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T. B. Joshua: Let The Dead Rest [OPINION]

Published

2 years ago

January 16, 2024

By Suyi Ayodele

A few years ago, the self-acclaimed ‘Living Perfect Master’, Sat Guru Maharaj Ji visited the Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba of Benin, Oba Erediauwa, of blessed memory. The visitor arrived late. God bless Oba Erediauwa. He did not cancel the visit. After all, the palace goes nowhere, the people say. The monarch waited till Guru Maharaj Ji arrived. Palace functionaries went to inform the Omo N’Oba that his guest had arrived. A diplomat to the core, Oba Erediauwa came out of the inner recess to receive the visitor from Ibadan.

After the traditional formalities, Guru Maharaj Ji was asked to speak. He apologised to Uku Akpolokpolo for coming late. Then he gave the excuse for the delay. The vehicle conveying him from Ibadan to Benin had broken down on the way, and it took quite a time before it was fixed. The Omo N’Oba listened to him with rapt attention. He betrayed no emotion. That is what makes him the Uku Akpolokpolo! Done, the microphone was taken to the Oba. He welcomed his guest with his signature tripod “thank you, thank you; thank you.” The Benin monarch said some other wonderful things about Guru Maharaj Ji. Finally, the Omo N’Oba showed why he is hailed as the Ogidigan. He asked:

“By the way, did I hear you say that your vehicle broke down on the way to Benin?” The Living Perfect Master affirmed that. The Oba said: “Well, that’s strange. I don’t know that the Living Perfect Master also suffers the same fate as those of us mere mortals. I don’t know that the vehicle of the Living Perfect Master can also break down.” The entire Benin in the palace chorused “Oba Agha to pere e, Ise”. End of story. The Omo N’Oba rose and retired to his inner recess amidst laughter from the crowd. Sat Guru Maharaj Ji and his entourage also left. How and in what form? Like my late boss, Ayo Asagba, would say: “I don’t talk to the press!” The message was delivered in the most royal way. There is no Living Perfect Master anywhere. May Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Oba Erediauwa continue to occupy his prime position among his ancestors and gods. Ise!

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Fake prophets do exist. Fake miracle workers abound. Many call themselves God here on earth. We have had Jesus of Oyingbo before. At a time, one Reverend King was the miracle worker of Lagos. In the Western World, there was once a Reverend Jim Jones, who claimed to have a God-given healing power and convinced hundreds of his devotees to commit mass suicide before he killed himself on November 18, 1978 in jungles of Guyana, South America. The wisdom of the Omo N’Oba in his encounter with Sat Guru Maharaj Ji was that no man should judge another man. The Benin monarch never called the ‘Living Perfect Master fake. The Oba merely expressed surprise that someone who is ‘God’ himself could also suffer the same human misfortune like the case of a broken-down vehicle. The deductions were left for the audience to make. That is African wisdom in its undiluted form. It requires no ‘investigative journalism’ of the so-called ‘civilised’ world to point that out!

Africans lived a normal lifestyle before the Europeans came with their ‘civilisation’. Africans had no banks before the Western world introduced banking systems. There were no certified accountants in a typical African setting before the coming of the whites. Yet, in those African societies, ‘accounts’ were always balanced and there were no negative ledgers. The White man came and told our forebears to throw away everything that made their lives easy and pleasant. The Whites called the beautiful sculptures and artefacts made by those African legends of old, “graven images”. They told our fathers not to pour libations to the gods and ancestors. Our forebears listened to the White man. But at any opportunity the White man had, he stole the objects he tagged earthen, took them to his museums in Europe and asked the children of the original owners to come and pay to see the creative works of their fathers! What a civilisation!. As recent as year 2022, the entire Benin Kingdom was still asking the United Kingdom and other European countries to return the artworks the British imperialist soldiers stole when they invaded the ancient Benin Kingdom in 1897, in what is known in World History as the Benin Massacre. E. Ola Abiola, one of the greatest historians of this generation, introduced the 1897 Benin Massacre as “one of the unpardonable atrocities perpetrated by the agents of the Royal Niger Company in their bid to secure for Britain the dominion over the Niger Delta” (See A Textbook of West African History: A.D 100 to Present Day, 1974). What type of civilisation encourages stealing, slave trade and complete annihilation of a people who resisted being ruled by strangers. For over a hundred years, the British people and other nefarious Europeans subjugated Africa and Africans to untold hardship. They did this through the instrumentality of religion, Christianity. Whatever education the Whites ‘gave’ the Black Race during the colonial era was not meant to liberate the race or to give them equal rights and opportunities. The Blacks were educated to work in the colonial offices; nothing more.

