By Tiko Okoye
The proliferation of fake news and fabricated fables have long caused me to withdraw from virtually all media platforms – with the exception of my Facebook account. This explained why I didn’t get to notice when the news first went viral on social media platforms – even then I still won’t have swallowed the news hook, line, and sinker.
I’m speaking of the death of Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua, the founder and General Overseer of one of Nigeria’s mega churches called the Synagogue Church of All Nations (aka SCOAN). It was a report very difficult to accept on face value simply because Prophet Joshua, more famously known as T.B. Joshua, loomed much larger than life and death!
It wasn’t until when a neighbour drew my attention to a public announcement that was displayed on SCOAN’s official Twitter handle that I realized that the morbid joke was on me.
Four factors caused the highly popular cleric to stand out from the crowd: his prophecies, his healing ministry, his philanthropy, and the controversies that dogged him.
Prophet Joshua’s prophecies included deaths of political leaders, air crashes, national disasters, and winners of electoral contests in Africa, Europe, and America. His spiritual healing techniques raised eyebrows in several quarters but they were very effective, drawing thousands of miracle-seekers from across the globe to SCOAN’s sprawling international headquarters at Ikotun, a suburb of Lagos.
The diverse miracles he wrought were positively complemented by his equally great philanthropic acts. A Forbes blogger estimated that he spent about $20 million on education, healthcare, and rehabilitation schemes for Niger Delta militants. It was also reported that he has spent millions – if not billions – of naira on multitudes of students from primary to tertiary education since the programme commenced nearly two decades ago.
And what still remains to be said about his highly celebrated rescue and recovery missions both at home and abroad – the Haiti earthquake disaster and the Philippine tsaunami, among so many others. In quite a number of them, an agency of his ministry was among the first responders on the ground.
And then the litany of controversies that dogged his life and ministry. The spiff between him and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was most virulent when Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor held sway as the national president.
Who can easily forget the two famous questions the CAN president kept urging concerned Nigerians to demand answers from Prophet Joshua: (1) What is his born-again testimony? (2) Which Bible school did he attend/where did he receive formal training as a member of the Clergy?
But Prophet Joshua remained as silent as the grave throughout the period, preferring instead to let his work do the talking for him. During the same period, any minister of the Gospel that had an amiable working relationship with Prophet Joshua was equally tackled by the CAN high command and denominational head pastors aligned with their stance.
Most Nigerians would easily recall the gripping in-your-face spat on national TV between the two Chrises – Rev. Chris of the Household of God, a tag team member of CAN, and Pastor Chris of Christ Embassy, a latter-day ally of Prophet Joshua, although it was also being rumoured that the real cause of the altercations centred on an ownership struggle over a posh plot of real estate in their Ikeja precincts.
Unlike Pastor Oritsejafor, I never thought any less of Prophet Joshua on account of his not attending a Bible/theological school because the likes of Apostle Paul never did, yet see the impact he made on Christendom.
Be that as it may, it was still very hard for me to rid my memory of several of the seemingly unorthodox practices and rituals Prophet Joshua engaged in as he started his ministry work on a sand-filled plot of land along the Igando/Iyana-Oba expressway.
A controversy arose early in his ministry when it was alleged that Prophet Joshua was preaching that Jesus wasn’t the son of God, but a prophet and a special messenger – a view very much in sync with Koranic teaching. This possibly raised question marks over his true Christian state as the divinity of Jesus as the second person in the Trinity or Godhead is a sacrosanct Christian doctrine.
The allegation – if indeed it was true – may possibly explain why he was initially calling himself Emmanuel in a manner that allowed his followers to deify him as Jesus Christ. And on the number of times he was asked point-blank if he was Jesus, he simply parleyed the question and refrained from unambiguously answering it and clearing the air.
In 2014, a high rise building within the complex collapsed, killing at least 115 persons, mostly foreigners. But the caustic reaction by the South African government – majority of victims were South Africans – did very little to stem the traffic to Nigeria.
Prophet Joshua notably refused to appear before the panel established by the Lagos State Government to probe the calamity – not even the threats of the coroner to throw the full weight of the law at him caused a change of attitude.
My first and only encounter with Prophet Joshua occurred in 2010 when, as a columnist and member of the editorial board of the Daily Independent newspaper, I had written a birthday tribute in his honour. About 10 o’clock that morning (June 12), I received a phone call from someone who simply announced himself as “The man in the Synagogue.”
My reflex response was “Yeah, and I’m the king of England!” But the caller persisted until I accepted his invite to pay him a curtsy visit. A majority of my colleagues and associates advised me not to endanger my wellbeing by honoring the invite as they perceived it much in the same manner as the fabled weak, old lion sitting at a cave entrance and luring prospective preys into its den!
