Many Sins Of Pastor TB Joshua

As a posthumous honour, that title sits well on Pastor Temitope Balogun Joshua like his Afro hair. In the light of recent revelations resulting from a thorough Investigative report by the BBC Africa Eye, the founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations was a master manipulator who cast a spell on those who knelt before him.

On their feet, they marveled at the miracles he could perform. Even from a distance, they wondered at how much he knew, how – at a stretch of his hands – all manner of affliction will simply disappear from a diseased body.

And the afflicted came in their thousands from all over the world, the UK, Korea, South Africa, Germany, Uganda. At least two sitting presidents of African countries made a pilgrimage to genuflect before the man of God. One or two Nollywood has-beens rolled from one end to the other on the tiled floor of his magnificent church at Ikotun Lagos.

Others came on recommendation from some who visited for a miracle cure. “Once you see him,” they reassured the infirm in body and soul, “you’re as good as cured.”

To say that thousands and thousands of worshippers at SCOAN were besotted with TB Joshua is an understatement. Men were grateful to run errands for him – no matter how lowly.

Agomoh Paul, a sort of Man Friday and second in command called his principal a genius, a man who planned everything in detail and he never ever failed, whether in his sham miracles or the women he seduced.

Women – of all nations – dotted on his every word. With his beguiling smile and genial manner reminiscent of a family doctor, TB Joshua passed himself off as a physician of the body and soul to many of his followers. They believed him.

But his public persona of an avuncular philanthropist and all round healer was totally at variance with the private man.
From the confessions and revelations of dozens of women interviewed by the Beeb, the picture emerging is that of a sex fiend who had his way whether the women in question liked it or not. It has also been disclosed he had a predilection for virgins procured for him by a team of scouts at his service.

Bisola a Nigerian lady claimed TB Joshua raped her serially, resulting in abortions.

A worse fate befell some of them who were subjected to psychological torture and physical abuse. Rae, a Briton, was about the same age as the girl from Southern Africa when she made a trans-Atlantic flight from London in 2012 to SCOAN to meet Joshua. It was the beginning of a sex ordeal and captivity she never ever imagined. Hoping for paradise in Joshua’s church for all nations, Rae found instead hell in the private hands of the very man she had idolized, the very man she’d seen as a cure to her ailment.

She was gay and so she wanted to be normal. TB Joshua literally turned her into a sex slave.

Speaking of the ugly turn of events, Rae’s friend, Carla, told the Beeb that she failed to rescue her friend.
“I left her there,” says Carla, tears flowing freely. “Never will I ever forgive myself for that. For me, it was like she died, but I couldn’t grieve her.”

There have been similarly disturbing testimonies from other victims of the man of God. “More than 25 eyewitnesses and alleged victims, from the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, US, South Africa and Germany, have provided accounts of what it was like inside Joshua’s compound, with the most recent experiences in 2019.
“Testimony from dozens of survivors suggests Joshua was abusing and raping young women from around the world several times a week for nearly 20 years” and “many of the victims said it happened frequently – as much as two to four times a week – for the duration of their time in the compound. Some described violent rapes which left them struggling to breathe or bleeding.”

Unsurprisingly, the scandal swirling around the late preacher has been trending ever since it broke yesterday.

It has also elicited criticism from Netizens. Former Minister of Aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has spoken in support of the late preacher, panning the BBC documentary. Some others have seen through the sham preachers like Joshua are for taking advantage of gullible worshippers.

To be sure, the TB Joshua sex scandal isn’t the first time televangelists will be involved in such mess. There was the case of Jimmy Swaggart and Jimmy Baker. Back in the seventies Reverend Jimmy Jones encouraged his disciples to commit mass suicide in a Guyanese forest.

For some inexplicable reasons, supposed men of God have always had a peculiar hold over those who go to them for succor. Along the line, they sexually exploit their vulnerability. TB Joshua’s is just one of the many atrocities supposed men of God commit.

Reacting to the report, Public Affairs Director of SCOAN, Dare Adejumo, said BBC has clearly “harmed its own reputation through its compromised and unprofessional journalism.”

He said, “BBC has compromised these lofty principles by descending into fictional narratives and propaganda, thus turning itself into a weapon for a hatchet job as gangsters in the gab of journalism with a destructive ulterior motive for personal gains against a perceived enemy.

“This to say the least, is insulting to our professional and public intelligence.
One thing is very obvious, hundreds of BBC charades cannot rubbish the indelible footprints of TB Joshua’s legacies on earth again.”

According to the Church, there are numerous individuals who have experienced astonishing miracles and greatly benefited from the anointing and grace bestowed upon them by the Lord through TB Joshua.

It said these beneficiaries can be found everywhere, and their existence cannot be disputed.

SCOAN observed that many of the individuals reside in the UK, which is the home base of BBC. It, however, expressed regret that the biased investigative eyes of BBC fail to acknowledge their presence and instead rely on obviously biased narrators.