“Africans do not celebrate great men. They rather take delight in celebrating mediocre men. Africans happily destroy great men and, if possible, look for their mistakes to nail them. So sad that they destroyed Prophet T.B. Joshua on a daily basis. Finally, he has left them, and what he was doing, they can’t do! Evil continent!”- Prophet (Dr.) Emmanuel Badu Kobi, Glorious Wave Church International, Accra, Ghana.
Prophet Emmanuel Kobi has spoken the truth, and he has spoken for millions. I commend his courage.
Sadly Pastor Kris Okotie of Household of God Church International has taken another course and confirmed Kobi’s concerns about African nature.
Whilst the rest of the world is busy mourning Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua of the Synagogue of All Nations (SCOAN) and celebrating his outstanding Ministry and legacy, he has chosen to slander him most grievously even whilst his body still remains in the mortuary!
He has said the most uncharitable and unprintable things about the Prophet, which I refuse to repeat here.
I am always reluctant to join issues publicly with men and women of God, but Okotie’s insults on my friend and brother, who is no longer here to defend himself, are so grave and damaging that they cannot go unanswered.
My response to him is as follows.
I have always had so much respect and affection for you right from the days that we were at the Nigerian Law School in 1985.
Your life and Ministry, including the beautiful songs you used to sing, had fascinated and inspired me.
However, with your foul-mouthed and vicious assault and utterly inexplicable, irresponsible and unprovoked attack on the person of TB Joshua, all that has gone with the wind, today I have nothing but contempt, scorn and disdain for you and, simply put, I loathe and despise you.
To borrow our President’s words, I will now talk to you in the language that you can understand.
You mock my brother in death, yet you appear to have forgotten that death comes to us all. It is only a matter of time. Evidently, you have no respect for yourself and no fear of the Living God whom you claim to serve.
Even if you never liked TB Joshua or you had reason to suspect that his source of power was questionable, couldn’t you have just keep your mouth shut and let those of us that believed in him, loved him and respected him mourn him in peace?
You seek to vilify and shame the memory of a humble, gentle, decent and kind soul who was a million times the man and servant of God that you are or could ever be and who has just gone to meet his maker.
You insult the memory of a man who was a great inspiration and source of strength to millions of God-fearing and decent people from all over the world, and you have sought to dishonour and discredit his Ministry, his memory, his family, his friends and his legacy. God will surely punish you for this.
Worse of all is the fact that you are a coward who, as is characteristic of all cowards, waited until he died and was no longer around to defend himself before you opened your dirty little mouth to insult him.
You call him the wizard of Endor, but if anybody is a wizard, it is you. If anyone is a magician, it is you. If anyone is a dark force and wicked soul that indulges in necromancy and devil worship, it is you. If anyone is a follower of satan, it is you. If anyone is a fake Pastor and false Prophet, it is you.
The more you attempt to dishonour a man like TBJ and bring sorrow to his wife, children, admirers, followers and Church members all over the world, the more God will cause you to suffer failure and grief and to shed tears.
Millions of us love this great son of the South West and indeed Nigeria even though we are not even members of his Church. We admire him and stand by him even in death. You are not fit to lick his shoes or to clean his posterior.
I advise you to respect yourself and respect the office and calling which you claim to have. I counsel you to set aside your hate-filled and envy-fuelled obsession with this great man and leave him alone.
You are meant to be a man of God who prays for and helps to heal the wounds of those who have suffered the loss of loved ones.
You are not meant to pour salt on those wounds and inflict even more pain by damning the memory and destroying the legacy of those they have lost.
You are also meant to pray for the forgiveness of the sins of the departed and call on the Lord to grant them eternal peace.
You are not meant to ask God to punish them and ask for them to burn in hell.
What you have done and the words you have used against TBJ is a great embarrassment to the Church, every Christian and Muslim cleric and leader in this county, and every true believer.
It is a disgrace, outrage and madness. It is evidence of a diseased mind, deep psychosis and chronic delusions of grandeur, and I urge you to have your head examined.
