Interesting…
CNN African Journalist of the
Year Award Winner, has given a detailed account of his experience during a recent fact finding
visit to the Synagogue Church of All Nations.. MPN was the first to blog the
story…Find it after the cut….
"Amazed. Amazed. Pastor
Temitope Balogun Joshua amazed me. I was part of a delegation that visited him
two days into the newyear, on the platform of the human rights community. Our
mission was to find out more about the six layer building that collapsed with
upsetting death toll. Many of us on the delegation were fuming prior, but had a
completely different impression at the end of the encounter.
We were seated in a glistering
restaurant located downstairs. Several visitors, like the rhythmical movement
of a millipede, strolled gently into the restaurant where they had their
breakfast and then left. We spent the time watching his Emmanuel TV said to be
available in close to 100 countries. I had taken time to walk through the huge
estate, soaked in some angelic aura.
Thousands of people milled
around; whites, Asians, and many more whose red colours made it difficult to
place their ancestral homesteads. I saw
a completely different community, far away from the Nigerian rot: electricity
supply was 24/7, residents were generally calm, cool and collected, not with
the usually hasty and stiff-neck idiosyncrasies of the average Nigerian.
A white man that looked like his
personal assistance came to usher us into the living room; simple, immaculate
setting. On the wall were framed pictures of several world leaders that had
either visited him or had invited him into their country. At least, I saw him
with the step mother of the President of the United States, Barrack Obama. One
of Africa’s most powerful Kings, Goodwill Zwelithini, was also there. Years
back, I had met the daughter of the Zulu King of South Africa. She told me she
had epilepsy.
She would be caught by the bug, almost every
time during colossal, ceremonial events where she was to play a key role. She
had visited so many countries in the world and met the best neuro-surgeons
without success. She visited the church, and according to her, she was healed.
There was also the picture of Pascal Lissouba, the former President of Congo
amongst many other world leaders.
We were all waiting, speaking in
low tones, perhaps, to meet the defined aura of some spiritual holiness and
order. He walks into the living room in T-shirt on short nicker. He looks
young, feminine and his eyes are like little comets. He has a piercing look. If
he had not been a clergy, maybe, I thought in the realm of my cobweb of
hallucinating imaginations, he probably could have been a farmer, or a diligent
carpenter, if he had remained in his Arigidi homestead in Ondo State.
He has the look of an ordinary
man, but as he walks into the room, some sort of extraordinary spirit in him
caste in the space like a silhouette. As he opens his lips to reveal a set of
what looked like milk teeth, in a charming smile, more like a reflex action, we
all stand up to salute him.
In the recent past, I did not
envy the so called men of God. I grew up as an Anglican. Later in life I became
an atheist, having studied maxism, which places materialism at the center of
human relations. It was not until after attending the bigger University of life
and the tribulations thereof, that I sought a route back into the invisible
creator of man, of plants, of animals, of the stars, of the creeping and flying
things. So, for a long time, I saw religion as the opium of the masses, a set
of people exploiting the gullibility of the poor, malnourished masses. A visit
to the Synagogue Church of All Nations has now even rekindled some sort of
conundrum.
He chooses his words, carefully.
I do not see myself as special.
I’m just a man of God,” he says.
He waits to see if you wanted to
puncture him. On the collapsed building, Pastor Joshua insists the church was
bombed. His logic is premised on the mystery plane that hovered around the
building for some minutes before the big bang. What is shocking remains the
fact that till date, neither the Federal Government nor the Federal Civil
Aviation Authority, (FCCA) has come out to unravel the mystery plane. Who owns
the plane? What was the mission of the plane? Where did the plane come from?
Why should Nigeria allow this underlining dilemma to be swept under the carpet?
We went on an inspection of the collapsed building.
The sight is gory. Worst still,
the FG has refused to make public the report of its findings. However, apart
from the issue of the collapsed building, I was personally touched by the
economic stories of the church. I’m not a member of the church. I do not intend
to be a member, but im simply fascinated by the living stories built around the
activities of the church, little wonder it appears the church is the biggest
tourist attraction in Nigeria today. Though the purpose of our visit was on the
collapsed building, we were enthralled by the humanitarian sector of the
church’s multi-faceted fiefdom. I took time to investigate this inspiring
enterprise.
One of the most intriguing is the
monument of charity he has built in Nigeria and across the world. I watched and
I was amazed at the effectiveness of his kingdom: the neon lights, in thousands
and none is faulty; the orderliness of the people; the street lights and the
effectiveness of his in-house economy. Our guide revealed storming stories of
affection flowing from the church. Perhaps Pastor Joshua was the only African
clergy that contributed immensely to the revival of afflicted souls after the
earthquake that hit Haiti, killing many, and submerging hundreds of houses
including the Presidential palace. The death toll was 230,000.
