Someone said – I would rather men praised me while alive than cry when I’m dead.
I’m paraphrasing here but the sense I’m trying to convey is this; why do we celebrate people when they are dead instead of when they were alive to hear us.
I’ve no answers.
Since TB Joshua died on the 5th of July, 2021, there has been a huge outpouring of love and accolades from people all over the world. “Oh he was a great man; he was kind…he was a giver…he was humble…he was a true man of God…”
TB Joshua?
But apparently, there’s a lot more to the man than we have given him credit for.
Did you see the quality of crowd at his burial ceremony? According to Rotimi Akeredolu, the Governor of Ondo State, the distinguished array of worldwide heavy weights at TB Joshua’s funeral matched that of Nelson Mandela and he wasn’t exaggerating.
TB Joshua’s burial ceremony was a congregation of world leaders, entertainers… famous people from all over the world …including the community of Christian clerics in Nigeria who hitherto didn’t touch TB Joshua with a long pole when he was alive.
We are all guilty.
Now that he is gone, the veil he covered his family with has been pulled apart; our prying eyes are feasting on the lives TB Joshua guarded jealously. Now we’ve met his wife and lovely daughters but that’s not all, we are left with our mouths hanging at what we saw and we are very impressed.
I watched the ceremony on YouTube and what I was most impressed with was not the transparent casket, nor the well tended and decorated halls, I wasn’t even taken in with the order and grand coordination of the ceremony, what got my goose were TB Joshua’s children.
Serah, Promise and Heart.
The girls were a delight to watch. They are beautiful, appear strong and spoke so well about the man they called Daddy.
We saw a new TB Joshua through the eyes and words of his daughters.
TB was obviously a man who spent quality time with his daughters because they spoke so intimately about the man we thought was a mystery.
Serah, his first daughter is a graduate of Law the second and third daughters are clearly ladies who know where they are going.
Serah said, “He was a true humanitarian for his generation. What a feat you have left for all of us to live up to.”
Promise, his second daughter and one who is her father’s carbon copy said, “ I will say that my Dad did an excellent job in preparing me mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and even physically…I remembered our trip to Arigidi in Akoko, Ondo State, he made sure I was present when in town to visit the elderly people. He would ask me to kneel down as we asked the elders to accept out gifts and they would pray for us. He would look at me and say ‘this is the good life.’
And Heart, his last born child will perhaps be the one who will miss him the most. She recalled a time she asked her father for a bicycle and he didn’t immediately yield to her request but one day he brought one home to her.
This speaks of a man devoted to his children, devoted to his wife and community.
So while we were busy haunting TB Joshua for his grammar, castigating him for prophesies we say never came true, his lack of Bible knowledge, he was preparing his backend, he was fortifying his children to rule in the domain we mocked him about!
His daughter, Heart- “I don’t have many words to express how much I love him…At a tender age, he showed me that he loved me, and I will forever love him.”
His wife also had a lot to say and people who knew him, interacted with him are full of good things.
Dr. Tee Mac Omatsola, concert flutist /Philharmonic composer with a degree in Economics from a Swiss university described TB Joshua, whom he said he’s known for over 20 years, as “a humble, honest human being.”
When he was alive, TB Joshua thrived on the mystique created around him by other people. Whether that mystique is true or not is another thing to ponder on. However, those who had opportunity to meet him, interact with him, say, far from the mystique created around him, which they say he had nothing to do with, the man was an honest to God human being.
And that is what we should all aspire to: to be called human.