Few days after the YouTube and Facebook account of Prophet TB Joshua of Synagogue Church was closed, Nigerians have given difference reactions to the issue.
YouTube has closed the account of the influential Nigerian TV evangelist TB Joshua over allegations of hate speech.
A rights body filed a complaint after reviewing at least seven videos showing the preacher conducting prayers to “cure” gay people.
Facebook has also removed at least one of the offending posts showing a woman being slapped while TB Joshua says he is casting out a “demonic spirit”.
The video is an update of a prayer session of a woman called Okoye, first broadcast in 2018.
TB Joshua hits Mary Okoye’s head and she falls to the floor. When she gets up, he hits her again and tells her to call her “second”, another woman he refers to as Ms Okoye’s “wife”.
Mr Joshua slaps and pushes Ms Okoye and the unnamed woman at least 16 times and tells her: “There is a spirit disturbing you. She has transplanted herself into you. It is the spirit of woman.”
The video which was viewed more than 1.5 million before the YouTube channel was taken down, later shows her accompanied by her mother and two sisters, testifying before the congregation that “the spirit of woman” had been destroying her life but she had been healed after the preacher’s prayers.
She declares that she had stopped having “affection” to women and “now I have affections for men”.
The video appeared first on Emmanuel TV, a television station owned by Mr Joshua’s megachurch in Lagos, The Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).
Between 2016 and January 2020, the channel posted at least seven similar clips showing the charismatic Christian televangelist engaging in violent exorcism to ‘cure’ gay and lesbian congregants of their sexual orientation by casting out “the demon of homosexuality”.
The TB Joshua Ministries Facebook page has more than 5.6 million followers. Unlike YouTube, which terminated the ministries’ entire channel, Facebook says it has “removed a number of pieces of content from this page for violating these policies”.
The preacher said he was appealing against YouTube’s decision.
His YouTube account had 1.8 million subscribers
A YouTube spokesperson told open Democracy that the channel had been closed because its policy “prohibits content which alleges that someone is mentally ill, diseased, or inferior because of their membership in a protected group including sexual orientation”.
A post on TB Joshua Ministries Facebook account said: “We have had a long and fruitful relationship with YouTube and believe this decision was made in haste.”
The founder of the Synagogue, Church of All Nations is one of Nigeria’s most popular televangelists but is perhaps the least flamboyant of his peers.
Tens of thousands of people attend his weekly services in Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos
In 2014, one of his churches collapsed, killing at least 116 people, including many South Africans.
A coroner in a Lagos court said “the church was culpable because of criminal negligence” but he never faced any charges.
Most Nigerians expressed their support to YouTube and Facebook for closing his account. Visiting his church, we were able to get positive reactions from his followers.
“I have expected YouTube to shut down his account for a long time considering the fact that this videos are seen outside Nigeria. Although, gay is not legalized in Nigeria but there are other countries that have it legalized and this videos can be seen there too” – Mr Sunday (Digital Marketer)
“I will be so happy if only this account can be permanently blocked but I’m sure sooner or later everything will die down and the YouTube account will become functional again, what can money not do. This is not the first time his platforms gets blocked” – Ms Augustina (Ikotun Resident)
“We don’t support what he does or his brand of Christianity and we cannot endorse what he does, whatever happens to him is in his hands” – Anglican bishop.
Mrs Godwin (One of his followers) – “This is just one of the persecutions believers will face, the prophet already said so. Whether they close our youtube channel or not, the work of God will still continue”.
In the aftermath of the news that YouTube has suspended TB Joshua’s popular channel Emmanuel TV, the cleric reacted to the development, describing it as a “blessing” and calling on his followers to “pray for YouTube”.
“That is the work of God! It is like honey; wherever it drops, insects seek and find it,” Joshua stated during a ‘Partnership Meeting’ held April 19, 2021, according to a statement from the church.
“What happened is a blessing. I want you to help me pray for YouTube. Don’t see them the other way around; see them as friends,” he added, stressing that many discovered his ministry through the video-sharing website.
Continuing his message the following day, the cleric added such situations should be “expected” by believers.
“Whatever we are going through is to prepare us for the future… If you want to be strong, you need hard times to be strong. My message to the viewers all over the world – our struggle makes us stronger,” he counselled.
“Every response – take it to God. Every response – take it for prayer. The channel we are talking about, Emmanuel TV, is a Heavenly channel. This is not a worldly channel,” he calmly concluded in a video uploaded to a new channel named ‘Official TB Joshua’.