BBC Africa recently released a three-part documentary titled Disciples: The cult of TB Joshua. In the 150-minute documentary, past members of TB Joshua’s church in Nigeria share how they ended up as his disciples, highlight incidences of humiliation, physical and sexual violence, and give details of fake miracles and occultism by the late Nigerian pastor.
Some people have praised BBC for its two-year investigative work, while others have defended the late pastor and his church, and questioned the motives of everyone involved in the documentary.
This is not the first time that African pastors and religious organisations are in the spotlight. Last year, Kenya’s Paul Mackenzie was arrested following the discovery of more than 400 bodies of members of his church in mass graves in Malindi.
Members of his Good News International Church died of starvation after he allegedly instructed them to starve en-masse in their quest to meet Jesus.
Uganda’s Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God is another doomsday cult that resulted in the death of more than 1,000 people. Members of the group were told that the world would end at the turn of the millennium and when it did not, they started asking questions, resulting in the leaders locking them in the church and setting it ablaze.
Many other religious atrocities ranging from pastors walking on the backs of congregants to farting on their faces, all in the name of deliverance and healing, are regularly documented on social media. The majority of those who end up in these new religious movements are people looking for a certain type of relief, mostly related to their health.
When African parliamentarians fly abroad for medical care, the electorate flock to these pastors and their religious organisations for healing miracles in exchange for their savings, time and dignity.
It is time African governments, and health ministries, paid attention to the length to which their constituents go for basic healthcare which they can deliver by addressing the workforce gap, increasing health financing and providing proper leadership and management in the sector.
A study on the experiences of Kenyan and Ugandan medical internships shows that interns often work for long hours, with inadequate supervision. Some of those interviewed mentioned learning how to do procedures on YouTube.
Having burnt-out and under-trained healthcare workers poses a risk to the healthcare system, and the workers themselves. This also sets the stage for brain drain, which partly contributes to the workforce shortage.
To mitigate this drain, the World Health Organization has developed the Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List which identifies countries with low health workforce as a way to discourage international recruitment of healthcare workers from those countries.
Nigeria currently has a bill that if passed in parliament, will mandate five years of mandatory service in the country for trainees before they can apply to leave for ‘greener pastures’.
Discouraging movement and international recruitment does not guarantee that healthcare workers will remain in the profession if they opt to remain in their home countries.
The best way to ensure that workers remain in their country, and in the healthcare workforce, is to invest in healthcare and to ensure that workers receive adequate training and mentorship, get better compensation and have good and well-resourced working conditions.
Over the years, African governments have come up with several declarations to address healthcare funding needs. In 2001, through the Abuja Declaration on HIV-Aids, Tuberculosis and Infectious Diseases, African governments pledged to allocate at least 15 per cent of their annual budget to the health sector. So far, only a handful of countries have achieved this.
In 2019, at the African Union meeting, governments signed the ALM Declaration which calls for an increase in national health budgets and the restructuring of African health systems. And in 2023, African parliamentarians launched the first working group to mobilise domestic resources for health in Africa.
Though all these declarations show intention, parliamentarians should be aware that as they continue to come up with more declarations and treaties, rogue pastors continue to fill in the gap by coming up with antics to pull in those who desperately need healthcare.
While health is not the only priority African governments have on their plate, and competing priorities compounded with effects from various calamities make it difficult to give it all the attention, the impact of an unhealthy constituent is heavier.
When citizens do not feel heard or cared for by the institutions responsible for their welfare, they will look for other alternatives, however ridiculous they may be. Unfortunately, these alternatives may lead to additional complications and sometimes death.
Getting a good balance between health workforce, financing and governance has proven to be a tall order in the past, but the above-mentioned religion-related atrocities, and those that flood social media regularly, should be enough cause for African governments to move from their drafting tables and start showing tangible action and health-related outcomes.
Mental health blogger