The commentators spoke shortly after a private screening of the BBC Africa Eye Documentary on the late Temitope Joshua, popularly known as TB Joshua.
Some journalists and human rights activists on Monday called for stronger institutions to manage abuses emanating from religious places.
Speaking shortly after a private screening of the BBC Africa Eye Documentary on the late Temitope Joshua, popularly known as TB Joshua, the lead Pastor of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), the activists also said religious organisations must be intentional about addressing such abuses when reported.
During a short panel session after the documentary screening, Ghanaian undercover journalist, Anas Anas, and Esther Alaribe of Women Radio commended the Africa Eye team for the project.
"I think it's a strong, great film with watertight evidence and I can't see how anyone can downplay the impact," Mr Anas said, adding that the documentary looked at the gross human rights abuses perpetrated by TB Joshua.
"It is the fact that we have a canker in our African society that we have not developed the courage to handle through hook and crook. We have not developed the courage to speak to it in our society and I think BBC Africa Eye has done it."
Responding to why the documentary was important even though the subject is no longer alive, Ms Alaribe said it would always be part of the history.
"For the generation whom we have told this story, decades to come, if that church's name is still standing, we will always remember this film. We will always remember this story.
"So now, I am pushing out to our institutions in Nigeria. What are we going to do? What are we saying, yes the pastor is late but the institution, the church in question was built in his name, the actions in his name. These survivors would never hear the name of this church and remain the same. Who is checking the activities going on in the church at the time? This is not an attack on the church."
Witness, Activists speak
Saudatu Mahdi, the secretary-general of Women's Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), said religious organisations have the responsibility to investigate abuses and punish perpetrators.
She likened the reception of the documentary to the perception of people in the early days of the fight against Violence Against Women.
"In the beginning, people used to think that we cook figures...people felt we were cooking figures because we want Oyinbos (Whites) to give us money," she said.
"Today, violence against women is in everybody's face. The excesses in our faith spaces are also going to hit us hard. In the same way we spoke about HIV/AIDS, we are either affected or infected. We are either perpetrators or survivors."
She called on the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) to lead the charge among the leadership of the two major religions in Nigeria. She said NIREC is supposed to be the sounding board for the two major religions.
"When the Vatican gave in to looking at paedophilia, it wasn't easy but today we know better. Today, the church no matter how small is able to hold its own people to account," she said.
"Whether people get compensation or not, the first is that it is acknowledged as a criminality. The second is that somebody needs to be held accountable. Third, our systems need to be strong, synergetic and intentional about addressing these issues."
One of the interviewees in the documentary present at the screening, Paul, said he and Bisola, another interviewee, started the journey of exposing the late TB Joshua more than 10 years ago. Mr Paul said he faced several forms of attack from the loyalists of the late pastor.
"This is a project, I and sister Bisola started in 2009 when we released a video -The Deception of the Age. It was everywhere...People came out and said no 'they are lying against him' but I know I was saying the truth," he said.
"I lay underground quiet for seven and half years. I can't work anywhere. I can't do church anywhere. I can't do anything. I just lay on the ground, living with the help of some friends and other people."
He noted that no Nigerian volunteered to speak because they were still scared.
He said: "These ladies that spoke now, they are from South Africa, UK, US. No Nigerian has spoken because they are scared. Fear is just an illusion."
"If there's a freedom to say that all the girls that were violated, raped at the synagogue should come out, you would be scared. If he can have the courage to do this to the white, is it then our people that were going at the age of 10, 11."
Cleric Speaks
A cleric, Peter Ogunmuyiwa, a member of the Christian Association of Nigeria, noted that the association has no power to punish any member of any church.
He said the churches are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), giving the government powers to investigate and punish perpetrators of any evil act.
He said: "I think the problem is the system and the state. For instance, many people expect that CAN should have a way of curbing or checkmating some of these things but the Christian Association of Nigeria does not have legislative powers to do that.
"The only constituted authority to deal with all these institutions, all these criminalities that we are talking about is the state, the government. Up till now, if a church misbehaves in Nigeria today, the Christian Association of Nigeria does not have any power to sanction any church because they are being registered by CAC without recourse to CAN."
The Documentary
For the documentary, the BBC Africa Eye team interviewed more than two dozen former members of the SCOAN who accused the late Mr Joshua of sexual assault, manipulation and forced abortion among others.
The interviewees, former members of SCOAN from Nigeria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom who lived at the Synagogue in Lagos, relayed the stories of abuse they faced and witnessed from Mr Joshua.
The late pastor was also accused of skewing the narrative around the collapse of his guest house where more than 100 people died in 2014. PREMIUM TIMES' former Investigations Editor, Nicholas Ibekwe, had also exposed Mr Joshua bribing journalists with N50,000 in the hope of skewing the reportage of the incident.
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The cleric died shortly after the BBC Africa Eye team interviewed the first set of victims in 2021.
The three-part documentary has also generated mixed reactions from social media users across the world. While some were horrified by the revelations, others questioned why the documentary was released after his death and when he could not defend himself.
About TB Joshua
T.B. Joshua is one of the most influential religious leaders of the 21st century. But he is as controversial as he is popular.
Some of the earliest scandals that rocked Mr Joshua and his SCOAN ministry were by a former ally, Bisola Johnson, who wrote a book accusing the cleric of sexual slavery, manipulation, diabolism, deceit, and contrived miracles.
Late broadcaster and investigative journalist, Kola Olawuyi, in the late 1990s, ran a series on his Nkan Mbe radio programme, where he spoke to several former backroom staff and members of the SCOAN who accused the pastor of all manners of atrocities including occultism at the church.
In 2016, PREMIUM TIMES revealed that Mr Joshua and his wife had incorporated a shell company, Chillon Consultancy Limited, on 20 June 2006, in the British Virgin Island (BVI), a notorious offshore tax haven. The cleric dismissed the story as false. However, this newspaper published original documents he submitted while registering the company, in a follow-up story.
