Nigerian gospel sensation Moses Bliss was forced to miss a major worship concert in Tanzania after being denied entry into the country over visa complications.
The singer, known for his hit song Too Faithful, revealed on Saturday that his team was stopped at the airport upon arrival in Dar es Salaam, despite prior assurances from event organisers that their travel documents were in order.
Bliss, who had performed in Kenya days earlier, said his team was scheduled to fly from Nairobi to Tanzania on October 2 for the free concert, which reportedly drew a crowd of more than 60,000 worshippers.
“Hello my family in Tanzania. I’m here in Tanzania right now, I’m not just allowed to come,” the singer said in a video message posted on Instagram. “It’s very unfortunate that I couldn’t make it to worship with you today. I heard there were about 60,000 of you who came out. I’m sorry, I did my best.”
He explained that frantic efforts were made to resolve the visa issue, including reaching out to government officials and ambassadors across Africa. “We even got presidential intervention, talking to different people in government and ambassadors, but we couldn’t get visas,” he said.
According to Bliss, his team was eventually advised to proceed to Dar es Salaam and obtain visas on arrival, but they were denied entry upon landing around midnight.
“They told us we would get visas on arrival, and we landed. We’ve been here now for about six hours.
No way to go in, the immigration won’t let us in. Apparently, no visa on arrival again for us,” he narrated.
Describing the experience as “painful and disappointing,” Bliss said his team had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars preparing for the event.
“It’s very painful because we’ve been praying and looking forward to this event for so long,” he lamented. “We’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make this event absolutely free for you to just come and worship the Lord Jesus with us.”
Bliss expressed gratitude to his Tanzanian fans for their support and promised to make it up to them.
“I did everything within my power to be with you guys tonight to worship Jesus with you.
They didn’t let us in,” he said. “We’re just waiting for the next flight to take us back to Kenya. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do this next time. Thank you for believing. It is well.”