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Thankfully, the few educated Africans began the agitation for the end of colonialism. Those early nationalists saw through the hypocrisy of the Western education and the new religion, Christianity. They therefore rose, using the weapon of education, to demand for self-rule for the subjugated Africans. For instance, David Diop, the Senegalese poet (1927-1960), in his poem, The Vultures, described Christianity as a form of “civilisation” that “kicked us in the face”. The practice of baptism, he says, is “holy water”, which “slapped our cringing brows”. The Whites, he rightly describes, as “The vultures” that “built in the shadow of their talons/The bloodstained monument of tutelage”. He goes further to express the hypocrisy of the early missionaries, who sang, and “drowned the howling on the plantations”, and who also engaged in “extorted kisses”, leaving the new ‘converts’ with “bitter memories of promises broken at the point of gun”. He describes the White missionaries cum colonial masters as “foreigners who did not seem human/Who knew all the books did not know love”. David Diop’s imagery of the vulture speaks volume of the atrocities of that era, when the Whites who claimed to be on liberation mission to the dark world, did the most appalling! Diop ends the poem on a positive note by expressing the confidence that “In spite of the desolate villages of torn Africa/ Hope was preserved in us as in a fortress.” Since Africans gained independence from the Europeans, the Western World has not been the same. And all they do is try to bring down Africa at all cost. Everything from the Back Race is never considered good in the eyes of the White man. It is like the case of the rival wife and her set of twins. Those beautiful creatures are never regarded as “two bouncing babies in the eyes of the other wife, but two tiny things.” Unfortunate for Africans, our leaders have not helped matters. They have, through their perfidy, sold us to second slavery. The only difference is that we have no padlocks yet on our lips.

It is this idea of bringing down anything African that informed, to a larger extent, the documentary by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), on the late Nigerian tele-evangelist, Temitope Balogun Joshua, otherwise known as T. B. Joshua, the founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN). T.B. Joshua passed on June 5, 2021. While alive, the preacher never enjoyed the best of public relations. Many of his ‘fellow Christians’ never loved him and they did not hide it. At his death in 2021, many preachers rose in his condemnation. He was called all sorts of names. His ministry was branded ‘satanic’. His ‘anointing’ was interrogated. Some could not stand the fact that T.B. Joshua did not have a “spiritual godfather”, who “poured the anointing on him” as if that is the ticket to heaven! I did a piece with the title: “T.B. Joshua and the gatekeepers of heaven”, published on this page on June 22, 2021. The major accusation against T.B. Joshua was that he performed some of his miracles using other forces other than the name of the Lord. For the purpose of this discourse, let us agree that it was true then that all the “miracles” the late preacher performed were procured through the devil itself. The question we should ask is, how is that the problem of any mortal? Why are we fighting a battle that belongs to God for Him? If Joshua claimed that he healed people through the name of Jesus, and it turned out to be false, are we Jesus? The Lord, in whose name the late preacher claimed to have ‘healed’, and ‘delivered’ people is not dead. Can’t we wait for the expected day of judgement to see if the miracles of T.B. Joshua were of the Lord or not?

