LAGOS, NIGERIA — It is just after 10 p.m. on a Friday, and more than 7,000 young Nigerians — some barefoot, many weeping — are still singing at the top of their lungs in an open field in Akure. There is no celebrity artist on stage. There is no band rider or ticket sales team. There is only a lean preacher in a white t-shirt, a Bible in one hand, and a call in his voice:
“We have not come to warm the benches of revival. We came to burn!”
This is Evangelist P. Daniel Olawande, also known simply as “P.Daniel.” And across Nigeria — and increasingly beyond — he is leading a movement some are calling Africa’s next youth awakening.
Born in Lagos, P. Daniel grew up in the densely populated Mushin area, known more for its street gangs than for its prayer meetings. His early years were marked by hardship, fatherlessness, and exposure to violence. However, during his teenage years, he encountered Christ through a local Scripture Union ministry and began preaching almost immediately, first in classrooms and then on street corners.
He went on to train as a pharmacist and was later ordained under the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) — but it was never the title that mattered.
“I didn’t want to be popular. I wanted to carry fire,” he said in a 2022 YouTube interview. “The kind that changes lives, not algorithms.”
In 2017, P. Daniel launched the Ablaze Movement, a youth-led revival ministry committed to “setting hearts on fire” through prayer, evangelism, discipleship, and intercession. What began as a 50-person prayer meeting now draws tens of thousands annually.
The ministry runs on a radical rhythm of prayer:
⦁ Midnight prayers (The Upper Room) — every day.
⦁ Monthly all-night vigils — open air.
⦁ 24-hour intercessory chains — spanning campuses, cities, and diaspora Zoom rooms.
His reach expanded with the Fire Nation Community and Campus Invasion project — deploying trained young evangelists to universities across Nigeria, Ghana, and now South Africa.
“We don’t want to be invited,” he tells his team. “We want to invade — with love, prayer, and the Word.”
While P. Daniel’s anointing is distinctly old-school, with echoes of Reinhard Bonnke and Apostle Babalola, his methods are contemporary. His teachings stream across YouTube, Instagram, and Mixlr, where thousands tune in daily. His reels don’t promote him; they capture raw moments of revival — healings, deliverance, spontaneous worship.
As of 2024:
⦁ Over 140,000 young people reached on campuses
⦁ Nearly 600 recorded salvations in street outreaches
⦁ Digital live streams reach 15+ countries weekly
Yet, he insists on accountability, remaining tethered to RCCG’s spiritual leadership and avoiding self-branding.
“You cannot carry fire and ego at the same time,” he once preached.
P. Daniel does not preach hype. His messages often centre on holiness, eternity, and the fear of God — topics many youth ministries sidestep.
“We’ve given a generation fun and fog machines. But what they crave is presence and power.”
At a time when youth culture is inundated with secular noise, his countercultural appeal is stark. He doesn’t chase virality — he fasts for burden. He doesn’t measure success in applause, but in transformed lives.
In a nation plagued by unemployment, church fatigue, and moral ambiguity, Evangelist P. Daniel is reintroducing urgency to evangelism — not just as a practice, but as a lifestyle.
“This is not a youth movement,” he often says. “It is a fire lineage.”
And for those who have tasted its flame, it feels less like a program, and more like the beginning of another Pentecost.
