Controversy continues to trail the name of one of Nigeria’s most controversial clergymen even in death, Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua, popular as TB Joshua, as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) releases videos that claim that he was a fake prophet, and ran a secret cult in the name of a church
By Charles Uzoma
Whether alive or dead, the name, Temitope Balogun Joshua, popular as TB Joshua, continues to resonate controversy. Thus, the name TB Joshua meant different things to different people. To some, he was a godly man sent by God to propagate the message of His soon to be established kingdom on earth. In the estimation of this group, TB Joshua was a saint who represented love, kindness, healer and true man of God.
To another group he meant a miracle worker by whatever means he acquired his power to conduct miracles. Yet to some other group TB Joshua was a fake pastor and prophet, a deceiver and trickster who acquired diabolical powers to hypnotize his adherents and manipulate them to regard him as their god.
TB Joshua was the self-styled pastor in charge of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) located in the Alimosho area of Lagos State Nigeria. Inside the latest group was found among others the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and another clergy of Nigerian extraction, pastor Chris Okotie of the Household of God fame.
The regulatory body for broadcasting in Nigeria, NBC never believed in TB Joshua’s ministry and miracles as coming from God. The NBC had thought that the miracles TB Joshua performed and showcased on television stations were fake miracles and stage managed. So, for TB Joshua and other miracle performing clergymen of his style, the NBC had in 2004 banned the broadcast of miracles on television screens because it had estimated that the miracles were mostly fake and deceitful.
The PFN, on its part blatantly refused to admit the SCOAN promoter to its fold after the body had taken a thorough study of the modus operandi of TB Joshua which it estimated to have gone contrary to the principles of Christian faith. But a member of PFN, Okotie, had at a point engaged in campaign of calumny against TB Joshua and his SCOAN, insisting that the overseer of SCOAN and his ministry were fake ministry. For this reason TB Joshua operated a solo ministry which never got affiliated with the PFN.
Yet, all the de-marketing of SCOAN and its promoter did not lift a hair off TB Joshua’s thick skin as he trudged on without looking back. The more he was vilified and castigated by his detractors, the more adherents the ministry attracted. Even nationals from the country of his current detractor, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the United Kingdom (UK), South Africa, Indonesia, Ghana, Liberia, Cameroon among others found SCOAN a place of succor in the midst of the controversies that surrounded TB Joshua and his church.
When it was obvious that the NBC had rejected him, the man whose church’s slogan is, “Emmanuel”, went ahead to establish his church’s own television station and named it Emmanuel Television which he used in reaching out to his numerous adherents across the world, showcasing his Nigeria’s outlawed miracles, as well as his church services.
However, the unfortunate happened to TB Joshua and his church on September 12, 2014. He never recovered from it till his death seven years after. The ugly incident that claimed the life of over 115 adherents, was an eye opener to numerous SCOAN worshippers that the man they regarded as their messiah sent from God could be a fake pastor as alleged by many due to the controversies that surrounded the incident.
A guesthouse located directly opposite the church and reserved mainly for the elite members of the SCOAN, on that fateful day collapsed from top to bottom. Out of the over 115 people who lost their lives in the collapse, 84 were South African nationals. The handling of the building collapse by TB Joshua betrayed his genuineness as a pastor. According to numerous accounts, TB Joshua allegedly engaged in ritual by preventing rescue workers of the church from moving in promptly to rescue those trapped in the rubbles. It was alleged that he had initially ordered, inexplicably, that the gates of the guesthouse be shut when the building collapsed. Many eye witness accounts had alleged that if prompt attention was given to those trapped, many of them might have been rescued alive.
Again, TB Joshua had allegedly bribed journalists not to report the true picture of what happened but to slant their report to cover up in favour of SCOAN. Many of the members perceived the action as inhuman and left the church. On its part, the Lagos State government which investigated the building collapse and claimed it was built on a faulty foundation without government approval, failed to carry out diligent prosecution of the offenders, including TB Joshua himself, fueling the suspicion that there was more secret between the Lagos State government and TB Joshua than what the eyes could see. TB Joshua never went to court until the case fizzled out.
But TB Joshua never recovered from the building collapse which devastated him and his church until he died seven years after in 2021 at the age of 57.
Even in death, and in his grave, TB Joshua appears not to have had any rest from his alleged heinous crimes against humanity which revolve around lies, deceit, fake miracles aimed at deception, rape, unbridled sexual immorality, ritual killings and hypnotism. Controversy seems to be chasing TB Joshua around in the grave, and would not allow him a moment rest. If the dead could talk, TB Joshua may be shouting for help and relief.
For, less than three years after he passed on, the BBC, a popular western broadcasting network, has begun to dug up, in series of video recordings, alleged atrocities committed by the late Nigerian clergyman. But the church authority in a feeble reaction has disputed the BBC claims, instead arguing that “Making unfounded allegations against prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence, none of the allegations was ever substantiated”, SCOAN which is now being led by the wife of TB Joshua, is unarguably in turmoil, especially since the release of those damning videos by the BBC.
The BBC Africa Eye report insisted that the late Nigerian televangelist, TB Joshua, faked miracles within his SCOAN. In its report, the BBC stated that it had uncovered a web of deceptive practices allegedly employed by the late Nigerian televangelist to fabricate miracles and listed six ways the late church leader allegedly faked miracles.
According to BBC, it reached out to SCOAN with the allegations but received no response, although the church denied previous claims against Joshua.
SCOAN said, “Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence. None of the allegations was ever substantiated.” the church had insisted.
But BBC Africa said that the investigation, which received inputs from more than 25 insiders across various countries, sheds light on a series of deceptive tactics employed within SCOAN.
The investigation, which was published on BBC Eye Website early January, alleged that Joshua, was a fraud.
The BBC documentary detailed six ways through which TB Joshua allegedly deceived worshippers, noting that these discoveries came from those who worked with the late church leader.
