Religion

Nigerian Pastor T.B. Joshua has released a controversial YouTube video purportedly showing the healing of a man with horrific snake-like scales across his body. The clip titled, ‘A Video You Will NEVER FORGET’ shows Mr Jude Oraka from Anambra State, Nigeria, receiving prayer from the controversial cleric during a prayer service at The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) in Lagos.

 Oraka, a driver by profession, claimed he fell victim to a strange skin disease six years ago which “defied medical comprehension”.Jude’s sister described him as a “walking corpse” whom the family had given up on. However, several months after receiving prayer, Oraka returned with smooth skin to testify that “he was healed by Jesus Christ through T.B. Joshua”.

The clip has already racked up over 100,000 views since its release and attracted hundreds of comments from both skeptics and believers alike. Joshua is not a stranger to controversy, making headlines this week for not showing up at a court case surrounding the deadly collapse of a building within his church premises last year. Emmanuel TV, which debuted on DStv and GOtv last month, is one of the most popular Christian television stations in Africa. It’s YouTube channel has over 265,000 subscribers, making it among the most subscribed Christian channels worldwide.

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Ngwa Bertrand

04.Dec.2015

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Among the millions of Shiite Muslims marking Arbaeen, an important fixture on the Islamic calendar, are pilgrims in Nigeria. They intend to join the final stretch of a pilgrimage despite the terrorist threat.

They come from northern Nigeria, Ghana, Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Togo. Clad from head to toe in black, they have been walking together in large groups for days. The pilgrims' destination is the city of Zaria in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, where they were set to be addressed by Shiite cleric Ibrahim Zakzaky.

On Arbaeen, Shiites honor the memory of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was killed in the year 680. His mausoleum lies in Kerbala in present-day Iraq and attracts millions of devotees every year. Religious observation peaks on the 40th day after the anniversary of Hussein's death.

"This is the key ritual event of the year for Shiite Muslims, rather like Christmas for Christians" said Professor Roman Loimeier, an expert on Muslim communities in Africa at the University of Göttingen in Germany.

For West African Shiites, Kerbala is a very distant destination for a pilgrimage. They travel instead to Zaria. Mohammed Mukhtar Sahabi, Shiite leader in Kaduna, told DW he is glad he is able to join the pilgrimage. "We thank God that we are members of the generation that loves Imam Hussein and mourns his death," he said. Hussein was with his family when he was killed. "We will also be with our families and children during the procession," he added.

West Africa's young Shiite community

Shiites such as Mohammed Mukhtar Sahabi are a minority among West Africa's Muslims. Most West African Muslims are Sunnis, who, globally, account for 80 percent of all Muslims. Loimeier estimates that just one percent of Nigeria's Muslims are Shiites. There is no deep-rooted Shiite tradition in the region. Their arrival can be explained by a relatively recent historical event, the 1978-1979 revolution in Iran, which sent shock waves through West Africa's Muslim communities. Zakzaky, the Nigerian Shiite cleric, was an enthusiastic supporter of the revolution and spent a considerable amount of time in Iran.

"The first pro-Iranian groups and, at a later date, Shiite groups emerged in Nigeria and in other parts of West Africa in the 1980s as a result of such contacts with Iran," Loimeier said. These groups include Nigeria's Islamic Movement, which Zakzaky leads and is mostly, though not exclusively, Shiite.

The Shiite community in Nigeria has tens of thousands of members and is the largest in West Africa. Its influence extends to other countries in the region such as Ghana or Senegal.

Last Friday (27.11.2015), a Shiite procession near the city of Kano in northern Nigeria was targeted by a suicide bomber. Clad in black, like members of the procession, the bomber ran into the crowd and detonated his explosives. 22 people were killed; a second suspected bomber was arrested. Boko Haram, the Sunni jihadists, who want to create a hardline Islamic state in northern Nigeria, claimed responsibility for the blast.

Loimeier says Sunni Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa have no fund of historical co-existence with the Shiites upon which they are able to draw during daily life and religious observance. They regard the Shiite movement as a provocation and consider their rituals insulting. This may help to explain the hostility between the majority Sunnis and minority Shiites. But Loimeier cautions against sweeping generalizations. "There are groups within the Sunnis that don't have any issues with the Shiites," he said. "But the radical Salafists view the Shiites with particular enmity, not just in northern Nigeria but in other parts of the Islamic world as well."