Even the greatest sinner, once repented, deserves God’s love, mercy and forgiveness in death. That is what the glorious Gospel teaches us, and that is why our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, shed His blood on the cross.
None of us is free of sin, and we all fall short of the glory of God. You are not perfect, and neither am I. We must all carry our crosses and burdens through this often difficult journey of life, and more often than not, we all face extraordinary challenges and make inexcusable mistakes.
That is what makes us human, and ultimately, only God has the right to judge us. Only He sees our hearts. Only He knows our deepest secrets.
TBJ, though a tried and tested man of God who shook the entire world with his remarkable Ministry and who was undoubtedly one of God’s ‘end-time Generals, never claimed that he was a Saint or that he was infallible and neither can you, me or anyone else.
We must all repent and make our peace with our God before our life’s journey ends, and we must do so in fear of our Lord and all humility.
TBJ has run his race and finished his course, and I do not doubt that he has been welcomed into paradise by the hosts of Heaven and our God.
I do not doubt that he would have received a massive commendation for the great work that he did for the Lord and the Church whilst on earth.
I do not doubt that the Lord would have thanked him for the millions of souls he brought into the Kingdom and led to Christ in his 40 years of Ministry.
I do not doubt that he now resides in glory with our Resurrected Lord in the peace, comfort, blessing and joy of Heaven.
The question for people like you who seek to diminish, destroy and judge him even in death is whether you will ever get to Heaven as well or whether, when your work on earth is done, you will end up in hell where every son and daughter of perdition, every unrepentant servant of satan and every hater and wicked soul is destined to go.
Please permit me to end with an insightful contribution from Mr Igho David, which you would do well to read over and over again. He said,
“Even the demonic Jezebel described the great Jehu, whom God had anointed to be King of Israel, as a murderer and all sorts of other names. Yet, in reality, she was rather the murderer, thief, liar, evil and possessed one, and she was the one controlled by the demons that her father had dedicated her to and served. Jezebel was damn eloquent when she spoke about Jehu, just like Pastor Chris Okotie was when he spoke against Prophet TB Joshua even at his death. The spirit of Jezebel doesn’t just mean a loose, lying, wicked, hate-filled, manipulative and murderous woman with heavy make-up on her face and long painted nails. The spirit of Jezebel can possess and control even Pastors that are called by God”.
I concur.
Finally, hear this. Before you mount your accursed pulpit, unleash your venomous tongue, cry your caustic cry and lift your poisonous pen to launch yet another vicious and unprovoked attack against an innocent and kind soul who did nothing but make all those around him happy and who has just passed away, I urge you to meditate on the following scriptures.
The Bible says, “let he who is free of sin cast the first stone”.
It says, “touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm”.
It says, “who is he that lays a charge before God’s elect? It is Christ that justifies!”
For a celebrated man of God like you to neglect, these admonitions is a grave error that may result in unimaginable consequences for you and what remains of your tattered Ministry.
Christianity is about being humane, kind, charitable, gentle, long-suffering and humble.
It is about having empathy for the weak, the suffering, the vulnerable, and those in pain.
It is about loving the unlovable and forgiving those that have hurt and offended you.
It is about kindness, peace, long-suffering and the ability and desire to bring joy to all those around you.
It is about celebrating and encouraging the success of others that are leaders and members of the Body of Christ, and it is about protecting the mother Church from ridicule, shame, contempt and destruction from those who hate our Lord and who have disdain for our faith.
These are virtues and qualities that Prophet T.B. Joshua espoused and exhibited throughout his life.
Any so-called man or woman of God who fails to appreciate these virtues, who refuses to acknowledge and practice them and who goes out of his or her way to destroy the reputation, name and Ministry of his or her fellow clerics or, worse still, that of one of God’s ‘end-time Generals, is nothing is unworthy of being called a servant of God and is nothing but scum.
Such a creature is an enemy within, an accuser of the brethren, an agent of Beelzebub, a lying snake, a self-absorbed nincompoop and a ravenous and savage beast.
May God deliver you, and may you find peace.
(Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who is the Sadaukin Shinkafi, is a former Minister of Aviation and former Minister of Culture and Tourism)
