Death in the Synagogue

Pastor T.B. Joshua and the collapsed edifice

Ordinarily, the Synagogue should be a place of hope, a place of succour, a place of rest, to use a biblical term. But at Ikotun, a suburb of Lagos, a spiritual edifice that goes by the name The Synagogue of All Nations has in the last few days become a place of blood. Even when we are yet to ascertain the reason(s) why the Church’s guest house under construction collapsed, and in the process taking scores of people down, there are already plausible speculations that some clever gods might have circumvented building codes.

Whatever may have been responsible for the tragedy, it is difficult to believe the theory that Boko Haram deployed its “fighter jets” to Lagos to kill Pastor Temitope Joshua. That is what the church leader has been telling those who cared to listen with some video clips as evidence of his claim. Anybody who believes such a tale can believe anything, apology to James Hadley Chase!

However, to the extent that there is an international dimension to the tragedy, the authorities have to conduct a thorough investigation. The Synagogue is a centre for spiritual tourism because of the claim that Pastor Joshua has the powers to cure any and every ailment/affliction, from HIV/AIDS to Ebola.
On Monday, the South African Department of International Relations' spokesman, Nelson Kgwete, said that “at least five South African church tour groups were at the Synagogue at the time of the collapse”. And on Tuesday, President Jacob Zuma said 67 South Africans died in the tragedy. “This is a particularly difficult time for South Africa. Not in the recent history of our country have we had this large number of our people die in one incident outside the country,” Zuma said in a statement.

If South Africa alone could record 67 deaths, what that suggests is that this tragedy is bigger than what many of us imagined. But because a place of worship is involved, and given how Nigerians behave when it comes to the issue of their faith, it would be difficult for the authorities to secure the kind of access that would avail them the opportunity to really get to the bottom of what exactly happened. Yet, even with all the hysteria about Ebola Virus in our country in the last one month the number of casualties is still in single digit. Therefore, it is important to unravel the mystery of the collapsed building where dozens of lives have been recorded lost and hundreds of other persons wounded--some severely. While I commiserate with the families of the deceased and wish the injured quick recovery, we must do everything to learn lessons that would ensure we do not witness such a tragedy again.

Source: Olusegun Adeniyi, ThisDay