Animosity towards Shiites

The Shiites have other opponents as well. "Boko Haram are merely the most militant," Loimeier said. Others include the more moderate Salafists and - in previous times - the Nigerian state, which arrested and imprisoned Zakzaky on several occasions. But it would appear that those days are now gone, because there is now a Shiite minister in President Muhammadu Buhari's recently-appointed cabinet.

Pilgrims in northern Nigeria say they will not let last week's suicide bombing deter them from taking part in Thursday's (03.12.2015) procession. Observers say that numbers have even swelled out of solidarity with the Shiites. Members of other confessions are joining in, such as the Christian clergyman Ioanna YD Buru, who runs a Peace and Reconciliation Foundation. "I want to build bridges between Muslims and Christians," he said. He darts back and forth among the weary pilgrims offering them a drink of water.

Security has been tightened. Mallam Abdulmumini Giwa, a spokesman for Zakzaky's Islamic Movement, is reasonably confident all will go well. He notes that while a first bomber was able to carry out his deadly mission last Friday, a second was apprehended before he could detonate his explosives.

(DW)

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

04.Dec.2015

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A Lagos State High Court presided by Justice Lawal Akapo has adjourned till 11th of December, the trial of senior pastor and prophet of Synagogue Church of All Nations, Temitope Joshua over death of 116 persons, mostly South Africans, in a building within the church premises that collapsed last year.

The trial scheduled to commence today was stalled by absence of four engineers who were to be arraigned alongside the Synagogue church’s board of trustees. Only a person appeared in respect of the Church’s board of trustees.

Oluwaseun Abimbola, counsel to the defendants told the court that the contractors were not served with court papers by the Ministry of Justice, and therefore had no cause to appear before court.

Lagos State’s Attorney General, Adeniji Kazeem said no valid physical addresses were found for the contractors, which he said was reason that the Ministry could not locate or serve the court papers on the engineers.

The judge, while ordering that proper court notices be served on the contractors within 72 hours, the judge advised the Church’s counsel that the trial is of a criminal case and that the defendants should take the trail seriously.

The trial is in respect of the death of 116 persons from the mysterious collapse of a guest house within premises of the Synagogue Church late last year.

A coroner inquest presided by Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe into the deaths has found the Church and its contractors negligent in the collapse. The coroner advised the Lagos State Government to institute legal action against the Lagos based church and its contractors for their negligence, which caused deaths of occupants of the building when it collapsed.

TB JOSHUA CONTROVERSIES

Prior to the building collapse, one of the issues that troubled the minds of people about Joshua was when the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, the umbrella association for Pentecostal churches in the country, waged a war against him. The PFN had publicly declared Joshua as an anti-Christ in a letter it sent to some Christian organisations around the world including in Ghana, signed by Ayo Oritsejafor and Wale Adefarasin, PFN’s former president and secretary-general, respectively, and addressed to Rt. Reverend Frimpong-Manso and Rev Deegbe, chairman and general secretary of the CCG.  “As the custodians of the gospel that was once delivered to the saints, it has taken a divine grace for us to diagnose and expose the new wave of anti-Christ springing from Nigeria with one Fatai Balogun a.k.a Prophet T. B. Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations as the arrowhead.”

According to the letter, “Armed with cosmetic testimonies of pseudo-miracles and an array of superficial charity, this pre-ordained enemy of Christ began his assault on the Church a few decades ago and the warning bell was sounded by the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, but foreign ministers from diverse nations who were captivated by the knitted prophecies swooped into Nigeria. Unknown to these gullible pilgrims, their presence simply validated the operations of the anti-Christ. The rash actions of these mostly white but misguided ministers fuelled a global expansion of the emerging anti-Christ.” We must confess to you that our past experiences in the handling of false prophets, false apostles… proved insufficient in the face of the new threats,” the letter said.

Also, Chris Okotie, pastor of the Household of God took to the airwaves accusing Joshua of having occult powers. Matters were not helped when some key members of his church aired a video denouncing Joshua and made all manner of unsavoury allegations that the man of God was sexually abusing minors who were church members. But all these allegations have always ended up being a nine-day wonder generating a lot of dust but leaving the prophet unscathed and without reducing his influence on his followers.

