One year after Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua, Founder, Synagogue Church of All Nations [SCOAN] in accordance with the government’s directive that all churches close down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, hospitality and ancillary services that depend on pilgrims and tourists visiting the church to fill their hotel rooms and other businesses are on the verge of permanent closure.
According to hospitality operators in Ikotun, Igando, Ejigbo and even parts of Idimu, 60 percent of the accommodation facilities in these areas have either shut down or scaled down their operations significantly thereby sending thousands of workers into the labour market.
Even though the SCOAN has put in place all the necessary health precautions in line with the COVID-19 protocols, Prophet T.B. Joshua has insisted he will only re-open the church when directed by God.
However, the continuous closure has caused so much hardship to the hospitality operators in Ikotun and the environs and they are hoping that the church will reopen as soon as possible.
Chief Sunny Ozumba, an owner of a hotel and a pilgrims’ hostel in Ikotun said the operators are in dire condition when asked about the situation: “Your guess is as good as mine. You must have guessed that we are roasting. I am thinking of relocating. I am thinking of relocating because the Corona Virus is not abetting and the government is not telling us anything that is important to us.
The church is mindful of the current situation plus the social distance guideline and so is cautious of taking decisions. And the Synagogue Church of All Nations [SCOAN] is such that if it opens, some people will start disseminating information that people should come over for the cure of COVID-19 and all that.
“Even if the Man of God tells them don’t come, they will still come. I think he is mindful of the people’s well-being honestly, but the situation is not to our own economic interest.”
Another hotelier while commenting on the situation said: “We survived other crises including the Ebola crisis, but we need God and the government’s help to survive the current situation. There is so much hunger around this area. Our source of livelihood is temporarily gone. We don’t know what to do.
Speaking further on this, Ozumba talked about the members of the pilgrims’ hoteliers association in Ikotun: “Well, we have those whose main source of clientele is accommodating pilgrims that visit the SCOAN only or mostly. I don’t know about others, but for us who are involved in accommodating pilgrims to Synagogue, we are having it tough.”
On whether the hoteliers are having any form of clientele from local pilgrims, he said: “It is the same situation, except in the case of the local pilgrims, you can say one in a hundred sauntering in, but for international pilgrims, it is totally zero.”
The situation is also the same with the fast-food restaurant business and other shop owners in Ikotun. “The way it is with us, that is the way it is with most of them because we are all thriving from the tourist visitors. Most of them have closed shop while some are just hanging on as I am, nothing. That is the position of things.
By Lucky Onoriode George
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