LAGOS, Nigeria – Nigerian televangelist TB Joshua – who had presidents and prime ministers seek his blessings – has died aged 57.
The self-described prophet, who amassed millions of followers on social media from his base in the Nigerian city of Lagos, died on Saturday night following a service, a church statement said without providing a cause of death.
“God has taken his servant Prophet TB Joshua home – as it should be by divine will,” the statement posted on TB Joshua’s Facebook page said. “His last moments on earth were spent in the service of God. This is what he was born for, lived for and died for.”
Joshua founded and led an evangelical ministry called The Synagogue, Church of All Nations. His Christian television network, Emmanuel TV, boasts that it is YouTube’s most subscribed to ministry channel with well over one million followers.
Joshua’s megachurch drew the rich and famous from all over the world. Zimbabwe’s former prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Malawian president Joyce Banda were once visitors.
The church drew tens of thousands of followers from across Africa over the last few years amid claims that he had the ability to cure normally incurable ailments.
The regular influx of visitors from abroad for TB Joshua’s services, which can run for up to a week, created demand for accommodation.
In September 2014, a building collapse at the church killed 115 people, most of them South Africans visitors.
