Prophet TB Joshua
June 6, 2021
No church has touched my family’s life more than Synagogue through Prophet Joshua,” exclaimed a woman who identified herself as Bimbo, adding “this man has done so much not only for me but for many others that I know.”
Tributes have continued to pour in for popular Nigerian preacher, TB Joshua, one of Africa’s most influential televangelists, who died at the age of 57, barely one week to his 58th birthday.
More popular by the prefix, Prophet, he was the leader and founder of The Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), a mega-church with parishes across the world especially in Asia and South America. The church runs the Emmanuel TV television station from its Lagos headquarters.
At the church premises, members were in tears with some weeping inconsolably as news of his passing was confirmed to them. While some members described him as the god they see, others extolled his humanitarian acts which has seen him donate food and cash to the less privileged.
“No church has touched my family’s life more than Synagogue through Prophet Joshua,” exclaimed a woman who identified herself as Bimbo, adding “this man has done so much not only for me but for many others that I know.”
Another tearful member who identified himself as Martin Okorie, a businessman, ascribed the growth of his business to the many prayers and prophecies of “God’s servant.”
He described Prophet Joshua as different from other men of God. “He never made himself unavailable. He lived among the poor, connected with the poor and gave his best to the poor.”
A post on his Facebook page, which has more than five million followers, said: “God has taken His servant”.
Joshua was said to have died on Saturday shortly after conducting a live broadcast, but the cause of his death has not been made public. Family members including his daughter have confirmed the death.
No pronouncement has been made about his successor, an area many feared would rake-up trouble in the church which structured revolved around Prophet Joshua.
The Lagos-based prophet has been a man of controversies especially with his weird healing methods and confessions of his former followers and workers, most of whom accused him of magic and voodoo.
In April, YouTube suspended his account over allegations of hate speech against gay people. A rights group filed a complaint over trending videos showing Joshua conducting prayers to deliver gay people, whom he said were possessed of a strange spirit.
