Rotimi Akeredolu, Ondo State governor, has eulogised late founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Temitope Balogun Joshua, at the funeral service which held in the church on Friday.
Akeredolu, in company of his wife, led a delegation of the state government to the ceremony.
The governor explained how the last evangelist, popularly known as TB Joshua, touched the lives of both the downtrodden and those who are privileged.
He said the late preacher who hailed from Arigidi Akoko area of the state, paid electricity bills of a senatorial district in Ondo, after four local government areas could not pay the debt they were owing an electricity distribution company.
He also disclosed that TB Joshua bought transformers for the affected communities.
Akeredolu said though the late cleric was not born with a silver spoon, he didn’t forget his root.
He also recounted how TB Joshua drove to Owo in Ondo to congratulate him after winning his election as governor in 2015.
According to him, the televangelist gave him cash gifts for himself and his wife to entertain guests.
“I can’t be in any other place today; I have to be here. It’s a must. I owe him, I owe pastor TB Joshua that duty to be here today. We cannot forget so soon things we benefitted from him as a state, in terms of scholarships awarded to students, youth empowerment, resolving and settling huge electricity bills owed by a number of local governments”, he said.
“When the whole of another senatorial district was in darkness, they came to him. The government could not afford. He paid their bill. They said they were owing; pastor TB Joshua paid. Four local government areas, he paid. A number of them did not have transformers, he bought for them. He ensured reconnection to the national grid after many years of disconnection.
“His love was not only for the less privileged, let us say the truth; even those of us who are privileged, we have also benefitted from his love. I can testify personally to the good things I have benefitted from him. Pastor TB Joshua, when I won election to be governor of Ondo State, then, we didn’t have this flight to Akure; it was not a common thing.
“He drove from here to Owo my home town, because then I wasn’t a governor yet, I had just being elected. And I think something went wrong with his vehicle in Akure but he still managed to get to Owo. And I saw him in trousers and shirt. Usually when I see him I’ll say ‘Emmanuel’, he will say ‘governor you have started again’ and I’ll say ‘but I must have all the respect for you o’.
“But he came over, it’s a testimony. No other person had ever done that before. And he said to me that he had come to wish me well, to pray. He prayed and did everything and when he was leaving, he put something in my pocket. I won’t tell you how much he put in my pocket, but it was a great thing he put in my pocket.
“And said as governor, you will need to entertain people, take. I’m privileged, so it’s not only the less privilege that he assisted. But he didn’t stop at that. Because my wife wasn’t around, he now said ‘Madam also will be entertaining people, give this to her’”.
The governor, while hailing the legacy of TB Joshua, said he was special from birth because he gathered from the primary school classmates of the late prophet that he performed miracles far back then.
“He was special because he could perform wonders even in primary school. And I say this from facts that I gathered from his mates. He was one who could sit down among his mates in primary school and ask for few things to come and they will get it and take. That is special. He was one who could tell a player in primary school ‘don’t go and play because you can break your leg’. And if he proceeds to play, he can come back with broken leg. So he was a special person, he was special from birth”, he stated.
Akeredolu also said there were more countries represented at the funeral service of the clergyman than at the burial of late South African icon, Nelson Mandela.
“We have had the world congregated in this number from different countries in many such services and probably, that of Nelson Mandela. But the world was is more presented here than when Nelson Mandela was buried,” he stated.
