TB Joshua: When accountability evades us
By Sydney Mukwacha
“The church is not co-operating with emergency workers at all. For the first three days of the incident, the church people were very hostile and prevented rescue officials to the” said National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesperson.
TB Joshua rejected the lack of cooperation claims as “inaccurate”.
“Contrary to this, we want to categorically state that the church has provided assistance when and where required and continues to do so: good Christians are good citizens” he said.
Why would NEMA lie about this and what do they stand to gain?
A guest house belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) which is led by Prophet TB Joshua of Nigeria was reduced to rubble on Friday the 12th in Lagos.
TB Joshua has a huge following in Africa and has attracted heads of state, top-level politicians and business people. He has risen to prominence mainly to his working of miracles and prophecies which includes foretelling the deaths of presidents.
In a continent where people are constantly searching for answers to life’s questions it makes sense that at the time of this disaster in Lagos they were many Africans from various nations including more than 300 South Africans who had come to seek spiritual help from TB Joshua.
Obviously, the purpose of this article is not to debate the divinity of his works, whether they are true or false I shall desist from speculation or hearsay. What touched me was the lack of leadership that was shown by the church in managing this tragedy.
It took TB Joshua more than 5 days to personally issue a statement after having earlier on blamed the collapse on a “mystery plane” that had flown a number of times over the building, thereby suggesting and pointing to sabotage or terrorism. For a church that has its own robust media channel the level of media diffidence was indeed astounding.
With Boko Haram wreaking havoc in Nigeria we are all tempted to believe the “mystery plane” but there is no evidence to link the plane and the disaster thus far. On the other hand what we see is a trend that is akin to our own political leaders who seem not to want to take responsibility but rather blame everything else except themselves in a time of a crisis.
Evidence on the ground suggests structures that were built without any engineering ingenuity. Can the church provide the media or authorities with the approved building plan?
It is said that work was going on to add more floors to the guesthouse, were these approved by the Lagos State government? Add this with complains of a lack of co-operation on the church’s part and failure to update affected families in time then we have a big cause for concern.
As people search for answers, taking responsibility in a time like this will go a long way in bring some confidence and trust to SCOAN, if that is not too late. Accountability and leadership are not to be separated and we really need that in this great continent of ours.
With more than 115 people having been confirmed dead our hope is that those still missing will be positively identified in the debris and their bodies returned to their families.
May their souls rest in peace.
You can visit Sydney Mukwacha’s blog: The Africa We Want
