At the onset of his Christian ministry, the general perception that Pastor Temitope Balogun Joshua tried to give about his Lagos-based Synagogue Church of Nations assembly was a place where there could be healing for the sick and those seeking a reconnection with God, but different BBC Africa Eye documentary interviews have revealed that all was a ruse to achieve massive enslavement of white people.

This, according to the BBC, was the grand plan that the televangelist had in mind all along when he started to attract foreigners – mainly Europeans from Great Britain and also Americans – to his home country Nigeria where he desired to hold them in perpetuity under his service instead of God’s.

Although the alleged ruse was kept a secret throughout his life as a prominent spiritualist, two years after his death, details of atrocities committed under his stewardship soon started to be revealed. The accounts were given by those he had appointed as disciples, all who saw their lives bound to T.B. Joshua’s will, and who couldn’t see a way out of what they are not recollecting as their time being part of a cult.

One man, a disciple, named Godwill Agomoh Paul saw everything unfold. Through his witness account, what was considered the true motive of this powerful pastor was revealed.

“When you talk of loyalty, I gave him all,” Paul told the BBC Africa Eye report. Due to this extreme loyalty to his pastor, he had to forgo his passion for “my relatives, my siblings, my father, my mother” to fulfil his commitment to the late pastor. In retrospect, all now brings a feeling of regret and being used.

Through his close association with Pastor T.B. Joshua, he understood that the spiritual leader had a premeditated agenda to subject white people from all over the world to his control. It was his justified revenge for a similar slavery of his race that took place over 400 years ago in the hands of white colonisers.

It was the fear of experiencing fatal breast cancer disease which led to her mother’s passing that motivated British citizen Anneka to visit the Synagogue Church of Nations, and ever since then, her life changed forever. She dedicated close to a decade of her life to the church having found an unprecedented sense of purpose that made her think that Pastor T.B Joshua was the next good thing after Jesus Christ.

Part of the BBC Africa Eye documentary showed the entourages of white foreigners making for the synagogue in buses. They were excited and hopeful as they were being conveyed to their destination in spacious white church-branded buses. It was all part of the celebrity-style importance that was given as soon as they touched down at the Lagos airport.

“I had never seen a local African town before and there was hustle and bustle. The street sellers and food and it was very colourful. I was just taking everything in.” This was part of the early memory Anneka had when arriving at the synagogue for the first time. The friendly Nigerian church hosts who always had a smile on when welcoming the visitors made her feel at home.

The blind regained their sight and this made it more believable for the white foreigners who travelled to West Africa. But the beautiful experiences they had been exposed to turned out to be part of their grooming – an effort to stir an interest to remain at the synagogue forever and never leave.

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When Pastor T.B Joshua, an indigene of Ondo State died in June 2021, it was only a few days to his 58^th birthday. Then, the concern following his death was the vacuum that would be open — one that no one would ever be able to fill.

Two years on, the lights now seem to be focused on his hidden hot-headedness and the sexual abuse his followers had to endure under his leadership.

In the BBC documentary, his legacy is being revised to mirror a prophet who faked humility and human decency just to exert revenge on white people he holds responsible for enslaving his forefathers through the transatlantic slave trade. The death of T.B. Joshua sadly makes for an incomplete story — hence a shadow has been cast about the authenticity of the past decades of the prophet’s life when he was seen to be campaigning for goodness in the world.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.