Prophet Wole Bamiduro who discovered T. B JOSHUA dies + his last interview with City People

 

Prophet (Dr.) Wole Bamiduro was a veteran prophet and a church leader of several decades in the vineyard of the God until he died a few weeks back. 

He is the founder of Lion of Judah Church of Christ, a spiritual church situated on Wole Bamiduro Street by Ahmadiyya Bus Stop, Ojokoro LCDA and is also famous for the gift of healing all sorts of illnesses ranging from Diabetes, Stroke and Mental disorder. But one secret that has lived with this man of God in the last two decades is the secret of how he discovered the world famous Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua who is the founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOANS). 

 

Before his death he spoke to CITY PEOPLE about the entire story you will never read elsewhere about Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua, the man in the Synagogue. Enjoy the excerpts.

HOW I BECAME A PROPHET

Sir, how were you called, from what we gathered from your profile, you have been a prophet for 50 years now, so how did you get the calling?

What I noticed is that when I was in the boarding school, I lived in the boarding house. And every now and then when I was on my bed in the night, I saw people, about three people they will appear to me in white attire. I thought they were dead people and each time I run home to go and tell my father that this is what I always see when I am sleeping. Physically I will be looking at them; they will stay by my bed. So, my dad now prepared a medicine for me because my dad was an herbalist. He prepared some medications and did a mark on my head; just like a cross. When he marked my head, that very day when I got to the school I started seeing seven-seven people whom I now discovered were angels, not human beings. Seven-Seven angels will come to my bed. Until one of these days when I went to the farm to go and read because we always read inside the farm then; as I was sleeping, I saw them again; they were with me and I had to run back to my father to say ‘sir, I still continue to see these dead people o’. Until one day I went for a vigil at a church in my town and they just put the photograph of JESUS in my heart. I can tell you that I started this ministry when I was young. Very, very young, so, when I got to Lagos State I joined a church, Cherubim and Seraphim. From there I became the choir master and I continued to see these same angels, they will always visit me. From there I entered the Celestial Church of Christ; when I became a member of the Celestial Church of Christ, an angel came to me when I was sleeping; waking me up and started talking to me that this is what I am going to become, this is what I am going to do. That this is how to go about it and at the end of the day, it materialized. I saw the Holy Spirit that very night and from that moment I became a prophet. I can tell you that I don’t know this job before but it is as a result of the act of God. That is why I told you that a prophet must be a prophet. You can use ordinary stone to kill you can use ordinary sand to kill. You can even use ordinary word of mouth or any other object just to implement the work of Christ Jesus. This is very different from the calling of a pastor which is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not that the Prophet can not preach it, the Prophets are preaching but they do it from the perspective of what they see. So, you command, condemn and intercede because you can see things ordinary eyes can not see. Before now, I use to do what I call “The Vision of the Year” book for Nigeria but I stopped it few years ago. 

 

Why sir?

Because these days, what you are looking is more than the vision. You are seeing the evil in the land rising to a monumental level, Boko Haram is killing millions of people; people are dying as a result of job search through the Immigration Services, a government body that supposes to protect them. So, what are you going to tell Government to do again, when Government itself has lost her bearing, what are you going to see. A lot of bad events are happening. Nowadays, you see a prophet saying he is seeing vision for Nigeria, he is seeing nothing. He is only forecasting. What he supposed to see is already happening. You see men of God saying they are doing miracles, yes you may say you are doing it in the name of Jesus Christ but I can tell you that there are some borrowed miracles that are not worthy of been shown in the public.

MEN OF GOD ARE EXPLOITING PEOPLE THROUGH FAKE MIRACLES

Do you call it “Borrowed Miracles”?