It was with great trepidation – somewhat balanced by mounting curiosity – that I made a detour later in the evening to Ikotun from Ogba enroute to my home at Okota. I was directed to his office on the second floor upon my arrival. I met an informally dressed middle-aged man in what seemed like a secretary’s office, and I naturally inquired if he could take my details inside to the prophet to announce my presence.
I received one of the greatest shocks of my life when the ‘secretary’ standing in the ante office told me in a very quiet voice: “I am he whom you seek.” And his simply furnished office only confirmed his humility and contempt for materialistic showoff, knowing how other founders in his position carried themselves.
As I was rounding up my tour, I ran into a beautiful light-skinned lady on the ground floor walking all by herself. The pastor detailed to show me around the huge edifice explained to me in a low voice that “She’s Igbo and the wife of the prophet.” Incredible! No PA nor security guards nor throng of eye-pleasers!
After an extensive tour of the facilities that included the studios of the wave-making Emmanuel TV and the new high rise building where foreign guests paid in American dollars for accommodation, feeding and ministry materials, Prophet Joshua offered to give me bags of rice which I rejected on the grounds that I didn’t bring my car.
He countered that a ministry vehicle will convey me and the bags of rice to my house. I again rejected the offer on the grounds that I lived alone and had no need for bags of rice. He again countered that I could donate them to the needy around me.
But I stood my ground. I must, however, confess that the stories I had heard of how people have been hypnotized after ingesting water or food emanating from SCOAN caused me to be very wary. If Prophet Joshua sensed that such ruinous gossips were driving my serial rejections of his offer, he neither showed it in his voice nor mien.
At the end of the day, he asked me to pick any gift from the bookstore, and I chose the latest electronic Bible. Before I finally departed, Prophet Joshua furnished me with four GSM numbers that would enable me reach him on a 24/7 basis. He also invited me to attend one of the Sunday services as a special guest – an offer I now very much regret not taking up.
It would be a total repudiation of the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and the selfless love espoused by Christian doctrine if the officials of CAN and fathers of faith that had an axe to grind with Prophet Joshua in the past choose to act as if nothing has happened or – worst still – make uncomplimentary remarks unworthy of their calling.
They mustn’t forget that at a similar scenario had played out at a certain time in the ministry of Jesus. Mark 9:38-40: “And John answered (Jesus), saying: ‘Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us; and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Forbid him not; for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part.'”
With the exception of Jesus, every other vessel is anointed in progressive degrees. And rather than being churlish and arrogantly dismissive, the holder of a candlelight ought to be meek enough to first ascertain why the holder of a big rechargeable lantern is seeing what he is claiming to see. This is very deep!
Here’s hoping that CAN and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) will do the needful even though he wasn’t a member of both associations – not by design but because they won’t admit him. Let them meditate over the words of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ: “If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?”
A great iroko tree has indeed transited and only God knows how crestfallen the vast majority of SCOAN members around the globe – particularly in East and South Africa, the Caribbeans, Eastern Europe, and Latin America – must be. And the many past and incumbent presidents and political leaders from many nations who adored him would also sorely miss him.
Prophet Joshua was a worthy successor to Archbishop Benson Idahosa as the greatest televangelist Nigeria has ever produced (Televangelism is the brand of showmanship preaching on the electronic media majorly crafted by celebrated American clerics).
Prophet Joshua did far more to propagate Nigeria in positive light than any other individual or organization. If a national disaster occurred in South America, or Asia, you could count on Emmanuel TV and SCOAN to be among the first to provide much-needed succour and comfort by way of relief materials and prayers.
Foreigners were pouring into Nigeria in droves on account of religious pilgrimage-cum-tourism, generating substantial amounts of foreign exchange to the national coffers. He even converted the swampy morass at Ikotun into a wonderland on the scale of Disney theme parks.
According to Scriptures, “A tree is known by its fruits…A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things.” So let it be with Prophet Joshua. Truth is that if you add up all the funds successive Nigerian governments have purportedly spent on foreign lobbyists and rebranding programmes, it would pale in significance against the contributions of Prophet Joshua and SCOAN if they could be valued in monetary terms.
Irrespective of the fact that he had already received a national honour, I very strongly appeal to the Buhari administration to quickly move to confer a posthumous high national honour – not less than Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) – on Prophet Joshua for “highly meritous services rendered to the nation and humanity.”
May Almighty God grant his family, SCOAN members, as well as the government and citizens of Nigeria, in particular, and Christendom in general, the fortitude and wisdom to bear the irreparable loss.
Prophet Tee-Bee, you were humble in life but proudly triumphant in death. May your soul rest in perfect peace and your memory continue to be a huge blessing to all you left behind until Resurrection morning in Jesus name.
Tiko Okoye is a banker and writer
tkooziks@gmail.com
