Nigerian preacher TB Joshua denies claims of a Malawi election prediction

This article is more than one year old.
Published on May 16, 2019 at 12:24
2 min read
By AFP South Africa, Tendai DUBE

Multiple posts and screenshots on social media share what is supposedly a prophecy from the Nigerian preacher, Prophet TB Joshua, that Malawi’s vice president Saulos Chilima will win the country’s upcoming elections. But both Joshua and his church’s broadcast partner say he made no such prediction. We found no reference to such a prophecy in any of Joshua’s recent televised Sunday services, which is where he is supposed to have made the prediction.

The lengthy posts claim that Joshua, leader of Nigeria’s Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN), described the prophecy during one of his live Sunday services in Lagos. We’ve archived one version of the post here.

A screenshot taken on May 13, 2019 of the prophecy claim on Facebook

WhatsApp screenshots and text versions of the claim have been shared numerous times on Facebook, including here and here.

However Joshua, in a Facebook post from his verified account on April 9, said the prophecy attributed to him was false and he had not said anything on Malawi’s elections.

A screenshot taken on May 13, 2019 of the statement from TB Joshua's official Facebook account

A statement was also published in Malawi’s Daily Times newspaper on the same date by SCOAN and and its broadcast partner, Emmanuel TV, denying that Joshua had made such a prophecy.

An image saved on May 13, 2019 of a post with an image of the statement as it appeared in the Daily Times newspaper.

Videos of Joshua’s Sunday services, which often run to eight hours or more, are published on the Emmanuel TV YouTube channel. The posts claiming he made a prophecy about Malawi began appearing in late March. We watched each of his Sunday services broadcast in the month running up to the reports, and found no such prophecy.

During the March 17, 2019 Sunday Service broadcast, a speaker warned the congregation that fraudsters were posing as Joshua on on social media. He reiterated that the church has official platforms for communication.

“The Ministry has official social media accounts and websites that are displayed on Emmanuel TV, if you did see any of such (fake) accounts or sites... disregard them,” he said.

Joshua is known for making prophecies, which don’t all come true -- he even took some backlash in 2016 when he wrongly predicted that a woman would beat Donald Trump to win the US presidential election.

Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party is aiming for a second and final term in office when citizens take to the polls on May 21. Among his competitors is his own deputy, Saulos Chilima of the United Transformation Movement (UTM) party -- read this AFP report for more.

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