Yes, borrowed miracles. They happen in the society for the sake of getting something to eat. Let me explain to you, in other situation where you say you are healing a blind man, I mean somebody that has been blind from the youth and then you heal that person. At the end of the day you bring that person to the auditorium, coming to the auditorium you raise the person’s hand and ask ‘what is this color?’ and the person answers you ‘oh, it is black or it is white or it is pink’. How did he know that it is black, pink or white? A blind person from youth can not suddenly know the color of a cloth because he is not even familiar with the names of the colors in the first instance. Or you are healing a lame man, a lame man that can not walk; somebody who can not walk is a lame man, now you are healing a lame man and you bring this same lame person to your podium and you raise him and the next thing is for him to start running around but you know it is an aberration, it is a fake miracle. That is not a miracle. Me, that I am sitting here, I have done lots of miracles that you yourself know about it (referring to this reporter), I heal many sick people, I heal mad people and you can see that all the cases were gradual. You start from the beginning. Not just for you to say you are healing a lame man and the person continues jumping, he can not be jumping because the signs of the lameness will still manifest in the few moments of his miracle. It is not magic. The signs of the mad man will still manifest for a few moments and not just that he will spontaneously recover his senses. So, if you want to do miracle, you must do it in the act of Jesus Christ. You know in some churches today, you see them start rolling on the floor, which simply means that it is a miracle that has been paid for. You can easily contact somebody to come to the altar and say to the church ‘I am a witch, I have killed and destroyed lives and here I am, I am giving my life to Christ”, it is simply a bargained miracle. A miracle that has been purchased, if you see a real witch craft that is confessing, you will know that this one is a real one, nobody will tell you. You see a witch confessing with her composure intact. No witch will confess with her composure intact, never. Like the other time you were here, you saw the way that woman that was brought by her children confessed and kept running her mouths for days before she was delivered by God. The story was published in Alaroye Newspaper, we didn’t torment her, she was brought here and she confessed out of her own volition which must have been induced by God’s power. That is exactly how a witch confesses, no staging of a drama. Not that you are going to contact a person, giving him or her money to come and disgrace his or her family for the sake of your own self-glorification. In Nigeria of today, we have so many churches that you will think we are more religious than the Romans, you have both the mega and mini churches yet crime is still on the high rise. Why is our country still in crisis?; we are in a state of pandemonium in Nigeria, that is what I want us to know. If churches are genuine in their callings, if they are preaching the real word and doing the work of salvation, Nigeria will not be as bad as this. Today, if you read the papers, half of the stories are linked to Pastors who indulges in all acts of fraudulence. Pastors who are cheat, dupers, armed robbers; in fact the name “Pastor” has come to an all time low in the Christian lexicon. Our Pastors are now looking for riches and comfort and so they become epitome of evil. They join all sorts of societies because they want to be great. Well, you can be greater toady in the eyes of men but tomorrow you will be small in the presence of Jesus Christ. That is what you ought to know.

RELIGIOUS LEADERS ARE THE BANE OF NIGERIA’S PROBLEM

Sir, are you now saying that Nigerians have lost their value system as a result of the disheartenment of the Church system?

You see Nigerians are not bad but we religious leaders, Christians and Muslims are the ones contributing to the downfall of this country. Because as we pray in the church, the Muslims also pray in the Mosque and those working at our various houses of assemblies, those working with our governors and those working with the president and condemning the president are all Christians or Muslims. So, what they are supposed to do, they don’t do it. See how they are killing children under the pretense that they are Muslims. See how they are destroying Nigeria, we are in a confused state. So, when the Preachers are talking now, they will be telling you that the end time has come. I will tell you that the end time has not come.

Why do you say that sir?

If the end time has come, nobody will remain in Nigeria. When the end time comes, nobody will tell you. Because Jesus Christ said that He himself didn’t know the time the end time will come. But we people that are bad; we are as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah, we are as bad as all the early people of the Bible. Can you understand? We are not even building good image for our children coming behind. We are not doing that, we Pastors, we Evangelists, we Prophets, we Bishops, we are giving hope to the hopeless. We are only giving hope to ourselves. We are building bigger churches for our own children to inherit. In the olden days, when the likes of Anglican Church build their church, they can build it for more than twenty years. And the church will never be complete in ten years; other generation will come and build upon it. But what do we see today? Capitalists building stadium as churches, the work of salvation has been turned into the work of self-glorification. We build stadiums, we build bigger schools. The school that you build, no ordinary person can afford to send their children to the school. Even majority of your members can not send their children to that school, so where is your work of salvation? Who owns the money you used in erecting such an edifice and who owns it? Free will, offerings and tithes brought about the whole thing and yet you converted it to something for yourself and your family.

THE CHURCH AND MEN OF MONEY 

It appears to me that you are referring to people like Bishop David Oyedepo and their likes who built very expensive schools at the expense of God’s calling?

