Prophet TB Joshua, head of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Nigeria, shot into prominence in Ghana, when former opposition leader, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, won the 2008 presidential election, against all odds, and his victory attributed to the super-human intervention in Ghanaian politics by the Nigerian man of God.
For the three and a half years that President Atta Mills was in power, TB Joshua was touted as the spiritual head behind the Atta-Mills presidency.
When the Nigerian prophet was denied the right to officiate at the funeral ceremony of the fallen Head of State, the denial was headline news. Yesterday, TB Joshua drew thousands of Ghanaians to a special service he officiated at the former President’s backyard.
Right from dawn until the service officially began at 3:00 p.m., the Spintex Road was a no-go area. Traffic crawled at a snail’s pace, as thousands of ordinary Ghanaians rushed to catch a glimpse of the spiritual leader, in the hope that some of his powers would rub off on them.
It was like a circus was in town and everybody wanted to be a part of it. Yesterday, all activities in the Eastern corridor in Accra froze at the presence of the famous Man of God, who was said to have worked supernaturally to cause one of the major upsets in presidential elections in Africa.
The deceased head of state acknowledged the power that helped him to annex the high office in 2008, after Ghanaians had rejected him twice at the polls.
Yesterday, activities at the Spintex Road in Accra, where the former Head of State had his private home, was like the second coming of Christ for believers in the TB Joshua doctrine.
Residents, workers and commuters who use the Spintex Road were left stranded as early as 5:00 a.m., when believers started making their way to the Ghanaian version of the Synagogue of All Nations
TB Joshua’s visit to Ghana, The Chronicle has gathered, was part of a fresh effort by the prophet to personally meet his Ghanaian congregation on a regular basis.
Information gathered by The Chronicle indicates that although pastors, often referred to as ‘wise men’ are designated by the prophet make occasional visits to the Ghanaian branch of the Synagogue Church, many Ghanaians pay huge transportation and hotel bills to travel to Nigeria to meet the man of God.
The trip from Ghana to Nigeria is believed to cost the pilgrims an amount not less than GH¢1,500 including accommodation and food, till they obtain passes to see the Prophet.
Sources say the trip to Nigeria to confer with the prophet has gained popularity, and is making good businesses for transport owners who have put the church in Nigeria their route.
A few weeks, ago the exploits of Prophet TB Joshua swept through Ghana when news of his encounter with a human rights lawyer, Mr. Kwabla Senanu, was televised on Emmanuel Channel owned by the synagogue.
In that episode, Prophet Joshua explained that an unusual sleepiness and blurred speech encountered by Lawyer Senanu in the Supreme Court recently, were caused by spiritual attacks.
The Daily Graphic publication of March 15, 2013 carried a story and a picture in which Mr. Senanu was captured sleeping in the Supreme Court when he had gone there to represent some Ghanaian voters who allegedly felt they might have been be disenfranchised in the case in which Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and two others, are challenging the declaration of President John Dramani Mahama as the winner of the December 7, 2012 presidential election.
Mr. Senanu, in a testimony after his deliverance, narrated thus: “It all started when I took my wife to London to experience life abroad, because of the importance Ghanaians attached to individuals (popularly called burgers) who had travelled abroad,” he said.
“In London, while we were asleep, I often saw something like a hippopotamus raising our bed into the air. This strange phenomenon cascaded into a different dimension when I sleep at places at odd times,” he added.
Giving some instances when those strange occurrences had befallen him, Mr. Senanu said at one time, while he was in court, his speech became blurred, his body weak, and he dosed off suddenly, when he was supposed to be on his feet defending his client.
TB Joshua’s trip to Ghana is said to continue on a very regular basis to attend to the spiritual needs of the numerous Ghanaians who would have to pay huge sums of money to travel to Nigeria to see the Prophet.