TB Joshua shares sombre message on 5th anniversary of SCOAN building collapse

Exactly five years after the tragic collapse of a guesthouse at The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), Pastor T.B. Joshua has honoured the 'blessed memory' of those who died in the incident with a thought-provoking message.

On September 12th 2014, 115 people lost their lives in the horrific building collapse, 84 of them South African nationals visiting The SCOAN for religious reasons.

"A Christian does not consider death to be his end but the end of his trouble,"the cleric eulogised in a special broadcast on Emmanuel TV in commemoration of the anniversary.

Joshua stressed the inevitability of death, adding that a person's age or the nature of their demise were not the critical issue. "What matters is the grace to continue living hereafter,"he said.

Waxing philosophical, Joshua asked viewers to be introspective as they remember the dark day.

"How are you spending your life," he reflectively asked. "Because the greatest way to use life is to spend it on something that will outlive it – for instance, to love someone more dearly every day."

Joshua called on his followers to proactively engage in helping others, stressing that "when you look around you", you would assuredly find those "in need of your love, help, strength and time."

He concluded with a sober reminder: "Live each day as if it were your last. Someday, you will be right."

Despite the passing of five years, the controversy surrounding the cause of the deadly collapse remains, further induced by the attendant court case stuck in a seemingly endless legal quagmire.

The SCOAN still insists the church was 'attacked', pointing to a military plane which encircled the ill-fated building several times before its implosion.

The incident, however, has done little to quell the flow of foreign pilgrims to Joshua's church with numbers from the Nigerian immigration service estimating six in every ten tourists to Nigeria are bound for The SCOAN.

Ihechukwu Njoku is a freelance Nigerian journalist

VIDEO: TB Joshua fires back over controversial Sierra Leone testimony

 

 

After news was widely circulated that a Sierra Leonean government official was ‘sacked’ following her testimony at T.B. Joshua’s church, the Nigerian cleric has responded by releasing a video of the lady’s controversial testimony.

 

International media outlets such as CNN reported the story of Mrs Fatmata Edna Kargbo, the Chief Protocol Officer of President Julius Maada Bio, whose testimony of ‘God’s blessings in her life’ after visiting Joshua’s church in Lagos, Nigeria, sparked public concern in Sierra Leone.

 

Kargbo was invited for questioning by the nation’s anti-corruption agency after insinuations were rife at the speed of her apparent rise in wealth.

 

However, Joshua’s television channel, Emmanuel TV, released the video of Kargbo’s actual testimony, which she shared on Sunday 21stJuly 2019.

 

According to Kargbo, after visiting The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) – “the house I constructed for 10 years without finishing – in exactly 14 years, I was able to complete it through the grace of God!”

 

This contradicts the narrative implied by most media reports that the Sierra Leonean politician amassed excessive finances within the short timeframe of her appointment as Bio’s Chief Protocol Officer in April 2018.

 

The clip released on Emmanuel TV also paints Kargbo as a patriotic figure who championed the cause of her nation during the deadly Ebola outbreak in the nation in 2014.

 

A letter from then President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma to Joshua, requesting his assistance in the nation to battle the deadly virus, is revealed, alongside a donation of $50,000 to Sierra Leone and 4,000 bottles of ‘Anointing Water’ to help curb the spread of the disease.

 

Kargbo reveals she personally received the gifts from Joshua – which were sent in a private jet chartered to the tune of $50,000 – and ensured they reached the affected areas, claiming that the regions where the ‘water’ reached were later declared Ebola free.

 

Although most media reports claimed Kargbo had been ‘sacked’ from her job, a statement from the presidential office indicated she had only been placed on leave pending the outcome of the corruption investigation.

 

Ihechukwu Njoku is a freelance Nigerian journalist

Why Does The Media Always Misrepresent TB Joshua?

Writing By Gordon Anderson

On Saturday 10thAugust 2019, I read a report in Zimbabwe’s Herald Newspaper alleging the Southern African nation’s Belgium-based football captain Knowledge Musona was set to undergo surgery for a nagging ankle injury that has dogged his career for several years. My attention was drawn because headlines were rife several months earlier of Musona’s public testimony in The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) in which he stated this ankle injury was healed after prayer at the well-known ministry of T.B. Joshua. Skeptics and cynics understandably capitalized on the news of his ‘impending operation’ to tout their adverse assertions about ‘miracles’ and paint Joshua’s ministry in a condescending light.

Merely hours later however, a fuming Musona took to his Twitter account to debunk the story, reaffirm his good health and decry the lies being unrepentantly peddled in the media. “I am not having ankle problems and I am not having an operation on my ankle! Please get your facts right first and stop writing false articles about me,” he angrily wrote to Robson Sharuko, the article’s author. However, reading between the lines, Knowledge was not the target of this flagrant falsehood – T.B. Joshua was. Musona’s story is just one of countless examples where the media have grossly misrepresented the cleric, choosing sensationalism over soundness, fiction over fact and bigotry over reality.

Last month, I saw a scandalous headline on Google News: ‘How Pastor TB Joshua Raped Me – Another Nigerian Woman Speaks’. The source was PM News, a Nigerian evening newspaper turned online outfit. A quick read revealed a clearly malicious attempt to drag Joshua’s name into the current quagmire of prominent pastors accused of sexual misconduct. The lady in question did not directly mention T.B. Joshua’s name and earlier articles suggested her sexual predator was actually a ‘prophet’ from the Celestial Church.

Merely hours later, PM News retracted their initial story and issued an apology, stating: “The reference to TB Joshua is regretted.” Shortly afterwards, the lady at the center of the scandal, Vicki Royce, tweeted: “Please media, stop accusing pastors. TB Joshua is NOT THE ONE!” She later admitted – after tales of her ‘running mad’ surfaced on social media – that she was ‘paid’ to formulate the story against the Nigerian cleric. But the ‘damage’ had been done. Casual observers glancing at headlines had already formulated ill-informed conclusions and multiple blogs had reposted the initial story with all defamatory details in place. Shortly afterwards, more Nigerian media jumped on the bandwagon to propagate wild claims of a lady named Bisola who made similarly brazen allegations – despite video evidence she previously apologized for her ‘lies’ against Joshua and admitted to mental instability...READ MORE