Religious Enabling: Genesis Global City Church Platforms Convicted Sex Offender Baba Ijesha

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The video of Baba Ijesha, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, leading praise and worship at Genesis Global City church in Lagos, shows how religion enables violence against women and girls. How? Because the church gave him a stage to launder his image.

The convicted sexual abuser performing at Genesis Global City’s “Judah Praise 2026” is further a case study of how social institutions launder the reputations of abusers. 

Recall that, in July 2022, a Lagos court convicted Baba Ijesha of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, the foster daughter of comedian Princess, who had trusted him as a family friend. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He served just over three years before being released in November 2025. 

Before we can drink water and drop the cup, the Ooni of Ife allegedly gave him a chieftaincy title and a brand-new car. And now, he is at a church microphone, hands raised, singing to God.

While it can be argued that he is attempting to find faith, there is a difference between personal spiritual healing and being given a public platform in front of thousands of people: that essentially tells the world, “This man is unproblematic, and he deserves to lead. That is what the church did when it handed Baba Ijesha that microphone.

And the girl he assaulted? No one has offered her a microphone, a chieftaincy or even a car. 

This is the problem. It is not just about Baba Ijesha. It is about how Nigerian churches, which are some of the most powerful institutions in this country, consistently choose to support male culprits at the expense of the women and children those men have harmed.

It follows a pattern of how religious leaders preach forgiveness for a man who beat his wife, or “submit better,” to avoid beatings, and counsel women to “pray more” for their cheating husband.  It is also similar to scenarios where sexual assaults are covered up inside church walls because exposing the man would “bring shame to the body of Christ.” 

Further, the platforming of Baba Ijesha at Genesis Global City shows that the church does not just enable gender inequality; it actively teaches it. It tells women that their pain is secondary to a man’s redemption story. It tells congregations that a man’s public return to worship is evidence of healing, while the survivor’s private suffering remains invisible. It uses the language of grace, forgiveness, and new beginnings to protect men who should be facing social consequences, and to silence women who deserve societal support and solidarity.

That 14-year-old girl, now grown, deserves better than to watch the man who violated her trust become rehabilitated by the church, while the world applauds. The Nigerian church needs to ask itself a very simple question: whose restoration matters more to you, a perpetrator’s public image, or a survivor’s sanity?