Oluwole Edun is a retired Director in the Federal Civil Service. He started his career as one of the pioneer staff of the Central Planning Department of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 1980 after graduating in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ife (now O.A.U) in
1979.

In 1995, he was appointed a Special Assistant to the Hon. Minister of State, Agriculture. In 2006, he was appointed a Technical Advisor to the one time Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, who eventually became the Head of Service of the Federation. In 2008, he was among those head-hunted to start the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs as Deputy Director (Policy and Planning).
In 2011, he was deployed as a Director to head the Office of the Millennium Development Goals (Presidency) under the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President (OSSAP) on MIDGs. On the final curve of his career in the Federal Civil Service, he was in late 2011 deployed as a pioneer Director of Planning, Research and Statistics to the then newly created Ministry of Communication Technology where he was involved, among many other things, in crafting a National Policy for Communication Technology in 2012/2013. He was also a board member of the Galaxy Back Bone company which is a parastatal of the Ministry.

Apart from Universities of Ife and Olabisi Onabanjo University; he is also a product of Universities of London, Bradford and the Global Training Consultancy Institute, all in England. Since he retired from Government Service, over ten years ago, he has been the Managing Partner of Refstren Consult Ltd, a Management, Training, Agricultural and General Consultancy Firm. He is an Assistant Pastor in RCCG. He recently turned 70 and shared his thoughts about his new age.

Q. Now that you are 70 years old, looking back at your life, are there things you would rather do differently?

A: Attaining the age of 70 is a privilege and is by the grace of God. Recent studies indicated that only 43% of humanity worldwide live up to the age of 70. This figure was even 33% as about 20 years ago, so it is a thing to thank God for. 
Looking back these 70 years, the only thing I would have done differently was to have given my life to Christ much earlier. I gave my life to Christ at the age of 38 after a wilderness experience of losing my son. In hindsight, I should have given my life to Christ at the age of 19 when I gained admission to the university.

Q. What things still matter to you at 70?
A: At 70, the major thing that matters to me is to make Heaven, to keep using every opportunity to propagate the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and impacting lives.

Q. Which ones don’t matter?
A: Acquisition of material things don’t matter to me again at this age. I have some clothes in my wardrobe that I’ve not worn in 5 years. However I still desire material things that will help propagate the work of God like financial resources and a good car to easily move around.

Q. Has your new age colored your perspective to life ?
A: My new age has not changed anything about my perspective of life. Age is just a number and is left to individual perception. Christ is the foundation of our attitude and disposition to life.

Q. What can’t you tolerate in life?
A: I cannot tolerate mediocrity, laziness and insincerity.

Q. You’re very agile and cerebral. What’s the secret?
A: My being agile and cerebral is by the grace and mercy of God. I however do the needful; I read a lot, pray and exercise. I love to read peoples biographies in order to learn from them.

Q. Do you workout? What’s your exercise regiment like?
A: I do workout. Averagely I do about 12,000 steps a day. My record was 17,000 steps.

Q. What is your guiding philosophy?
A:  My guiding philosophy principally is to do the will and follow the principles of God. As I do this all other things will fall in place.

Q. You’re a Christian. Please share your salvation experience
A: My salvation experience started in 1993, September 5th precisely when I gave my life to Christ in Lagos. It was the aftermath of a wilderness experience of losing my first son who died on 3rdSeptember 1993. From then I started experiencing the newness of God in my life. The first thing I experienced was that fear disappeared from my life

Q. How has your faith helped you to navigate the vicissitudes of life
A: My faith as a Christian has helped me tremendously to navigate the vicissitudes of life. The popular psalm 1: 1-3, was a great spiritual eye opener for me in the early days of my Christian life.
1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; AND WHATSOEVER HE DOETH SHALL PROSPER.