“Time for everything – time to come here for prayer and time to return home after the service.’’
Those were the cryptic words by popular cleric, Prophet TB Joshua, The Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), shortly before he died on Saturday.
Of course, this has led many to believe that the man of God and great philanthropist knew his time on earth was up.
Popularly known as Prophet TB Joshua, he was one of the most controversial and “enigmatic’ cleric to walk the land. He was unique and special in the way he dressed and preached, leading many to hate him, and even many more to love him.
Joshua, who was born on June 12, 1963 in Ondo State, Nigeria, reportedly stayed 15 months in his mother’s womb before he was born.
According to the SCOAN website, Joshua attended the St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School (Ikare-Akoko, Nigeria, 1971-1977).
He had only one year of secondary education before he left to work in a poultry farm.
While in school, he was known as ‘small pastor’ because of his love for the scriptures and gift to predict things that would happen in his community; he was also said to have been the leader of ‘Scripture Union’ while in school.
He had taught children at evening classes and done some menial jobs before he had a revelation to set up a ministry while on a 40-day fast.
In 1987, TB Joshua founded the Synagogue Church of All Nations under the bridge that links Ejigbo and Egbe in Lagos State with just few members.
The church later grew to have large number of members within and outside Nigeria, Africa and Latin America.
He later established the Emmanuel TV television station from Lagos which has wide viewership especially as it is on cable TV.
TB Joshua was a known philanthropist and noted for helping the needy and sponsoring persons.
‘My People FC’, a football club he started in 2009, was part of his efforts to help the youth and two members of the team, Sani Emmanuel and Ogenyi Onazi, played for Nigeria Golden Eaglets in the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Also, three players of the club were sponsored abroad to play professional football for Sweden.
The WBO International Light Middleweight boxing champion King, Davidson Emenogu, had said that Joshua financially supported him throughout his career.
A man of many clouts, Forbes in 2011 wrote that Joshua was the third-richest pastor in Nigeria with estimated net worth of between $10 million and $15 million.
He was so popular that the Wikipedia documented his social media presence to be massive with no fewer than 3.5 million fans on Facebook.
“His YouTube channel, Emmanuel TV, has over one million subscribers.
“He was described as the “Oprah of Evangelism” and “YouTube’s most popular Pastor”.
Like many influential men, TB Joshua was not without controversies.
On Sept, 12, 2014, a guesthouse collapsed in the SCOAN’s premises in Lagos, killing no fewer than 115 people.
Speculations continued to trail the circumstances that led to the collapse, with the former Nigerian Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, alleging that “Nigeria’s intelligence agencies ‘blew up’ the building’’.
Also, his relationship with other clerics was not smooth and it was publicly criticised.