Let me tell you something, I am not mentioning names and I am not interested in mentioning names. I am just telling you how Christianity has been bastardized in Nigeria. They know themselves and their heart can scrutinize them because the simple work of the church is to reform and give salvation. It was like when the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi came, he could see the evil going on in the banking sector and he went ahead to correct it. Banks were using their might as money holders to do other businesses that were to be done by the people. For instance, there was universal banking and all that which seeks to take off every other businesses that an average loan seeker could do and the very intelligent Sanusi came and stopped it; that the paramount brief of a banker is to lend. You take money from Mr. A and give to Mr. B or C. Lending, arbitrate or sort out money matters between the giver and the earner that is the job of a bank. And since then professionalism has returned to the banks. The job of a church is salvation not business transactions; and if there is enough fund to throw around just like Jesus and his disciple saved twelve baskets of bread and fish after feeding five thousand crowd with two fishes and five loaves of Bread, all you still spend it on is salvation, salvation and salvation. Trough cheap education you can save lots of sould. For you an Evangelist, a Pastor or a Bishop to build a school and your fees is the only one that is so exorbitant in the society, under the pretense that you are a pastor and none of the children of the poor that the Bible asked you to cater for can afford the fee to attend your school, is that the work of God?. Is that your brief as a man of God? Did God ask you to extort money from the society at all cost? Are you an armed robber? You built a university and none of your worshippers can benefit from it. As I am sitting here, I had to send all my children abroad because of the outrageous amount being asked by these capitalists, because the white man is more considerate in the things that edify humanity. Education is even cheaper there than among our men of God. What I am saying in essence is that the church in our society has lost their primary value, which is salvation. The church is a body of Christ and if we must see it that way, we must endeavor to redeem the image of the church in the eyes of the people. A church should endeavor to build a legacy that people can benefit from and remember in the future. We still remember the CMS (Christian Missionary Schools), we still remember the Anglican, we remember the Catholic we remember the CAC (Christ Apostolic Church) and their virtues of selflessness. But today, even those schools we are talking about, to enter them you have to throw bribe at the pastor. I as a person started from CAC Primary school, I went to CAC Modern School, I finished at CAC Modern School, I went to a Muslim school, ANSAR-DEEN Grammar School to finish my O’level, all at very affordable prices. I still have the tellers and receipts in my house. So, what are they doing today, you are charging a million, two million because you want to give people education and yet some of these children come out of school with nothing to do; some are Okada riders, some are drivers and some are wanderers. So, what is the essence of your ambiguous education? We need to open our eyes and ask valid question because it is only the truth that can set you free. Nigeria needs to change.

HOW TB JOSHUA GOT HIS POWER

Sir, let’s go to the heart of the matter, we actually came here knowing your pedigree as a great prophet of God. But the big story is that you are the man who discovered Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua of Synagogue Church of All Nations and that he actually birthed here in this church immediately he left Ondo before he got the calling? Can you expatiate on this allegation?

Well, when you kept coming here to ask for the interview and made mention of the issue of the person you just mentioned his name, I tried to see how I could correct your notion on some issues you raised in your questionnaire. And I think I will just do that right away, I am really from Ondo state, I am from Ikare, the boy (TB Joshua) is from Arigidi. We are family friends right from the beginning. Nobody can give power to another person; power is directly from God. God gives power and authority to his people. You can see now that he (TB Joshua) has a lot of people working with him, he has both the white and Caucasians working for him; it is the power of God. God discovers his people; no man in this world can discover anybody. Even you can not discover your own child talk-less of discovering another person and say ‘oh, this man is going to be a great prophet or someone with influence etc’, or that you are the one that gave this person power to do miracles and achieve fame. You that you are saying it, can you look at yourself first?. Look at the generosity of God upon your life as well; for him (TB Joshua) to have gotten his power, do you know how many days he suffered? Do you know how many things that have happened to his life? He is not from a rich home but Temitope Joshua discovered himself and God ordained him. I am a brother to him, he is a brother to me, I know him very well. He is very useful to me I am very useful to him. Now, that he is a famous man of God, people are saying ‘he is the one that discovered him, he is the one that gave him that power’, no it is God that gave him power not me. He and his brother were all with me, we are a family of Godly people with the gift of prophecy and church building. So, to see him as a successful pastor in Nigeria today is the act of God. I can’t even call him a Pastor, to me, I can’t call Temitope a pastor he is a Prophet.

