Why is the leader of a once-thriving London church being deported?

Who is Pastor Tobi Adegboyega?

Pastor Tobi is one of the most controversial characters to emerge from Britain’s Black majority churches in recent years.

Under his leadership, his church, SPAC Nation (the acronym stands for Salvation Proclaimers Annointed Church) was well known both for its radical approach to mentoring young people and its over-the-top displays of opulence. 

The son of a pastor, Tobi Adegboyega was born in Oyo State in southwestern Nigeria in November 1980. Verifiable details about his formative years in Nigeria are hard to come by. But in a video shot at one of his lavish birthday parties in 2021, he tells how he attended boarding school very briefly. “(I went) for two months,” he says. I couldn’t stand it; it was a lot of discipline. And from where I was coming from, I couldn’t stand discipline.”

He clearly did get over that phase of indiscipline at some point, because he went on to study law at Nigeria’s Ogun State University before coming to Britain in 2005. According to the Immigration Tribunal report, Adegboyega came in on a holiday visa that was only valid until July of that year. He never left.

How did SPAC Nation start?

SPAC Nation was registered as a charity on 22 July 2013, with its objectives given as “the furtherance of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the general advancement of the Christian faith.” But it began about six years earlier, meeting as a small group on Queen’s Road, Peckham, south London, where Adegboyega first lived when he came to Britain. In its early days, the church met in various venues around Peckham, the Old Kent Road and Elephant & Castle – including, at one point, a building next door to the popular Ministry of Sound nightclub. Pastor Tobi eventually settled in Croydon.

Even though it happened years before he arrived in Britain, Pastor Tobi has said that the murder of Damilola Taylor in Peckham was a catalyst that made him decide he needed to do something to prevent Black British youths falling prey to gangs, knife crime and the like. SPAC Nation’s methods included setting up a network of “trap houses” (“trap” in this case standing for “Take Risks And Prosper”) in which new church members who had come out of gangs could be mentored individually. The church’s resident rap group, the Hope Dealers, used drill music to get their message across.

Did SPAC Nation successfully help young people out of crime and away from gangs?

Yes. SPAC Nation’s track record in tackling those issues is evidenced by all the political and Christian leaders who willingly provided statements in support of Pastor Tobi when he launched his appeal against deportation in 2019.

Bernadette Khan, the Mayor of Croydon, wrote of his “well documented” work with young people, and his “invaluable contribution” in driving change, and a London Assembly Member, Steve O’Connell, said that SPAC Nation had been “instrumental in the drive against youth violence in London” and that Pastor Tobi’s “personal contribution to mentoring and supporting troubled young youth in our area has been enormous”. The Reverend Canon Yemi Adedeji formerly of the Evangelical Alliance wrote that Pastor Tobi was “transforming the forgotten”. Pastor Damian Luke of the Tabernacle of Praise wrote that he had worked with Pastor Tobi in Croydon since 2014 and that Pastor Tobi had “managed to turn many young people away from crime and back into good citizens”. The Reverend Nims Obunge MBE told how he met Pastor Tobi through his role as a member of the Violent Crime Prevention Board, when SPAC Nation mobilised 500 young people to assist with a crime prevention programme that he was involved with, securing the surrender of several dangerous weapons in the process.

Several media reports and television documentaries also attest to this. The church was the subject of a BBC Three series Escaping Gangs: SPAC Nation, and the broadcaster Reggie Yates presented a documentary about the church for MTV. Premier Christianity reported SPAC Nation was experiencing remarkable growth in 2017.

What were the first signs that something was going wrong?

Alongside the good news stories, the media also unearthed stories that gave people grave cause for concern. An episode of BBC One’s Panorama series entitled ‘Conned by My Church’ featured ex-SPAC Nation members who spoke of being financially exploited by church leaders – some even claiming that they had been urged to sell their blood to raise “seed money”.

More former members of the church told equally disturbing stories about their time there to the Huffington Post. As these stories multiplied, concerns grew, coming to a head on 8 January 2020 when SPAC Nation was the subject of a debate in the House of Commons, in which the Rt Hon Steve Reed (MP for Croydon North) accused the church of being a cult.

“The organisation’s leaders display extraordinary wealth,” Mr Reed said. “They drive cars worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. They wear Rolex watches and expensive designer suits, and they live in multimillion-pound properties. All of this is way beyond the experience of the young people they are targeting. They tell these vulnerable young people that they became rich by giving seed to God and tell them that they can have the same, but first they have to give, and by any means possible.”

What were the rumours over finance and lavish lifestyles?

They weren’t rumours; the lavish lifestyles were out in the open for all to see. SPAC Nation’s message was the prosperity gospel on steroids. There is no shortage of videos on either YouTube or Instagram highlighting SPAC Nation’s glamorous excesses. Church services held in five-star hotels. A parade of Lamborghinis in every colour of the rainbow. Glistening Rolexes on every wrist. Gucci. Laboutin. Designer trainers.

Just like any social media ‘influencer’ you can think of, Pastor Tobi’s whole ministry seems to have been lived on camera. There’s no shortage of YouTube videos showing you his sensational lifestyle, be that on SPAC’s own YouTube channel and Instagram accounts, or on the various video blogs – both pro and anti – discussing him and his ministry.

In his appeal against deportation, Pastor Tobi claimed that he did not take a salary from SPAC Nation, but rather was supported by his wife, who works for Aon plc on a salary of £100,000.

How did the church end/transition into NXTION?

In December 2019, the Charity Commission opened an inquiry into SPAC Nation after identifying serious financial, governance and safeguarding concerns. These included the fact that the majority of the charity’s income and spending was not going through a bank account.

In June 2022, SPAC Nation’s business entity was forced into liquidation when a government investigation found it could not account for £1.87million in expenditure. The charity was removed from the register of charities on the grounds that it did not operate. But it simply popped up again with a new name: NXTION (pronounced “nation”) Family. Despite having stepped down as Lead Pastor of SPAC Nation in May 2020, Adegboyega continued to be a key presence in the church’s new iteration.

The Charity Commission published its inquiry report into SPAC Nation in August 2024. The report concluded that the charity’s trustees were responsible for serious misconduct and/or mismanagement over safeguarding practices and financial failures over a substantial period of time. The Commission disqualified three current trustees from being a charity trustee for a period of twelve years each. One former trustee was disqualified for ten years.

What happens now?

Pastor Tobi now faces deportation – not because of anything untoward that SPAC Nation may have done (in fact, the tribunal’s statement even says that SPAC’s “good works” could go on without him being in the country), but because he originally came to the UK on a visitor’s visa and overstayed.

It’s unlikely that Tobi’s pending deportation will change anything. The SPAC Nation philosophy of ‘bling’ isn’t going to disappear overnight because its figurehead isn’t in the country anymore.

In these days of YouTubers and social media influencers, the notion that someone has to be physically present somewhere in order to make an impact there is gone. Louis Farrakhan has never been allowed to set foot in the UK, but that hasn’t stopped the Nation of Islam from having a presence here; in fact, London reportedly has the strongest NOI chapters outside the USA. Deporting Pastor Tobi at this stage does feel like shutting the stable door long after the horse has bolted.

Since the deportation announcement, social media has overflowed with “good riddance” messages. But one set of people have not been mentioned in the current discourse: all the disillusioned young people who were scammed of their money or spiritually abused in one form or other. Where’s the restitution for them? And is the Church – Black, White or indifferent – going to step up and give young people a solid route away from gang life? That should be our focus now: how we can offer young people who are clearly hungry for both spiritual change and opportunities to improve their lives something more substantial than the hyper-prosperity message that SPAC Nation offered.