By Femi Fani-Kayode
“Africans do not celebrate great men. They rather take delight in celebrating mediocre men. Africans happily destroy great men and if possible look for their mistakes to nail them. So sad that they destroyed Prophet T.B. Joshua on a daily basis. Finally, he has left them and what he was doing, they can’t do! Evil continent!”
– Prophet (Dr.) Emmanuel Badu Kobi, Glorious Wave Church International, Accra, Ghana.
Prophet Emmanuel Kobi has spoken the truth and he has spoken for millions. I commend his courage.
Sadly Pastor Kris Okotie of Household of God Church International has taken another course and confirmed Kobi’s concerns about the nature of the African.
Whilst the rest of the world is busy mourning Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua of the Synagogue of All Nations (SCOAN) and celebrating his outstanding ministry and legacy, Okotie has chosen to slander him in the most grievous manner even whilst his body still remains in the mortuary!
He has said the most uncharitable and unprintable things about the Prophet which I refuse to repeat here.
I am always reluctant to join issues publicly with men and women of God but Okotie’s insults on my friend and brother, who is no longer here to defend himself, are so grave and damaging that they cannot go unanswered.
My response to him is as follows.
I have always had so much respect and affection for you right from the days that we were at the Nigerian Law School in 1985.
Your life and ministry, including the beautiful songs you used to sing, fascinated and inspired me.
However with your vicious assault and utterly inexplicable, irresponsible and unprovoked attack on the person of TB Joshua, all that has gone with the wind. Today I have nothing but contempt, scorn and disdain for you and, simply put, I loathe and despise you.
To borrow our President’s words, I will now talk to you in the language that you can understand.
You mock my brother in death yet you appear to have forgotten that death comes to us all. It is only a matter of time. Evidently you have no respect for yourself and no fear of the Living God whom you claim to serve.
Even if you never liked TB Joshua or you had reason to suspect that his source of power was questionable, couldn’t you have just keep your mouth shut and let those of us that believed in him, loved him and respected him mourn him in peace?
You seek to villify and shame the memory of a humble, gentle, decent and kind soul who was a million times the man and servant of God that you are or could ever be and who has just gone to meet his maker.
You insult the memory of a man who was a great inspiration and source of strength to millions of God-fearing and decent people from all over the world and you have sought to dishonor and discredit his ministry, his memory, his family, his friends and his legacy. God will surely judge you for this.
As is characteristic of all cowards, waited until he died and was no longer around to defend himself, before you opened your little mouth to insult him.
The more you attempt to dishonour a man like TBJ and bring sorrow to his wife, children, admirers, followers and Church members all over the world the more God will cause you to suffer failure.
There are millions of us that love this great son of the South West and indeed Nigeria even though we are not even members of his Church. We admire him and stand by him even in death. You are not fit to lick his shoes or to clean his posterior.
I advise you to respect yourself and respect the office and calling which you claim to have. I counsel you to set aside your obsession with this great man and leave him alone.
You are meant to be a man of God who prays for and helps to heal the wounds of those who have suffered the loss of loved ones.
You are not meant to pour salt on those wounds and inflict even more pain by damning the memory and destroying the legacy of those they have lost.
You are also meant to pray for the forgiveness of the sins of the departed and call on the Lord to grant them eternal peace.
You are not meant to ask God to punish them and ask for them to burn in hell.
What you have done and the words you have used against TBJ is a great embarrassment to the Church, to every Christian and Muslim cleric and leader in this county and to every true believer.
It is a disgrace. It is an outrage. It is madness. It is evidence of a diseased mind, deep psychosis and chronic delusions of grandeur .
Even the greatest sinner, once repented, deserves God’s love, mercy and forgiveness in death. That is what the glorious Gospel teaches us and that is why our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, shed His blood on the cross.
None of us is free of sin and we all fall short of the glory of God. You are not perfect and neither am I. We must all carry our crosses and burdens through this oftentimes difficult journey of life and more often than not we all face extraordinary challenges and make inexcusable mistakes.
That is what makes us human and ultimately only God has the right to judge us. Only He sees our hearts. Only He knows our deepest secrets.
TBJ, though a tried and tested man of God who shook the entire world with his remarkable ministry and who was undoubtedly one of God’s ‘end-time’ Generals, never claimed that he was a Saint or that he was infallible and neither can you, me or anyone else.
We must all repent and make our peace with our God before our life’s journey ends and we must do so in the fear of our Lord and in all humility.
TBJ has run his race and finished his course and I have no doubt that he has been welcomed into paradise by the hosts of Heaven and our God.
I have no doubt that he would have received a massive commendation for the great work that he did for the Lord and the Church whilst on earth.
I have no doubt that the Lord would have thanked him for the millions of souls that he brought into the Kingdom and led to Christ in his 40 years of ministry.
I have no doubt that he now resides in glory with our Resurrected Lord in the peace, comfort, blessing and joy of Heaven.
The question for people who seek to diminish, destroy and judge him even in death is whether they will ever get to Heaven as well or whether, when your work on earth is done, they will end up in hell where every son and daughter of perdition, every unrepentant servant of satan and every hater and wicked soul is destined to go.
Permit me to end with an insightful contribution from Mr. Igho David which you would do well to read over and over again. He said,
“Even the demonic Jezebeel described the great Jehu, who God had anointed to be King of Israel, as a murderer and all sorts of other names. Yet in reality she was rather the murderer, thief, liar, evil and possessed one and she was the one that was controlled by the demons that her father had dedicated her to and served. Jezebeel was damn eloquent when she spoke about Jehu just like Pastor Chris Okotie was when he spoke against Prophet TB Joshua even at his death. The spirit of Jezebeel doesn’t just mean a loose, lying, wicked, hate-filled, manipulative and murderous woman with heavy make-up on her face and long painted nails. The spirit of Jezebeel can possess and control even Pastors that are called by God”.
I concur.
Finally hear this. Before you mount your pulpit, and lift your pen to launch yet another vicious and unprovoked attack against an innocent and kind soul who did nothing but make all those around him happy and who has just passed away, I urge you to meditate on the following scriptures.
The Bible says, “let he who is free of sin cast the first stone”.
It says “touch not my annointed and do my Prophets no harm”.
It says “who is he that lays a charge before God’s elect? It is Christ that justifies!”
For a celebrated man of God like you to neglect these admonitions is a grave error which may result in unimaginable consequences for you and what remains of your ministry.
Christianity is about being humane, kind, charitable, gentle, long-suffering and humble.
It is about having empathy for the weak, the suffering, the vulnerable and those that are in pain.
It is about loving the unlovable and forgiving those that have hurt and offended you.
It is about kindness, peace, long-suffering and the ability and desire to bring joy to all those around you.
It is about celebrating and encouraging the success of others that are leaders and members of the Body of Christ and it is about protecting the mother Church from ridicule, shame, contempt and destruction from those who hate our Lord and who have contempt for our faith.
These are virtues and qualities that Prophet T.B. Joshua espoused and exhibited throughout his life.
Any so-called man or woman of God who fails to appreciate these virtues, who refuses to acknowledge and practice them and who goes out of his or her way to destroy the reputation, name and Ministry of his or her fellow clerics or, worse still, that of one of God’s ‘end-time’ Generals, is nothing is unworthy of being called a servant of God and is nothing but scum.
Such a creature is an enemy within, an accuser of the brethren, an agent of Beelzebub.
May God deliver you and may you find peace.
- Chief Femi Fani-Kayode who is the Sadaukin Shinkafi, was a former Minister of Aviation and former Minister of Culture and Tourism