The world held its breath in awe. Two cargo
planes were chartered by Pastor Joshua. The planes flew from the United States
to Haiti. They landed on a UN airstrip in Cap Haitien, northern Haiti just ten
days after the tragic disaster. In history, most blacks in Haiti are originally
from West Africa, mainly Nigeria. Nothing could have drawn this nostalgia than the
news that a man from Nigeria flew in two cargo of planes filled with relief
materials, bringing succor to the afflicted and putting an end to anguish,
gnashing of teeth and mourning. Apart, he assembled medical doctors, nurses,
engineers, pilots and evangelists spanning three continents to assist Haiti.
They took a 10-seater plane from Ft Lauderdale to Cap Haitien. He also set up his team with relief clinic in
Arcahaie, a fishing and farming town of roughly 150,000 locals. He had visited
Surabaya in Indonesia where he addressed hundreds of poor people. He fed them
and doled out hot meals of Kentucky Fried Chicken and money to them.
He also gave 10,000 dollars to the Hana Ananda
centre where the poor and the vulnerable shelter. He visited the poor in Colorado,
US and fed thousands of people. He had discovered the homeless camp at the
banks of the Colorado river with the welcoming inscription: “Cold, Hungry and
Homeless, Anything helps.” From the account given to me, the charity covers
about 50 countries and over 10 million families around the world. For the
communities in the US, he was the first person in the world to have spent such
a huge amount on the poor community in a country rated as one of the world’s
richest.
A Muslim P.h.d student from Asia
who was on a research visit to the center told me her findings indicated that
Pastor Joshua provides for the needs of an average of 1 million people daily
all over the world. “I’m here as a Ph.d student. I’m doing a research on modern
religion and poverty alleviation. My findings indicate that Mr Joshua runs the
biggest and most selfless charity in the world,” he told me. I saw the
physically challenged. I saw the blind. I saw widows. I saw thousands of
students, Muslims, Christians and freethinkers alike going home with goodies on
their shoulders. I saw armed and defenseless people alike, I saw the have-nots
in thousands, during the new year festivity.
One of the most interesting
aspects is his programme aimed at reviving armed robbers, commercial sex
workers and the dregs in the society. “I was a hardened criminal. I used to
kill. In fact, I came to this church, I was revived through preaching. I was
given money to go and start a new life. I’m now a business man and will never
go back to criminal activities again. I have been doing my business now for 10
years”, Andero, from Oyo state told me. Marvis, a former informant to armed
robbers, one of which was his boyfriend, after a period of reformation; she was
given 200,000 to start a new life with her husband, who was also rehabilitated.
“I have a list of 300 armed
robbers rehabilitated this year alone,’ the Asian student told me, adding that
she had verified all of them, including checking out with the police and
discovered that it was real. There was a particular armed robber who attended
the church with a gun in his pocket. He became one of the people to be
rehabilitated in an extensive programme that has psycho-counselors on board.
The numbers of beneficiaries in the education sector who obtain scholarship is
countless, spreading across all the states of the federation and running
through all ethnic groups without discrimination. I met many of his caregivers,
whose responsibility is to move from one home to the other, attending to the
elderly and the sick, giving to them medicine and food. His community
development programme is unparalleled.
He runs a football club referred
to as My People Football Club where hundreds of talents are frequently
discovered. This is apart from a tourist haven that has been built at the
church’s starting point, located in a swamp which has now been turned into a
global magnet, drawing an average of 2 million people to Nigeria yearly. I now
recollect. On my visit to Costa Rica, I was at first perturbed by the gale of
revolting stories of drug, violence and corruption pinned on Nigeria by many. I
had a similar experience during my visit to many countries including Thailand
and Paragua and the United States. My consolation only came from the other side
of the story when many who had visited the Synagogue Church began to talk about
Nigerian in glowing terms.
Though the Church seems to have
brought grandeur and honour to Nigeria, the country does not seem to appreciate
this. One source told me that during Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s reign, instructions
were given to TV stations to block out Pastor Joshua’s programmes prompting him
to start the Emmanuel TV that now features in several countries all over the
world. Yet, the roads leading to this great enterprise that has drawn global
attention remain an eyesore. The government has definitely failed in seeing the
golden offer of uplifting a crestfallen nation offered through the demagogue of
the Synagogue spirituality and political economy.
For me, from the economic and
cultural perspective, let us even leave out spirituality, the Synagogue Church
has become a fortune of tourism, perhaps with no equal in Nigeria. It has
become one of the few iconic comets that brightens Nigeria’s darkening images.
Unfortunately, there seems no institutional backing. I ask myself, if millions
of Nigerians can go to Mecca and Jerusalem, with keen government interests on
the visitors given the great impact on the local economy, why can’t the various
governments of Nigeria tap from the Synagogue metaphor and thrill?
Written by Adewale Adeoye. Mr
Adeoye is CNN African Journalist of the Year Award Winner, former West African
Regional Secretary of International Alliance on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
of the Tropical Forest, (IAITPTF) based in Thailand and alumni of the United
Nations Institute of Training and Research, (UNITAR)
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