This is why the world is watching keenly the trial of  the collapse of the six-storey building which is the guest house of the Synagogue Church of All Nations where foreigners who troop to his church stayed. There has been an attempt to cover the facts of what led to the collapse of the building which is under construction if though it was also being used as guest house at the same time. Instead Joshua concentrated effort at proving that he was indeed the victim of the happenstance and not culpable in any way.  The prophet stated categorically that the collapse of the building which left 131 injured as September 18,2014  was a Boko Haram attack.

Joshua justified his claim by showing his congregation on the Emmanuel TV the chronology of events shortly before and after the incident as captured by the church’s close circuit television, CCTV. “I received a phone call immediately I got here, just 10 minutes later when I was in the church, that there was a jet hovering over the mountain where I had just left. They said it was hovering at a close range. Before I knew it, I received another phone call that the same jet was now at the church hovering over the building, passing it four times at a very close range before the building collapsed,” he said.

Joshua equally read to the church a letter which he claimed was addressed to him by a Boko Haram, an Islamic sect, member, confessing how he had attempted to plant a bomb inside the church. He said his church was being attacked to scare away members. “This environment at Ikotun Egbe, we have never witnessed an accident of a building collapse. This is a very stable terrain. I have been here for the past 30 years. I am pregnant with words, but we have left the security agencies to do their job. Let us believe and educate our people and be alive.”

Joshua did not tell his audience whether he reported the letter to the police but he assured them that God would bring the perpetrators of the attack to book. Joshua said that the decision of the insurgents to focus on his church might be the end of the Boko Haram’s activities in the country. “I know you will ask why the church? It is because of the spiritual blessings that God has bestowed upon us. A big head wears a large hat. Don’t forget about the Ebola issue too, it was God that rescued the church. Probably they would have dropped an Ebola patient inside the church, so that they would said there is an Ebola patient in the church, don’t go there. They are trying to scare you from coming to church. Don’t be scared, you are not the target, I’m the target. I know my time has not yet come. I have not yet finished my job. I want to assure you that our God will get back at them and you will know when he gets back to them. May be this would be the end of the whole thing,” Joshua said.

Joshua in the course of his sermon told his congregation that they must be wondering if he had seen a ‘revelation,’ because, he had encouraged his church members not to trust in their possession but the Giver of the possessions. The pastor also said some months ago, he reported that a member of Boko Haram was apprehended in his church, but the Lagos State government did not believe it. He claimed that a few months ago, the church sighted an aerial surveillance camera hovering above the church. He said members of the church knocked it down and brought it to him.

But Joshua’s Sunday sermon contradicted what he told journalists on Saturday, September 13. According to him, he was at the mountain when he received call that an aircraft was hovering around the six-storey building. “I was at the mountain yesterday, where I went to pray. After praying, I slept off there. The place is about five minutes from here. I left around 9 am. They called me that there was a plane trying to land, I told them not to worry; that only a helicopter can land, but they said they were worried that it was coming too close to the building and that maybe it was taking pictures. The same plane went around Ikotun. To our surprise, after moving round Ikotun, it came back on top of this building four times. There is a surveillance camera in here. We have a role to play; we cannot leave everything to God,” he said.

Olu Ojewale./SAHARA REPORTERS

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Ngwa Bertrand

30.Nov.2015

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Pope Francis on Sunday preached reconciliation in the divided Central African Republic, a nation racked by bloodshed between Muslims and Christians. As the pope's Alitalia plane touched down from Uganda to start his first visit to a war zone. Bangui, the capital of the former French colony, has seen a surge in clashes that have left at least 100 people dead since late September. France, which has around 900 soldiers deployed in the country, warned the Vatican this month that the visit could be risky but the pope was determined to go to the majority Christian nation.

