Trump Embarrasses Soyinka, TB Joshua

 Nigerians mock duo as TB deletes ‘prophetic’ video of Clinton’s victory

Chiemelie Ezeobi

The social media space was set ablaze wednesday after it became clear that Donald Trump, the hitherto Republican presidential candidate, had won the keenly contested American presidential election against popular favourite, Hillary Clinton of the Democratic party.

With his win, Trump stands to become the 45th US president. But that is not the story of the day for Nigerians.

The main issues for Nigerians at this point are two popular persons — Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate and Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua, popularly known as TB Joshua, founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).

While Soyinka had threatened to destroy his green card (a US residency permit) if Trump won, Joshua on the other hand had predicted that Clinton would win the election.

Was that to be? Apparently no, as the results have declared Trump winner, thus making a mess of the prophetic declaration of Joshua, which many Nigerians banked on to place bets with their friends and families.

In a move many have described as firing blank shots, Joshua had on a video uploaded on his official Facebook account ‘prophesied’ that he saw a woman win the election.

Although he did not mention her (Clinton) name, he said: “Ten days ago, I saw the new president of America with a narrow win. The new president will be facing several challenges over many issues, including: passing bills, attempts to possibly pass a vote of no confidence on the new president.

“The boat of the new president will be rocked. By the way, in order not to keep you in suspense, what I frankly saw is a woman.”

But the person taking the most flak on social media was Prophet Joshua, as most Nigerians called him out on his prophesy, while some went as far as calling him Pinocchio (a boy whose nose grows long each time he lies).

Immediately the results were announced, many people of course remembered the prophesy and went back to that post, only to find it gone. It had been deleted.

However, the deletion did not prove a deterrent for Nigerians who took to different social media platforms to mock the duo.

Surprisingly, the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the forthcoming Ondo State governorship election, Jimoh Ibrahim, also went in for the kill while tweeting on his Twitter handle @JimohIbrahimOFR.

He teased: “Even though TB Joshua has seen it that I am the next Governor of Ondo State, please let him keep it to himself for now.”

A former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, joined the fray when he wrote: “Dear TB Joshua, who gave you your prophecy? My God that I serve is not a man that he will lie.”

One Adedayo Ayomide said: “People: TB Joshua you said a woman will win. TB Joshua: you people didn’t hear me clearly, I said woolman, the person his head looks like wool.”

Mistur Sam wrote: “TB Joshua is only good at predicting football matches not US election. Is he really a prophet or bet9ja expert?”

An ardent believer of the prophet, one Arther Chatora, wrote: “Even when Clinton was stuck at 2015 electoral votes for hours, and Trump was close to 270, I still believed TB Joshua’s prophecy.”

A Twitter user simply identified as @CorrectBea wrote: “Please has Soyinka torn his green card? Do we still believe TB Joshua and his prophecies? Please pray and think twice before making any statement.”

For Soyinka, who is a scholar-in-residence at New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs, he was quoted to have declared, while giving a speech to Oxford University students, that he would not wait to be told to reapply for a green card.

He reportedly said: “If in the unlikely event he does win, the first thing he will do is to say all green-card holders must reapply to come back into the US. Well, I am not waiting for that. The moment they announce his victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up.”

To him Omokri also wrote: “Dear Professor Wole Soyinka, please think twice before you tear your green card. You may find recession back home hard to deal with!”