A Nigerian man, Joshua Kesena, recently went viral on X (fka Twitter) for a video he made with his wife. In this video, his wife sits across from him and retells the story of their sexual relationship following the birth of their child — two weeks after she had the baby, Joshua began to pressure her to have sex with him. Reluctant, but eager to please her husband, she agreed. It was very painful for her; she was visibly in anguish and cried during intercourse. Her husband later claimed to have had no knowledge of the extent of her discomfort until they spoke afterwards, during which he was ”heartbroken” to have hurt her that way.
Further complicating the situation is the fact that Kesena is a pastor at Celebration Church International, Benin Campus. His X profile describes him as a “Husband | Father | Former Sex, Porn, Masturbation, & Drug Addict pointing other addicts to freedom.” According to his page, he is eight years free from his addictions and has even shared his “redemption story” on YouTube.
Why did he ignore his wife’s tears? Why did he believe it appropriate to initiate sex with a woman who was reluctant and in pain? How can a reformed “man of God” carry out such a morally deplorable act? These were some of the questions posed by commentators and social media users, sparking debate about the supposed obligation of wives to satisfy their husbands’ every urge and the persistence of rape culture in the church.
Celebration Church International has been in hot water before, interestingly, for Founding Pastor Emmanuel Iren’s obscene comments about sexual assault — “In this ministry, 9 out of 10 cases where the women came and said they were sexually assaulted ended up false,” — an excerpt from a longer sermon which appeared carefully contrived to undermine the experiences of sexual assault victims. He went further to suggest that sexual assault was above all else, a setback to otherwise morally upright men, as opposed to an existential threat to the women they assault.
In 2024, Iren featured on the Susan Pwajok anchored Surviving Lagos Podcast, where he spewed even more harmful, ignorant rhetoric concerning the sexual agency of women while citing dubious statistics; “It is statistically proven that if you live with a man who is not your husband, you are twice more likely to have a divorce”, “It is also statistically proven that the more men a woman has been with, the less likely she is to be satisfied with one man.”
While it may be tempting to take these comments at face value, seeing as they were after all, uttered by a person with a significant amount of influence, Iren’s comments and Kesena’s actions are linked by a common thread — the prevalence and enablement of rape culture within Nigerian churches.
Rape culture is blaming the victim rather than rapist for the assault, and saying that the victim did something to provoke the attack. Iren’s comments about sexually experienced women being unable to remain loyal in romantic relationships are textbook slut-shaming tactics, which contribute to the wider framework of rape culture. With these comments, he sends the message that women who are aware of their right to bodily autonomy, who make their own decisions regarding sexual and romantic partners should be stigmatized because they are engaging in behavior which he judges to be promiscuous or sexually provocative. This, along with his additional comments maligning women propagate rape culture, which involves sympathizing with assaulters, by severely downplaying the experiences of their victims and instead lamenting the fact that the assaulters’ “promised futures were ruined.”
The #ChurchToo movement that swept Nigeria six years ago highlighted how deeply embedded this culture is. The numerous sexual assault allegations against Biodun Fatoyinbo, head of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), demonstrated how churches rally to protect leaders. Despite the widesweeping outrage, hundreds of COZA faithful mounted a defence for the embattled pastor. Although he wholeheartedly denied the allegations, he “took leave of absence from the pulpit” because “it was the right thing to do”, only to return a month later, before the investigations were concluded. Bolstered by the support of his packed church and spiritual colleagues, he marked his return to the pulpit with a sermon titled “sudden victories”, the summary of which was that Christians face persecution, but God will always ensure that they are victorious. The case against him was subsequently dismissed.
This saga is only one of many examples of African pastors weaponizing their influence to exploit women.
In 2017, Timothy Omotoso, the South Africa–based Nigerian pastor of Jesus Dominion International, was arrested after about 20 women accused him of luring them under the guise of mentorship before abusing them. Yet in April 2025, a court ruled in his favour, sparking outrage among women’s rights groups and survivors of gender-based violence who decried the decision as a major setback.
Even more damning was the BBC’s investigation into TB Joshua, leader of one of the world’s biggest evangelical churches, which revealed decades of systematic abuse. Testimonies from survivors across three continents described how he raped young women several times a week for nearly 20 years.
The legal details of these cases are not the focus here. What matters is the pattern; the church repeatedly serves as a refuge for men implicated in sexual deviance, while the pain of women is minimized or erased. Harmful teachings, cloaked in scripture, provide cover for abuse.
Kesena coercing his wife into sex two weeks after childbirth, and her willingness to comply, reflects teachings that wives owe their husbands sex as a marital duty. I Corinthians 7:3–5 describes sex in marriage as a “debt owed” and declares that spouses’ bodies belong to each other. Such scripture is routinely used to embolden men to disregard consent, treating their wives’ bodies as property. In Kesena’s case, remorse came only after the fact — but many others see no reason for remorse when the church itself sanctions the behaviour.
Although his controversial sex life with his wife certainly warrants the discourse, what is even more problematic is Kesena’s quick turnaround from sexual deviant to reformed preacher. This transformation highlights another problem: the church’s eagerness to rehabilitate men with troubling pasts. Too often, churches become safe houses for men who embody sexual indiscretion, celebrating their rebrands as “testimonies” while silencing victims.
Fatoyinbo, Omotoso, and TB Joshua all faced serious allegations, most of which were dismissed or buried. Yet unlike them, Kesena has made his past struggles with sexual deviance part of his brand, openly positioning himself as a spiritual authority. That such a figure can be embraced and platformed so quickly is irresponsible and dangerous, reinforcing the narrative that a self-acclaimed change of heart and heavenly forgiveness are enough to erase harmful patterns.
For an institution that should serve as a moral compass, the church has instead become a shield for perpetrators and a weapon against victims. From Fatoyinbo’s return to the pulpit, to Omotoso’s acquittal, to the decades of abuse hidden under TB Joshua’s empire, the pattern is undeniable: men’s reputations and power are consistently prioritized over women’s safety. Elevating figures like Kesena despite recent histories of debauchery only reinforces the message that women’s suffering is secondary to men’s redemption. There is a need for the church to embrace a radical reckoning with its harmful doctrines and power structures that protect abusers. Without this, the church will unfortunately remain complicit in enforcing the very violations it claims to condemn.
0 Comments
Add your own hot takes