WHY TB JOSHUA IS VERY POWERFUL

Not only Temitope Balogun left your church and became great, we learnt many great prophets like F.E Bamiduro of Iye Ni Oro Naa and even Evangelist Akin Adebayo famously known as Imole Ayo was said to have left your church before they became great. Why do you think TB Joshua’s own is extra-ordinary among the lot?

Well, Temitope Joshua is a call. He is a called Prophet, not a pastor. He is a called prophet. When he was young, there were lots of bad things that happened to him that supposed to have taken his life but he didn’t die. Even when a stone fell from the rooftop of his mother’s house as a result of a raging storm and fell on baby Joshua, he didn’t die. In stead for the heavy stone to fall directly on him, it fell beside him. That is why I said he has been called from the womb, just like God told Prophet Jeremiah ‘I knew thee when your mother conceived thee’. ‘Olorun ti pee lati kekere, Olorun kii peyan ti baba e lowo o. Kii de pe eyan ti Baba e je millionaire o. Awon Omo atapa dide ni olorun ma npe (God has anointed him from a baby; God does not call the child of the rich, he is not interested in the child of a millionaire, he will rather call the child of a pauper and send him on a glorious errand). You can see that today in Nigeria, it is God that called TB Joshua, no pastor called him, no prophet called him. That I know him or he knew me does not mean that I gave him power. Do you understand? Of course there are many people that have stayed her under my anointing, why didn’t they become like Tope? There are lots of people that went through this place, why are they not like him. Even among his siblings, who is like him? He is the one God called and I am learning a lot of lessons from his own idea and principle because he didn’t allow people to stray into his calling. If he allows a man to stray into his calling, man will destroy his calling. I hope you understand what I am telling you? He is using his own calling and anointing, not the calling or anointing of Wole Bamiduro. Wole Bamiduro’s call is unique; TB Joshua’s call is unique. Even one of his senior brothers built a Celestial church, his call is equally different.

What is his senior brother’s name?

Segun. So, TB Joshua’s call is unique. God has said ‘this boy, at a particular time, he will grow and become big in spirit and he will use his spiritual gift to deliver mankind from evil. That he will feed nations; and today TB Joshua is feeding nations, I hope you know that as a journalist. He will share rice, share money and give out to legions of people. He will travel to nations and bless them with numerous things. At least we have some Pastors who used their own offerings to build schools, build universities and after building it, they made admission for the poor very difficult but TB Joshua didn’t do that. He will give his money to the poor, give them food, and give scholarship to children of the poor. He has legion of ordinary children studying at Universities across the country right now. But you that couldn’t cater for the children of the poor and even went to the extent of using free offerings to build schools that ordinary people including your members can not afford, they are many. And that is why they hate Temitope Joshua. And they will continue to hate him; the reason why they will never love Temitope Joshua is first of all, Temitope Joshua is an iron man that lives with the truth and the faith in God. It is not education that took him to that level, we have men of God who studied PHD, masters and all sorts of academic certificate but TB Joshua is a master in the act of God. And there is no how you and I will be I the same market, I am a veteran and you a novice and yet your ware is moving than mine; I can never be happy with you. I will shout and say ‘ah, this man is selling a ghost wares’, ‘he brings them from mortuary’. I will de-market you just because my own ware is not moving again. Or how will you have hundred churches in a particular area, and this new church came that offers you gift of food, money and philanthropy at large, and you expect people to keep going to other churches that take, take and take from their worshippers but this one gives, not just spiritual value but other good things of life. If you recall, when Jesus Christ was feeding the multitude, they asked him a question, they said ‘Rabbi, when are you coming here again?’. So TB Joshua is doing the same thing, he feeds them with both natural and spiritual food. That is the man in synagogue for you. He is my good son; he is someone I am very familiar with. I am from Ikare, he is from Arigidi. Arigidi and Ikare we are one. He is my very good brother and he can never deny our acquaintance. The truth of the matter is that Akoko is noted for the birth of great prophets. People like Oladunnni, people like St. Moses Orimolade Tunolase. People like Prophet Luke, people like the man we are talking about, the man in the synagogue. We still have many, many people from that lineage. People like us; we are from Ondo State, Ikare-Akoko.