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The most cowardly of all the attacks on the person of T.B. Joshua, came last week from the BBC, which claimed among other things that the miracles were fake, and that he tortured and raped women. The British broadcasting station equally alleged that T.B. Joshua was a serial abortionist. Why on earth did it take the BBC over two years to come up with these allegations? Why were these grievous allegations levelled against a dead man who is no longer in any position to defend himself? Who does that but a coward? I don’t want to hold any brief for Joshua on his miracles. I was never a participant in his miracle sessions. But like I pointed out in the piece referenced above, I saw one of those miracles with my korokoro eyes. And I say this, even if the devil itself was the one that gave the healing potion to T. B. Joshua in that instance, I think, without prejudice to what my Sunday School teacher will say, that the devil deserves accolades for that singular act!

T. B. Joshua could be fake and devilish. That is not my business. I am just like that blind man who was healed by Jesus and he declared, when he was asked if he knew that Jesus was a sinner thus: “Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not; one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” Why do I push this position? My Lord Jesus Christ Himself was not spared of the allegation of procuring miracles by other means. And when He was confronted, this was how Jesus responded as recorded in Luke 11:18-19: “If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. Now, if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judge.” I think this is apt for the BBC and its hate-filled documentary. If T.B. Joshua’s miracles were fake, let the BBC go and perform genuine miracles! As for the ‘victims of serial rape, abortion and tortures’, they have my ‘sympathy’. I wish they could go and press charges. If there is any one of them in Nigeria, I volunteer to foot the litigation bills provided they have not washed off the evidence! What a way to accuse a man! I sincerely hope Mrs. Evelyn Joshua, the widow of T. B. Joshua, is not in any way moved by these ‘new’ allegations. Madam Joshua, if I may counsel, should be consoled by the admonition by Gamaliel in Acts 5: 38-39: “…for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought; But if if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.” The BBC can hold on to its documentary, I preach no more on this matter! Let the dead rest!

News

Why We Expanded Presidential Amnesty Scholarship Scheme — Otuaro

Published

3 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Otuaro (middle) in a group photograph with the PAP foreign scholarship students in the United Kingdom after an interactive session in London on Saturday, 25 October, 2025.

The Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dr Dennis Otuaro, has expressed his unwavering commitment to ensuring that more indigent students and communities of the Niger Delta benefit from the PAP scholarship scheme.

He stated this while explaining what informed his decision to expand the scheme and increase formal education opportunities for poor students, and to build a huge manpower base in the region.

A statement issued by Mr Igoniko Oduma, Special Assistant on Media to the PAP boss said Otuaro spoke during an interactive session in London on Saturday with the beneficiaries of the scholarship initiative deployed for undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in universities across the United Kingdom.

The engagement, which was at the instance of the PAP boss, provided an opportunity for the Office and the scholarship students to discuss issues pertaining to their welfare and challenges with a view to addressing them.

Otuaro said that while in-country scholarship deployment was 3800 in the 2024/2025 academic year, the figure increased to 3900 in the 2025/2026 and foreign scholarships were about 200.

He attributed the increase in deployment to the massive support of President Bola Tinubu and the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Otuaro stressed that he was greatly encouraged by the President and the NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and that he knows how impressed both of them are concerning the PAP initiatives, which align with the Renewed Hope Agenda.

He reiterated his call on the students to justify the huge investment in their education by the Federal Government by studying hard to make good grades.

He also urged them to conduct themselves and be responsible ambassadors of Nigeria while in the U.K, stressing that “you will be adding value to your families and communities when you complete your programmes successfully.”

The PAP helmsman said, “We want the scholarship programme to impact more students and communities in the Niger Delta. That’s why we have expanded it and increased formal education opportunities.

“We want you to take this opportunity very seriously so that the government, too, will be encouraged. I know how much support His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu GCFR, gives to the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

“Mr President and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, are very impressed with what we are doing. On your behalf I would like to, once again , thank His Excellency and the NSA for giving you this life-changing opportunity. We are confident that Mr President and the NSA will continue to support us.

