TB Joshua and COVID-19 Anointing Water

By Leo Igwe

The National Center for Disease Control and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 should take punitive measures against Nigerian televangelist and the founder of the Synagogue of All Nations, Prophet T B Joshua, for releasing anointing water and sticker to fight COVID-19. Joshua’s anointing water poses a danger to public health, especially at this time when Nigeria is trying to contain the coronavirus pandemic. A report in the Premium Times of January 2, 2021, showed T B Joshua holding the so-called anointing water – as if it were a tested and proven remedy for the pandemic. Joshua said: “This new anointing water- never a sickness that it cannot heal, never an affliction that it cannot cure, never a problem it cannot solve in Jesus Name”. T.B Joshua is not new to making reckless and irresponsible faith healing statements.

In the past years, Joshua has succeeded in turning his Synagogue church into a pilgrim center and a huge business empire by selling anointing water and stickers that he said could heal all sorts of diseases, including infertility and HIV/AIDS.

As in his other faith healing products, there is no evidence for the safety, efficacy, and potency of the anointing water and sticker as a cure for the coronavirus. Thus, T.B Joshua’s claims are misleading. His promotion of COVID-19 anointing water constitutes a violation of the WHO guidelines for the management of the pandemic because Joshua’s claims are not based on facts or science. Simply put, his ‘anointing water’ is another fake remedy for COVID-19 and a demonstration of Joshua’s desperation to mine people’s gullibility and anxieties over COVID-19.

The World Health Organisation has warned against the spread and costs of misinformation about the pandemic. It has taken measures to counter misinformation and disinformation about the virus. Joshua is a well-known evangelist who claims to have faith healing powers. His release of anointing water and sticker is likely to put the health of millions of his followers at risk. Many will purchase the anointed water and sticker which have no verifiable and confirmable therapeutic value. Many people are likely to indulge in risky behaviors or shun evidence-based guidelines for the management of COVID-19 such as wearing face masks, social distancing, and washing of hands believing that the anointing water and sticker will heal them if they contract the virus. In fact, Joshua’s anointing water will help spread and not fight COVID-19.

Health authorities in Nigeria should take steps to call T.B Joshua and other purveyors of faith healing wares to fight COVID-19 to order.

Disclaimer! The views expressed in this article are the writer’s, they do not reflect the views of The Maravi Post

Leo Igwe

Leo Igwe (born July 26, 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Igwe’s human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft. His human rights fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria. Igwe has held leadership roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International, and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to what he sees as the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world. In 2014, Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and in 2017 received the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a “highly superstitious community,” according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.[1] At age twelve, Igwe entered the seminary, beginning to study for the Catholic priesthood, but later was confused by conflicting beliefs between Christian theology and the beliefs in witches and wizards that are “entrenched in Nigerian society.”[1] After a period of research and internal conflict due to doubts about the “odd blend of tribalism and fundamentalist Christianity he believes is stunting African development,” a 24-year-old Igwe resigned from the seminary and relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria