies home, go to flood prone areas and then her business kept going and I got to a point where her business grew too big, she couldn’t do the charity again. So instead she decided to give the money to the church and the business started going down. So it became further revelation to me that if you want to love God with your money then you have to serve humanity.
You engage in charitable activities and the media doesn’t report this and you don’t blow your trumpet either, tell us about it.
Well, I first realized that Nigeria was going down when the world poverty clock reported that we are rising in poverty and that our escape rate target was 12.2 but we are currently escaping at minus 6, I was like we are in trouble. So, what I did was I gathered some of my disciples , followers and people who believe in our doctrine , I said poverty and the church I’m sorry to say has failed because a pastor would build a school out of tithe payer’s money and offering money and the people who pay the offering cannot attend those schools. Now Jesus said all the commandment in the old testament are summed up into love your neighbor as yourself , how can a pastor who cannot allow members of his church attend a school, they built with their own funds. What amazes me is a pastor who is disobeying Jesus is now telling you to obey Malachi.
I knew there was confusion when a pastor said there is a curse if you don’t obey Malachi, another said there is no curse, just pay creek your tithe and another said you will die. And then I knew they didn’t know what they were doing. So I knew we had to take matters into her own hands and I started the TAP Challenge, the TAP Challenge was tithe against poverty – take a tithe of your income and remove someone from poverty.
Big shout out to Jude Okoye, he came out and paid the hospital bill for a woman who had triplets and paid for her drugs and I wanted everyone to remove someone from poverty so we do not overtake India in poverty, but unfortunately we would rather pay our tithe. We also created the world richest pastors ironically out of the top 5 richest pastors on earth, 3 are Nigerians. It doesn’t make sense to me.
Is it safe to say the TAP CHALLENGE enjoys supports and the response has been impressive?
It has been impressive, I went to a secondary school the other day, if you see these wonderful children, well spoken, their uniforms neat but torn. Neat but they have outgrown the uniform, these guys are doing well but their parents are minimum wage earners. NECO forms are more expensive than minimum wage, so are your parents going to work 2 months to buy you a form, probably not. Big shout out to Kemi Adetiba , Doctor Dxb1000 from Dubai, Olajumoke, a lot of people came here to make uniforms available for the children and a lot others are contributing to make this happen. She also has her initiative where she cooks and gives people. She packaged them and we drive around looking for beggars and hungry people. She does that once a month.
Tell us about your fetish for luxury items
Unfortunately I don’t like football, I don’t like what my friends like. I love watches, I’ve always loved watches. I can save up for a year to buy a watch. That’s me. When I’m on the Internet I’m reading about a watch or a car. These are things that I’m passionate about. I’m also passionate about aviation. So, I don’t know why I should beat myself over the head because what I like is more expensive than what others like. Sometimes I can’t afford them and I day dream or I trade. Sometimes the watches rise in values, sometimes we are lucky. There are watches that you could buy and they double in value especially if you shop in the area of Vacheron Constantin or Richard Mille. There is one Richard Mille watch that came out it’s the new RM 1103 I wish I had money I would have bought that watch because guess what, it came out at about $130, 000 but they are so rare that they are being retailed now for about $180, 000. Good business.
How many watches do you have?
Right now I don’t have much because we are doing charity work now (laughs) but I have one or two.
What are your favourite brands of watches?
I like Richard Mille and Rolex. Apart from watches I am passionate about aviation and cars.
What’s your favourite car?
I am a Ferrari man.
Would you say that you have found love again?
This is what I’ll say… (he kissed his wife).
Have you both formalised your union?
Like I said earlier, we are bound by a court process, so we can’t really talk about it. I don’t want a bench warrant. I know they are competent, they will give us judgment.
How would you describe your relationship with your kids from your ex-wife?
A bit strange, I never wanted them to be a part of the marriage breakdown, I wasn’t married to them I was married to their mum but women have a way of using children to harass men. And unfortunately I find myself in that situation. I can count the number of times I have seen them since the divorce but like I said it’s a matter before a competent court and we will get good judgment I believe. It’s only a matter of time.