“The knowledge you are receiving in your institutions today is to enable you plan yourself and prepare for the future. Whatever knowledge you gain cannot be taken from you.

“So as PAP scholarship students, we expect responsible and good behaviour from you. Government is investing heavily in you and you have the obligation to justify the investment. Be agents of change and avoid acts of mischief while in the U.K.”

News

OPINION: A ‘Crazy’ African Nation, Where Citizens Eat And Drink Football

Published

4 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

By Tony Erha

It was in October, a semi-summer-month and twilight of the year that ushers in the chilling and extreme winter. A nonagenarian woman gave me a friendly smile that revealed cheeky dimples. As I bowed respectfully to her ripened age, she offered a leathery hand for a handshake, which I received warmly, returning her infectious smile. For a youth who prays for longevity shouldn’t deprive the elderly of the walking stick. I had helped her, carrying a furred handbag to our seats on a night-long intercity bus, from Istanbul to Ankara, in Turkey, the Balkan nation, where we stopped over, in year 2004.

She spoke Turkish rapidly, whilst I retorted in a passable and incoherent Turkish language that ‘I don’t speak the official language of the only country of the world that is located on two continents; Europe and Asia. “You American?” She asked in English. It was obvious that my jeans, necklace and a fez cap that I upturned, in the manner of the Yankees, might have portrayed me as one. “No. I am a Nigerian”, I said, dragging the words. “You Nee-jay-rian!” she exclaimed, whilst I nodded confidently. Then she was elated; “Okocha Jay-Jay!” She spoke to others in the bus that clapped and hailed. I wondered why a 91 years-old-woman, was so passionate about football and one of its heroes, as if she was a youth.

At her request, an old video of a football match showed the mesmerising display of Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, viewed on a television set affixed to the bus. There were instantaneous excitement and catcalls each time Okocha, the great football ‘talisman’ from Nigeria, did his ball flips and dribble-runs that displaced his opponents, earning him one of the few (if not the greatest) football entertainers in football’s history. It was as if the video tape, recorded in his notable plays in Besiktas, a Turkish club side, was a live match. So great was Okocha’s global fame that the old woman relived again; “Jay Jay Okocha is a dangerous footballer, who’s full of tricks on the field of play. The only trick he didn’t do with the ball from his bag of football artistry was to play on top the swimming pool”. In Mustafa Ataturk’s nation, footballers of Nigeria’s decent had and still make their soccer very eventful.

Victor Osimhen, the leggy playmaker and striker with a dye-hair like the white mushroom head, who recently renewed his contract with Galatasaray, a Turkish top team, is also a Nigerian, who has received the applause in the peninsula country and across the globe like Jay Jay Okocha. Candidly, Oshimen, the goal mechine, who is a tonic to the Turks and football fans across the world, also does the unimaginative with the round leather, but certainly not with the same fascinating skills of Jay Jay! But the Turkish fans are readily tilted to football fanaticism.

Victor Osimhen

If it’s ‘fanatic-fans’ in Turkish football, it’s certainly ‘supporters hooliganism’ in the United Kingdom (UK), where association soccer (football) was founded in 1863, with similar kicking games played in Greece, China and Rome since 2,000 years. In UK, football is played with fanfares, pool betting and media vuvuzela. English soccer is a gainful entertainment industry raking in huge gate fees from plays, promotions, television and media razzmatazz, which is often imitated in Nigeria, with passions and ‘occult’ following. So worrisome was the ‘social hype and lawlessness’ youths and others attach to English soccer that security operatives have constant migraine fighting soccer addiction and frequent street brawls.