"Reconciliation, forgiveness, love, peace," he said in a dramatic voice in the homily of a Mass at the city's cathedral in the afternoon, appealing to warring militias to "lay down these instruments of death". Francis was driven past tens of thousands of cheering people to and from events in a simple car or an open popemobile. "Work, pray, do everything for peace. But remember, peace without love, friendship and tolerance is nothing," he said at one stop, a visit to camp housing some 4,000 people displaced by the violence in Bangui's neighborhoods. He was mobbed by the crowd and asked them all to shout out repeatedly in their native Songo language: "We are all brothers". He opened a "holy door" at the city's cathedral for a symbolic local start of the Roman Catholic Church's jubilee year on the theme of mercy. The jubilee begins officially at the Vatican on Dec. 8. "The Holy Year of Mercy is coming early to this land that has been suffering for years from hate, incomprehension and lack of peace," he said, standing on the cathedral steps. "For Bangui, for all the people of the Central African Republic and for all the countries in the world suffering from war, we ask for peace," he said in the unprepared remarks to a crowd outside. Shortly after his arrival Francis heard interim head of state Catherine Samba-Panza paint a bleak picture of her country. "We absolutely need forgiveness because our hearts have been hardened by the forces of evil. We have lost the sincere love for others and we are henceforth anchored in intolerance, the loss of our values and the disorder that is the result," she told him at the official welcoming ceremony. France sent in soldiers in 2013 in an attempt to stem the violence. Muslims and Christians have since split into segregated communities. 

Tens of thousands of Muslims have fled to the far north, creating a de facto partition. About 80 percent of the impoverished country's population is Christian, roughly 15 percent is Muslim and 5 percent animist. Central African Republic's government is deploying around 500 police and gendarmes to secure the visit. More than 3,000 peacekeepers from the MINUSCA U.N. mission will also be deployed and French troops will be on alert as well. The most dangerous segment of the pope's African trip takes place on Monday when he will enter Bangui's PK5 Muslim enclave and visit its central mosque. The neighborhood, epicenter of a fresh surge in violence, is encircled by Christian militias who have imposed a blockade. Bangui is the final leg of his first African trip.

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Ngwa Bertrand

30.Nov.2015

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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Pope Francis travels Sunday to Central African Republic, making the final stop of his first trip to Africa in a country where violence between Christian and Muslim militants has forced nearly 1 million from their homes over the last two years and created a divided capital.

The precarious security situation in the capital of Bangui had raised the possibility in recent weeks that the pope could cancel his visit. Less than a year ago, mobs were beating Muslims to death in the streets, even decapitating and dismembering their victims. While sectarian clashes have left at least 100 people dead over the last two months, recent days have been relatively free of gunfire.

Many hope that the pope's message of peace and reconciliation can usher in a longer-term stability in a nation of 4.8 million. As part of his trip, the pope plans to visit a displacement camp where Christians have sought refuge. He also will venture into the capital's Muslim enclave, known as PK5, to meet with community leaders and the displaced.

President Catherine Samba-Panza told reporters Saturday that the pope is being awaited as a "peace messenger."

"Many Central Africans hope that the messages he will deliver will inspire a national mobilization and realization that Central Africans learn to accept each other again, learn to live together again and learn to go toward peace and reconstruction of their country," she said.

At the displacement camp at Bangui's airport, where thousands have lived for nearly two years, there is a sense that things now are the worst they've been since December 2013. Sandrine Sanze and her family are now back for a second time after the recent clashes, having initially spent nine months there.

Pope Francis meets with young people at the Kololo airstrip in Kampala, Uganda, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2 …

"It is our prayer that with the pope's visit that peace will return, we can go home and life can start anew," she said, as she sat on the ground outside her home made of scrap metal that she and her husband dragged to the site.

The situation remains tense and fragile: Bangui's archbishop travels into the city's Muslim enclave under escort from armed peacekeepers. The city of Bangui has long been under a nightly curfew of 8 p.m. as gun battles have rung out after dark in the flashpoint neighborhoods.

The United Nations sought to assure the Vatican that security was under control on the eve of the pope's arrival. The head of the U.N. operation, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, told Vatican Radio that U.N. peacekeepers and French troops were confident that they could keep the pope and his entourage safe.

"Certainly, you can't exclude that a saboteur might try to disrupt the calm, but we're ready to respond in the most efficient way possible," Onanga-Anyanga said.

