TB Joshua buried in Lagos

Popular Nigerian televangelist Temitope Balogun Joshua (TB Joshua) has been buried in Lagos after a week of funeral rites.

The remains of the evangelist, dressed in white, was carried into the church in a glass casket by a hearse that drove into SCOAN at about 11:00 am last Thursday.

Thousands of mourners attended the burial service at his Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in the Ikotun area of Lagos. The 57-year-old died on Saturday, June 5, a few days to his 58th birthday.

TB Joshua was revered by people from around the world and tens of thousands of people attended his weekly services.

His rise to prominence

The charismatic preacher's rise to prominence in the late 1990s coincided with the explosion of "miracle" programmes performed on Nigerian TV by various pastors.

His ministry professed to heal all manner of illnesses, including HIV/Aids, and attracted people from around the world. Known as the "Prophet" by his followers, he ran the Christian television station Emmanuel TV and often toured Africa,
the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and South America.

Mr Joshua came from a poor background and was brought up by his Muslim uncle following the death of his Christian father.

Outside the church, flags of various countries fluttered at half-mast. It is hard to know if the flags represented the countries the prophet visited in his lifetime but the poles stretched for more than a kilometre.

Thousands of mourners

The make-up of the thousands of mourners present also reflected the global appeal of TB Joshua — people came from the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and South Africa, where he was hugely popular.

People of Ikotun-Egbe, the suburb in Lagos where the church is located, came out in large numbers yesterday to watch his hearse go past and many more lined the streets early yesterday.

Most of them are not members of his church but were affected by his philanthropy. Many more benefited indirectly from the industry created by his always busy church.

Dignitaries attending

The dignitaries who attended included Rotimi Akeredolu, the Governor of Mr Joshua's home state of Ondo, who read a bible passage.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), which had disputes with TB Joshua in the past over his style, also sent a delegation to yesterday's burial, an indication that hostilities are over.

It is one of the things he wanted most while he was alive — to be accepted by Nigeria's larger Christian faith. It is perhaps symbolic that it has come at his death.

His wife, Evelyn Joshua, who has now been appointed the general overseer of the church, said her late husband grew the church from an eight-member assembly to what it was today.

"For gold to become gold it must pass through fire. I just want to thank you for being a good father to our children," she said at Tuesday's all-day tributes service. His children, Sarah Joshua, Promise Joshua and Heart Joshua, described their father as "a man with a formidable dedication".

Start of ministry

When TB Joshua started his ministry on television in the mid-90s, his hair did not glisten, his shoes were not shiny and he did not have an American slang — he spoke with a Yoruba accent, with a mixture of English and Pidgin.

His followers found him charismatic and down-to-earth, and his message spread around the world. But he refined himself as he became wealthy, adding a fleet of cars and a private jet to look the part, but he remained an outsider.

Born on June 12, 1963, TB Joshua also did not help himself with outlandish claims — one of them being that he was in his mother's womb for 15 months. To witness his prayer sessions in the early days of his televised ministry was to be treated to exorcism that many felt bordered on the occult. Some of it felt like a hypnotic session, others like that of a magician at work.

Launch of Emmanuel TV

In 2004, Nigeria's broadcast regulator banned TV stations from airing the miracles of pastors on live TV.

Mr Joshua believed that he was the target, with rival pastors having lobbied the government to introduce the ban as he was dominating the media with his so-called miracles.

He used the ban to his advantage, launching a satellite station, Emmanuel TV, which catapulted him to international fame.

"He was perhaps the first to utilise the internet and satellite broadcast to sell his ministry to an international audience," says Ms Adelakun.

He also set up Facebook and YouTube pages with millions of followers. In April, YouTube suspended his page after it was reported for homophobic messages.

The church, family members and well-wishers of the late SCOAN founder held an all-night candlelight procession on Monday night into Tuesday morning. The arrival of TB Joshua’s body was greeted by a mammoth crowd waiting in and outside the church premises.

Branches of the church

Unlike his peers, TB Joshua did not establish many church branches with the only branch in Ghana and he mostly kept his family in the background — his wife rarely appeared alongside him and none of his children were known to be heading branches.

The church was him and he was the church, each a reflection of the other. He died on Saturday and the cause of his death has not been made public.

Since then, the giant gates at his ministry's headquarters in Lagos have been sealed, and the army has been brought in to maintain order as thousands of his followers throng to the premises, wailing and bewildered.

"It was a typical one-man show, although he has disciples. It is hard to see the church going on without him," Mr Osinaike says.