Jay Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Dan Amokachi, Taribo West and other Nigerian stars, that once dominated and currently rule other foreign clubs, opened the floodlight of extremist football following into the country. Once upon a time, the then Prince Charles (now the king of England), was spotted (with young boys) playing the game, inside the Buckingham Palace, all wearing jersey number ’10’ with Jay Jay Okocha’s name inscribed). That the number-one-global-royalty adored soccer by wearing the jersey of a footballer from a third-world African nation, somewhat illustrates that which is often said about soccer being more than a mere sport. ‘Football Tripper’, a British online news porter, describes soccer as “oxygen” to numerous men and women. In Brazil, the South American nation, there is a deity called “Soccer”, as well as it’s a vivacious Reggae, a unique music genre in Jamaica.

Still, it is food and sups in Nigeria. In this Africa’s most populous nation, with plentiful viewing centres and liquor spots, there are live television football tournaments and soccer video games, with consumable food, alcoholics, carbonated drinks and some ‘unlawful substances’ that are at the behest of business owners and ‘intoxicated’ fans.

In what soccer dramatics came to know as ‘the Dammam Miracle’, viewing centres, beer parlours and restaurants were instantly sold out in the country, in 1989, after ‘footbocrazy’ Nigerians, stormed the streets in prolonged wild celebrations. For the Nigerian U-20 football team, at the FIFA World Youth Championship, held in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, came back from a four-goal deficit to level up and defeat the Russian counterpart, making the Nigerian team the first to come back from a semi-final to win a FIFA tournament. Soccer, indeed, is a crazy sport in Nigeria. Once upon a time, a man had shattered the screen of his expensive television, because Austin Jay Jay Okocha, his favourite star, had lost a penalty in a continental match!

It’s said that football, especially when the Nigerian national teams of men and woman play, tends to unite Nigerians than other national blights that turn them apart. Now, the current national fanaticism is for the Victor Osimhen-inspired Super Eagles, to qualify for the 2026 World Cup gala, even though it has to go the extra obstacles of playing more legs, whereas the team had frittered the early opportunities to qualify.

And sensing that most Nigerians care less of the economic woes that plagued them, but for the football fad, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the nation’s President, would cash-in to feed their ago awarding huge cash to high profile football tournaments and wins, like he recently accorded the Super Falcons, the female national team, for achieving a similitude of the Dammam miracle, to bring home a coveted African Cup of Nations (AFCON) trophy!

News

Ex-soldiers Fume Over Lifetime Benefits For Sacked Service Chiefs

Published

9 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

The sacked Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, and two other service chiefs, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, are set to receive generous retirement benefits.

The benefits include bulletproof vehicles, domestic aides, and lifetime medical care.

Their exit follows President Bola Tinubu’s appointment of new service chiefs on Friday.

General Olufemi Oluyede has been named the new Chief of Defence Staff, while Major-General W. Shaibu takes over as Chief of Army Staff.

Air Vice Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke becomes the new Chief of Air Staff, and Rear Admiral I. Abbas the Chief of Naval Staff. The Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major-General E.A.P. Undiendeye, retains his position.

The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, said in a statement on Friday that the removal of the service chiefs was in furtherance of the Federal Government’s ongoing efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s national security architecture.

According to the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers and Enlisted Personnel in the Nigerian Armed Forces, signed by President Tinubu on December 14, 2024, the service chiefs are entitled to substantial retirement packages upon disengagement.

The document stipulates that each retiring service chief will receive a bulletproof SUV or an equivalent vehicle, to be maintained and replaced every four years by the military.

They are also entitled to a Peugeot 508 or an equivalent backup vehicle.

Beyond the vehicles, the package includes five domestic aides — two service cooks, two stewards, and one civilian gardener — along with an aide-de-camp or security officer, and a personal assistant or special assistant.

They will also retain three service drivers, a service orderly, and a standard guard unit comprising nine soldiers.

The benefits extend to free medical treatment both in Nigeria and abroad, as well as the retention of personal firearms to be retrieved upon their demise.