We’re in this together, Daddy Freeze’s lover, BENEDICTA thunders
Benedicta, Daddy Freeze’s new lover, subscribes absolutely to the strength of his character and the choice that makes him brazen before some of the most revered men of this continent. She’s a free thinker and much more, an astute enterpreneur and an interviewer’s delight any day. She speaks on their romance, shared values among sundry issues.
You are the CEO of TASTEBUDZNG, how long have you been into food business?
I have been in the business for some time now but I’d say since around 2004/2005.
How is it going?
It’s been a wonderful journey for me because the food industry is very dynamic, very innovative and it’s something I’ve also had a passion for. Tastebudz is actually my second food company, the first was in Portharcourt (Dictachi Food company).
Is it still in existence?
No for now we have stopped production. It’s now TASTEBUDZNG.
Your knight in shining armour is a controversial personality, do people’s negativity towards him affect you?
No. I would say no because I know the truth, the real Freeze. I know the guy I’m with, he’s a great guy. He’s a good person.
Describe freeze in one word
He’s a very honest man. What you see is what you get with Freeze.
Do you like his expensive watches?
I love watches.
How many watches do you have?
Not as much as he has. But I do love watches
Do you support his “FREETHESHEEPLE MOVEMENT”?
Yes.110%!
How has the movement helped your relationship?
It has helped our relationship and our relationship has also helped the movement because I can tell you this has not been an easy journey for him so when he is down and feels like this thing he is doing is too heavy for him I am always there to tell him hey, you have to this, someone has to do this and the message has to be sent.
He’d described you as a very industrious woman. Do you ever get to rest at all?
Yes, I do get to rest with his help. Sometimes I just go on working and don’t even know when to stop and luckily for me I have him and he knows when to draw the line and say, hay look, you have to rest.
How has Freeze helped you heal from the ordeal and trauma from your previous marriage?
Freeze has been fundamental in my healing process because being with someone you love and someone that loves you so much like he loves me, makes me realise that we should have hope in life generally, we should not give up on love when we fail the first time because there is always a possibility that there is someone out there that is meant for you, there is someone that would love you just the way you want to be loved. Because I think the problem we have as individuals is, we fail to realise that we all want to be loved in a certain way, so if you find that person that loves you just the way you want to be loved, you are going to have a beautiful relationship. And I have found that with FREEZ, I’m very happy and it had really helped me in my healing process.
Have you met his ex-wife and the kids?
Unfortunately, I haven’t but I look forward to especially his kids because they are a part of him.
What’s the most difficult thing you have to deal with being Daddy Freeze’s wife?
For me it’s been wonderful, I have been happy. It’s not like we don’t have our differences every now and then but it’s so insignificant because we are like best friends. We spend a lot of time together and it’s been a wonderful journey. We are very happy and very peaceful.
How do you describe your typical day?
We wake up in the morning, we say our prayers and then I go sort the kids out then I attend to my clients and then I supervise to make sure we deliver on time then get home and make dinner for Daddy Freeze and wait for him to get home.
How do you deal with Freeze’s social media ordeal?
We just talk about it and sometimes have some glasses of wine and that’s it. We just call it a day.
Has Freeze paid your bride price?
It’s private. I wouldn’t want to talk about that because the matter is before the court.
Do you have any regret?
No regrets being with Freeze none at all.
Any regrets in life generally?
Initially, I used to regret ever being in my first marriage but then when I met Freeze, I realized that there is a good side to every bad situation because, if I wasn’t in a bad place, I wouldn’t have met Daddy Freeze.
What is your advice to people in abusive marriages?
Get up and leave that marriage irrespective of what family, friends are telling you or what the society expects of you. Your life is more important and you need to be happy as an individual. So get up and file for a divorce.
Would say you have found love again?
Yes, I have found love again.
Do you have to think before you answer?
I don’t have to think, I know I have found love again.
Would you back your answer with an action?
(They shared some rounds of kisses….)