WHY PEOPLE CALL ME “EYIN-EJO”

So, why do they call you Eyin-Ejo (Snake’s teeth?) 

Well, the Eyin-Ejo name came when I was young and in the Celestial church fold. There was someone that had mental problem and we went there to pray for him. As we were doing the prayer I had a vision for one of the relatives of the mad man who is a driver, I said ‘Mr. Man go and pray very well if not you might be involved in a fatal accident that will make your vehicle kill somebody’ but the man took the prophecy for a joke. He didn’t pray on it. So, around 6am the next day, the man used a trailer that he uses to ferry goods to the Northern part of the country to kill a man at Mongoro Bus stop, here in Lagos. And crowd burnt the trailer down, that was around 1977 or there about. So, when he ran down to the church he was shouting “Ah, mi o mo pe eyin ejo ni bobo yi o; aaah, O lagbara o (I didn’t know this boy is a snake teeth o, he is so powerful o) and that was how the name struck. And then when I was in the Celestial Church many people were running after me not for anything else but for accurate prophecy. I won’t say I am a good prophet but God has given me the gift of hitting it on point. When they come, they get accurate vision and that was how the name stood till date. Now, it is about thirty something years ago and the name continue to ring. There was a time I was very angry and was quarreling about the name, I didn’t want people to call me by that name but later I just allowed it since there was nothing I could do to stop them.

WHY I DON’T SEE TB JOSHUA OFTEN

What is your relationship now with Prophet Temitope Joshua, is it still cordial?

We are not so cordial and again we are cordial. Why I said so is simple; he is a busy man, I am a busy man. You know he is a very popular figure, if people see him come here now, they might say he is coming here to take spiritual power. Not knowing that we are family friends. I can come over to his place and greet him and he is free to come to this place. But we are not having interaction as before. I am sure it is because of his busy schedule. People will always talk; ‘won a ni Oga e ni lai mo pe Olorun loga’ (They will say I am his boss not knowing that God is the ultimate boss). So, his schedule and mine schedule has not permitted us to be too close. Of course I do call him at times, in most cases he is busy, his aides will pick the call and I will just say let him be.

HOW I FOILED TB JOSHUA’S AMBITION TO BE A PHOTOGRAPHER. 

When he was living here, how would you describe his character, was he humble or arrogant as a young emerging prophet?

Hmmmn! Tope arrogant? If he is here from morning till evening, you can’t know he is there. Otutu! O quite! O gentle, gbogbo awon egbon e naa lo ri bee (he is meek, he is quite, he is gentle. All his siblings are like that). They don’t fight, even in those days when he comes from his sister in Egbe to come and greet us here, he can sit here for hours and you won’t even know he is around. Very meek person, there was a time he brought a camera here and said to me ‘Daddy, I want to learn to be a camera man’. He brought the camera from Egbe and I took the camera off him. I knew then as a prophet, that in future God is going to use him. The only thing was that I don’t know how God is going to use him but I was quite sure that God was preparing him for something great but I didn’t know how it will turn up. And how God is now using him is a very big surprise to many people including myself. I mean we that are his people.

WHY I HEAL MAD PEOPLE

You are also revered for healing lunatics, how did you come by the power, Is it also a calling?

I inherited the gift. I was a member of the Celestial Church of Christ before; we had a group that always prays for mad people in the night. Wherever these mad people are kept, we will go and pray for them but we didn’t know that the power has been transferred unto us. So, when we inherited the power, a time came when I started my own ministry and I will just see people bringing in mad people. And I will take care of them and they will be okay. Nowadays, I don’t even chain them again; if I just raise my hand, they will be okay. I will say ‘remove his chain and let him or her in’ and the madness will leave them instantly. Before, I had to chain them but now I just need to say a word and the madness disappear. The numbers of mad people that have received their miracles here are almost three hundred. And God manifest Himself even if you have diabetes, stroke or hypertension and other ailments we cure all here. I don’t believe in advertising what we do, instead the work will advertise itself. If you llok from Ahmadiyya Bus stop down here (Wole Bamiduro Street) I don’t even have a Sign Board but the name is already known. That is God for you. God is the chief Advertiser. So, it is not me that am treating all the ailments but a spirit that has been given to me through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. It is God that does everything and to Him we return all the glory.