However, while officers of lieutenant-general rank and equivalents are entitled to international and local medical care worth up to $20,000 annually, the benefits for the service chiefs, though not stated in the document, are believed to be considerably higher.

The HTCOS reads, “Retirement benefits for CDS and Service Chiefs: The following benefits shall be applicable: one bulletproof SUV or equivalent vehicle to be maintained by the Service and to be replaced every four years. One Peugeot 508 or equivalent backup vehicle.

‘’Retention of all military uniforms and accoutrement to be worn for appropriate ceremonies; five domestic aides (two service cooks, two stewards, and one civilian gardener); one Aide-de-Camp/security officer; one Special Assistant (Lt/Capt or equivalents) or one Personal Assistant (Warrant Officer or equivalents); standard guard (nine soldiers).

“Three service drivers; one service orderly; escorts (to be provided by appropriate military units/formation as the need arises); retention of personal firearms (on his demise, the personal firearm(s) shall be retrieved by the relevant service); and free medical cover in Nigeria and abroad.”

However, the policy specifies that such entitlements apply only if the retired officers have not accepted any other appointment funded from public resources — except when such an appointment is made by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In such cases, the officers, according to the document, will only receive allowances commensurate with the new role rather than a full salary.

Retired soldiers protest lavish perks

Reacting, some retired soldiers decried what they described as the luxurious benefits and entitlements reserved for service chiefs and senior military officers.

They lamented that junior personnel continued to suffer neglect and unpaid entitlements despite years of service to the nation.

The retired officers expressed frustration over the disparity in welfare and treatment between senior and junior ranks within the military.

One of the leaders of the discharged soldiers demanding their owed entitlements, Sgt. Zaki Williams, expressed frustration over the entitlements reserved for the service chiefs.

Speaking in an emotional tone, Williams, who claimed to be speaking for more than 700 soldiers in his group, said many retired non-commissioned officers had been abandoned despite dedicating their lives to defending the country.

He said, “I don’t really understand how our people in Nigeria do things. The people at the top always do things to favour only themselves. They don’t care about the poor or the junior ones who sacrificed everything.”

The retired sergeant recalled that government officials had made several promises to improve their welfare, but none had been fulfilled.

“Since the day they made those promises to us, we went back home and didn’t hear anything again. Everything just ended there. We’ve been waiting till now, but nothing has happened,” he added.

Williams said the situation had left many of his colleagues demoralised and divided over whether to continue pressing for their entitlements.

“Some of us said we should protest again, but others refused. We told them that day that we were not going for another protest. If the government wants to help us, they should help us. If not, we’re done,” he said.

He also accused senior military officers of frustrating efforts by the defence ministry to address the concerns of retired personnel.

According to Williams, life after service has been extremely difficult for most of them who retired voluntarily or were discharged without compensation.

“How can someone retire after years of service and still not get their entitlement? Many of us can’t even build a house. The senior officers have houses, cars, and everything good, but the rest of us have nothing,” he said.

He added that the little compensation given to some was not enough to rebuild their lives.

“If they give you N2m today, what can you really start with it in this country? You have children, family, and responsibilities, yet you can’t even afford a plot of land,” he said.

Expressing disappointment, he said most junior officers had lost faith in the system.

“We’ve handed everything over to God,” he said quietly. “We’ve cried and done our best. They promised us, but in the end, it’s still zero. We haven’t seen anything. That’s why many of us are now silent.”

Another retired soldier, Abdul Isiak, lamented that promises made to retired personnel had remained unfulfilled, leaving many struggling to survive.

He said, “All you said they would give to them would be done promptly, and they are more than what we need to sustain our lives. This is very unfair. We have suffered a lot, and they’re yet to give us our entitlements after leaving the service. What is our offence? Is it because we are junior officers?”

The former sergeant said the senior officers continued to enjoy generous retirement packages while lower ranks were denied their due benefits.

“We are preparing for another protest for them to pay us. This is very bad,” he said.

(PUNCH)