The Nigerian pastor and televangelist TB Joshua has died according to his family and his church. Joshua is said to have died minutes after concluding a program at his church.
He was 57.
Joshua was the leader and founder of the Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN), a church that runs the Emmanuel television station in Lagos, Nigeria. According to his official Twitter account, Joshua died on Saturday.
“The Synagogue, Church of All Nations, and Emmanuel TV Family appreciate your love, prayers, and concern at this time and request a time of privacy for the family. Here are Prophet Joshua’s last word: Watch and Pray.”
Joshua was known for his popularity across Africa and Latin America and his social media presence with 3,500,000 fans on Facebook.
His YouTube channel, Emmanuel TV, had over 1,000,000 YouTube subscribers and was the world’s most viewed Christian ministry on the platform before it was suspended. Described as the “Oprah of Evangelism” and “YouTube’s most popular Pastor”.
He was awarded various accolades, notably receiving the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) by the Nigerian government in 2008 and being voted the Yoruba man of the decade by Pan-Yoruba media outlet Irohin-Odua.
He was called one of Africa’s 50 most influential people by Pan-African magazines The Africa Report and New African Magazine.
As of 2011, according to Forbes, Joshua was Nigeria’s third-richest pastor, although the claim was immediately denied in a statement by the church. He was known to be controversial and was even ‘blacklisted’ by the government of Cameroon in 2010.