Faith & Community
Landmark
T. B. Joshua
1963 – 2021
Built one of Africa's largest ministries and its biggest religious broadcaster
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Nigeria Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations and Emmanuel TV, with a following across Africa and beyond and one of the largest religious audiences on the continent. Also the subject of one of the most serious investigations ever published into a church leader.
Temitope Balogun Joshua was born in Arigidi in Ondo State into poverty, had little formal schooling, and worked as a poultry hand and a labourer before founding the Synagogue Church of All Nations in the Ikotun-Egbe district of Lagos in 1987 with a handful of members.
He built it into one of the largest ministries in Africa. The Lagos compound drew pilgrims in such numbers that Nigerian tourism figures counted them separately, arriving from across the continent and from Latin America, Europe and Asia; at its height it was reported as one of the biggest single drivers of religious travel into the country.
Emmanuel TV, launched in 2006, became the most watched Christian broadcaster in Africa, with an audience measured in the tens of millions and one of the largest religious followings on YouTube in the world until the channel was removed in 2021. His reach was political as well as spiritual: heads of state and senior politicians from several African countries visited him, and his pronouncements were treated as news.
He also ran a large charitable operation — the Emmanuel TV Partners funded scholarships, clinics, rehabilitation programmes for former militants in the Niger Delta, and disaster relief across West Africa, and he was among the more substantial private givers in Nigeria.
He died in June 2021, days before his fifty-eighth birthday. He was among the most influential religious figures Nigeria has produced, and the most internationally visible.
He built it into one of the largest ministries in Africa. The Lagos compound drew pilgrims in such numbers that Nigerian tourism figures counted them separately, arriving from across the continent and from Latin America, Europe and Asia; at its height it was reported as one of the biggest single drivers of religious travel into the country.
Emmanuel TV, launched in 2006, became the most watched Christian broadcaster in Africa, with an audience measured in the tens of millions and one of the largest religious followings on YouTube in the world until the channel was removed in 2021. His reach was political as well as spiritual: heads of state and senior politicians from several African countries visited him, and his pronouncements were treated as news.
He also ran a large charitable operation — the Emmanuel TV Partners funded scholarships, clinics, rehabilitation programmes for former militants in the Niger Delta, and disaster relief across West Africa, and he was among the more substantial private givers in Nigeria.
He died in June 2021, days before his fifty-eighth birthday. He was among the most influential religious figures Nigeria has produced, and the most internationally visible.
- Sahara Reporters — BBC investigation unveils late Nigerian pastor T.B. Joshua's atrocities
- AllAfrica — BBC documentary reveals alleged atrocities, cover-ups by late TB Joshua, SCOAN
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