The bloodshed dates back to early 2013, when a coalition of mostly Muslim rebel groups from the country's anarchic north overthrew the Christian president. Their power grab was more about greed than ideology, yet their reign saw hatred rise as the rebels carried out brutal attacks on civilians. After the rebel leader stepped aside in early 2014, a wave of retaliatory violence by anti-Balaka fighters forced most of the capital's Muslims to flee. Human Rights Watch said there are only 15,000 remaining, down from around 122,000.

Guests cheer as Pope Francis arrives at dusk for a meeting with priests, religious and seminarians a …

Central African Republic was organizing democratic elections for December when the death of a young Muslim taxi driver in late September reignited tensions. Within hours, the Muslim fighters, called the Seleka, retaliated in attacks on Christians in the neighborhoods surrounding PK5.

The Muslim community in PK5 was eager to welcome Pope Francis, Onanga-Anyanga said. Earlier this week, workers were busily repainting the cream-colored mosque he is due to visit a vibrant mint green.

"The opportunity of the pope's visit reminds us that aside from being a head of state, he's also a spiritual leader," he said. "And it's perhaps in this dimension that the Central Africans can find the energy, the inspiration so that the country can find the will to reconcile with itself, and that it can plan a future in which all the Central African children can live in unity."

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Nov.2015

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Pope Francis will conclude his brief tour of Africa with a challenging trip to the Central African Republic, a poverty stricken country riddled with violence between Muslim rebels and Christian militia.

The Central African Republic descended into inter-religious violence in March 2013 after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, toppling President Francoise Bozizze and sparking reprisal killings by Christian anti-balaka militia.

Seleka later handed power over to a transitional authority, bowing to heavy international pressure. That authority is still in place, though elections to choose a democatically legitimized government are due on December 27, 2015.

Both Seleka and anti-balaka have committed widespread atrocities. Thousands have been killed in the violence. One in five Central Africans have either left their homes for another part of the country or sought refuge abroad.

In the capital Bangui, a 300-meter (328 yard) stretch of no-man's land marks the entrance to an enclave known as PK5, where most of the Muslims who have not fled or been killed are holed up.

Planned mosque visit

Christian anti-balaka fighters, armed with daggers and grenades, wait by the road scrutinizing the few passing vehicles to ensure that supplies do not get in and no Muslim gets out.

Abdel Aziz Magbadakara, a Bangui iman and Secretary General of the Communuity of Central African Muslims (CICA) told DW the pope's visit would contribute to social cohesion in the capital and could bring about reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.

"The message to the two communities in Central African Republic is that we should silence our quarrels in order to welcome our guest," he said.

Pope Francis is due to visit Nabi's mosque, which was getting a fresh coat of green paint.

Lewis Mudge, Africa researcher with Human Rights Watch (HRW), said PK5 had become the fault line of the sectarian violence gripping Bangui. "Pope Francis' visit to Bangui is a critical moment for a senior religious figure to condemn violence by all sides, urge tolerance, and call for those responsible to be brought to justice," he said in an article published on HRW's website on Thursday (26.11.2015).

As well as visiting a mosque, Francis plans to hold a prayer vigil at the cathedral in Bangui and spend some time at a displacement camp.

Central Africans on both sides of the religious divide have rallied behind the papal visit, reducing the risk that his presence could exacerbate communal tensions.

Lazare Ndjadder, a PK5 resident, told DW the visit had great significance for the enclave and they were "working to increase awareness so that there will be no incidents as the pope passes through."

"We want the pope to bring us peace," said Cynthia Mayo, a Christian in the M'Poko camp for displaced persons.

Ingrid, a student at Bangui University, told DW the pope "will try to bring together the two sides who are currently opposed to one another so the Central African population can live in peace."

Gladys, who works for an NGO in Bangui, told DW she was also expecting messages of peace that would encourage the country's development, but it would be wrong to equate the pope "to a bailout fund."

Concern for the pope's safety

The United Nations currently maintains a peacekeeping mission (MINUSCA) in the country with some 9,100 peacekeepers and 1,500 police. An extra 750 troops and 140 police are to be deployed in time for the December 27 elections. African Union forces and a French military mission are also present in Central African Republic.

The UN said earlier this month some of the reinforcements should be in place before the pope's visit.

Nonetheless, a French defense official said Paris had warned the Catholic Church about potential security issues, Reuters reported.

(DW)

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Ngwa Bertrand

28.Nov.2015

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