A service of sorts was going on when Saturday Telegraph visited the Synagogue
Church of All Nations (SCOAN) on a week day last week. With a sizeable crowd in
the massive edifice as part of the ongoing service which involved singing
various tunes as well as dancing, a mild drama was playing out outside the
church at the time.
A group of young men seemingly bent on gaining
entrance into the church to retrieve a relative they alleged had been in the
church for a while, was making its case a little louder than is deemed normal.
Apart from this, everything seemed in place all around. By that you would be
talking about the familiar sight of regular and mobile policemen, cars driving
in and out as well as commercial activities going on.
With Prophet T.B Joshua, the controversial cleric
who oversees the church, having recently announced his intention to relocate
from Nigeria to Israel, some Nigerians have come out to express their opinions on
the matter.
While announcing plans to relocate due to a “hostile
environment” in which he has had to operate for years, the Ondo State-born cleric
said: “This is the most persecuted ministry in the world. Who are the people
persecuting the ministry? My people, Africa. That is why I choose to live a
lonely life. If you want to see me, come to this church. I don’t go out. It has
not been easy – because I don’t know who is a friend or who is an enemy.”
Speaking further at a general Sunday service in
the church, Joshua said: “If you learn TB Joshua is not around, I am in a
revival. I live in the church here. I don’t have a house outside. What happened
to me from the beginning of my ministry is enough to chase me out of this
country.
“But I am still in your midst. Upon the
persecution and hatred, I decided to follow the path of love. You show hatred;
I show love. When I go for a revival, you will see the stadium full but I am
not carried away by that. I leave where I’m celebrated to live where I’m
persecuted.”
And while neither the Lagos State Government nor
the Federal Government has responded to the relocation plans directly, the
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed is reported to have asserted
that Nigeria stands a lot to lose if the pastor went ahead with the plan.
In a chat with journalists during the Annual
General Meeting (AGM) of the Nigerian Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) in
Lagos recently, the minister labelled the cleric’s decision as unfortunate
while calling for dialogue between the pastor and the authorities over whatever
challenges he was facing.
“That will be very unfortunate in the sense that
if he does move out, it will affect our tourism in Nigeria. Pastor Joshua is an
important person, he must bear with us. This is his country; if he moves out
and go to South Africa, for example, the revenue will go to South Africa,”
Mohammed reportedly said.
The minister’s view is similar to that expressed by
a woman known as Mummy Victoria whose shop is beside the imposing Synagogue cathedral
when asked about the pastor's relocation to Israel. Feigning indifference initially,
she told our correspondents in Pidgin.
"Naso we dey hear oh," she began and
when asked if the relocation is likely to affect her business as well, she added:
"By God's grace, people passing and working around here will patronise us
and we don't even open on Sundays so I no sure say e go affect us like that if the
man comot.”
Mama Victoria’s sister-in law named, who gave her
name as Queen, corroborated the view but added that she would wish the man
remained where is presently, in the Ikotun part of Lagos in Nigeria.
When Saturday
Telegraph engaged a young man, Chuckwuma Nnaji, he was more eager to make
us aware of the existence of a guest house than dwell on the plan for Prophet
Joshua’s relocation or lack of it. Being a staff of one of the houses around
with a flexible plan to accommodate guests of the church popularly known as The
Synagogue who need cheap hotels to lodge in for a few days, Nnaji said a room
at the guest house goes for N2,000.
“With between just N2,000 and N3,000 you can get a
fairly good room in one of the houses around operating partially as a guest
house. With that, you can wait for the Sunday service of the Synagogue church,”
he said.
When asked why one would lodge in the guest house
he just talked about or another, with the availability of better hotels around,
he said most of the guest houses and hotels are usually booked for the Sunday
service and people who don't get a room can be accommodated in the kind of
arrangement he has to offer.
Looking around, good and fairly big hotels are not
in short supply in the area. From the small but cute Sweet Savour Hotels and
Suites, which is just beside the church, to the bigger Joas House with a number
of shops and a diagnostic centre lining its side, others include Hymax Grace
Hotels & Suites as well as Marvel Hotel.
When asked how the planned relocation of T.B
Joshua to Israel will affect his business and other local guest houses like his
located on the opposite side of the church in a street called Bolorunpemi were
it become reality, Nnaji responded thus: “It's just speculation, the people
saying that are just talking rubbish.”
On the part of a man who simply gave his name as
Tunde, a resident around the church’s location in Ikotun, he considers joshua’s
relocation as good riddance to bad rubbish.
“I am not one to just run people down but as far
as I am concerned, his planned relocation to Israel is among the best stories I
have heard in a long time. Have you been here on a Sunday before, to see the
massive gridlock that has become the lot of everyone living around this area?
It is a part of our existence that we have accepted because not even the
government seems to know what to do to rescue us. I have friends, family
members and associates who would not dare come close to this area on a Sunday.
I am also always scared when I have to go out towards Ikotun bus stop for
anything on a Sunday, thank God there are other avenues you can take to get
there but each of them is farther than just getting to Ikotun, which you would
do in a minute or two if that traffic is not there.”
Beyond what those around the church have to say, Saturday Telegraph went to Ajisegiri in Agodo-Egbe
where T.B Joshua resides. The long street, running to almost 90 Blocks, becomes
almost a close as the house of Prophet T.B Joshua is directly facing the entire
street. There also, residents express their opinions on the personality of T.B
Joshua, a man who is known to easily divide opinions.
A motorcycle operator, better known as Okadaman,
also shared his opinion in Pidgin English. To him, the prophet is an
unconcerned resident of the area.
"I no see wetin he dey do for here o. if he
wan go, make he go. If you stay here small, you go see as big people dey come
here well well but he no even care and he dey pass here everyday.”
A food vendor popularly known as Alhaja and who lives
in one of the houses around, said: "Prophet T.B Joshua is a good man who
helps people around. He is someone that we love and whom we are happy to have
around and most people on the street and the entire area would be sad to see
him leave the area.”
Speaking further, Alhaja even focused on why their
part of the long street is untarred. “About the street, it was rumoured that he
wanted to fix the entire stretch but somebody whose name the street presently
bears, said if he is to do that, the name that was originally given to the
street will have to be changed to his. So the person whose name was used for
the street refused so he didn't fix it again."
She soon added: "He should not go, we will
miss him especially the people he has helped.”
That last line of hers, more a rallying cry than a
statement, sums up her feeling about the native of Arigidi-Akoko and perhaps
that of many others.
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