By Nicholas Ojo
The latest confrontation between social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), and Apostle Arome Osayi may appear to be another familiar Nigerian social-media quarrel. It is not.
Key Highlights
- VeryDarkMan’s dispute with Apostle Arome Osayi has renewed debate over faith, development and public accountability.
- VDM’s clashes with pastors have included disputes over miracle products, sermons and allegations, some of which entered court.
- The article argues that criticism of religious leaders should be evidence-based and applied consistently across faiths.
- Pew Research Center estimates that Muslims and Christians each made up more than 40 per cent of Nigeria’s population in 2020.
- The central question is whether Nigerians can remain deeply religious while still questioning religious authority.
Behind the insults, videos, counter-videos, sermons and furious reactions lies a much larger argument about religion, authority and accountability in Nigeria.
For more than two years, VDM has repeatedly challenged prominent pastors and prophets, questioning their teachings, miracles, products, public conduct and responses to criticism. Some of those confrontations have ended on social media. Others have produced threats of legal action, lawsuits and court orders.
His latest target, Apostle Arome Osayi, has brought the debate into an even broader territory: What should Nigeria’s national priority be — spiritual revival, or the practical work of building a functioning modern state?
The question has resonated because it is not entirely new.
Millions of Nigerians pray daily for better lives while simultaneously demanding electricity, jobs, security, education, healthcare, technological innovation and competent governance.
For many young Nigerians, the question is no longer whether they should pray.
It is whether prayer should be presented as an alternative to action.
That tension has made VDM’s campaign against sections of the Christian establishment bigger than the personality of the activist himself.
Arome is only the latest chapter
The current controversy began after a sermon by Apostle Arome Osayi, founder of Remnant Christian Network, in which he spoke about what he described as Nigeria’s national spiritual assignment.
Osayi’s argument was that Nigeria has a distinctive role in global Christian revival.
He contrasted that spiritual assignment with the national priorities of countries such as China, which he associated with production, science, technology and innovation.
VDM strongly disagreed.
He argued that Nigeria’s problems cannot be solved by repeatedly telling citizens that the country has a spiritual destiny while neglecting science, technology, creativity and productive enterprise.
The activist subsequently intensified his criticism of Osayi, including a satirical video from China in which he mocked the idea of Nigeria “exporting prayers” while China exports manufactured goods and technology.
The dispute became more personal when VDM mocked aspects of Osayi’s appearance and questioned the preacher’s association with the United States.
That drew condemnation from several Christians, including Catholic priest Rev. Fr. Chinenye John Oluoma, who said VDM had crossed the line from criticism into ridicule and advised him to apologise.
Apostle Michael Orokpo, a spiritual associate of Osayi, also publicly criticised VDM over his treatment of the cleric.
Apostle Michael Orokpo’s intervention was followed by other Christian voices defending Osayi, while some Christians and commentators also questioned the cleric’s formulation of Nigeria’s national assignment.
The controversy had therefore moved beyond Arome Osayi.
It had become a debate over what Nigerians should expect from their religious leaders.
But VDM has been here before
The Arome dispute is significant partly because it fits an established pattern.
VDM has confronted several of Nigeria’s most prominent pastors and prophets.
One of the most consequential was his dispute with Prophet Jeremiah Omoto Fufeyin, founder of Christ Mercyland Deliverance Ministry in Warri, Delta State.
The dispute began around Fufeyin’s faith-based products, including items such as spiritual shirts, miracle water and mustard seed products.
VDM questioned the legitimacy of the products and demanded evidence of regulatory approval.
The dispute eventually moved into the courts.
Fufeyin filed a ₦1 billion lawsuit against VDM in 2024, while subsequent proceedings included an application seeking to restrict VDM from making further allegedly defamatory statements. Premium Times reported in July 2025 that an FCT High Court sitting in Nyanya had reserved judgment in the dispute.
The Fufeyin dispute demonstrated something that would become a recurring feature of VDM’s confrontations with religious leaders: criticism of a pastor can move rapidly from Instagram to the courtroom.
David Ibiyeomie and the question of criticism
In 2025, VDM turned his attention to Pastor David Ibiyeomie of Salvation Ministries.
The confrontation followed comments attributed to Ibiyeomie warning bloggers and others against speaking negatively about him and his ministry.
VDM responded by questioning the pastor’s tolerance for criticism and examining some of his sermons.
He also criticised a viral church video involving Ibiyeomie in which the pastor claimed authority to make a congregant sleep and later wake up. VDM questioned the authenticity and purpose of the demonstration.
The dispute generated a larger conversation about whether religious leaders should be able to invoke spiritual authority without being subjected to ordinary public scrutiny.
Premium Times reported at the time that the dispute had grown out of VDM’s criticism of what he described as Ibiyeomie’s prosperity-centred preaching, which he considered manipulative and unscriptural.
Again, the argument was not simply theological.
It was about power.
Who has the right to question a pastor?
And does occupying a pulpit place a person beyond the reach of ordinary criticism?
Lazarus Muoka and the miracle debate
Pastor Lazarus Muoka, founder of The Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries, has also been drawn into VDM’s long-running criticism of Nigerian Christian practices.
The Lord’s Chosen became the subject of intense public attention after unusual testimonies associated with the church went viral on social media.
VDM questioned some of those testimonies and mocked what he regarded as implausible claims.
The controversy reflected a new reality in Nigerian religious life.
Church testimonies that might once have been heard only by congregants can now be recorded, uploaded, analysed and ridiculed by millions of people online.
Social media has effectively turned the congregation into a much larger public audience.
A pastor may preach to 20,000 people in a church, but one controversial statement can reach millions of Nigerians who were never in the building.
That has changed the balance of power.
Paul Adefarasin and the firearm controversy
Another confrontation involved Pastor Paul Adefarasin, founder of House on the Rock.
In June 2025, VDM circulated and commented on a viral video that appeared to show Adefarasin holding what many viewers believed was a firearm while confronting a content creator.
VDM called for the incident to be investigated and questioned the legality and appropriateness of the conduct.
Reports at the time stressed that the object was alleged to be a firearm; the controversy was therefore about what could actually be established from the footage rather than a judicial finding that Adefarasin had committed an offence.
The episode again demonstrated VDM’s preferred method.
He takes an incident that might otherwise remain a short-lived online controversy, places it under intense public scrutiny and demands answers from the person involved.
Supporters describe that as accountability.
Critics describe it as harassment.
Both interpretations have found an audience.
Paul Enenche and the question of miracles
Pastor Paul Enenche of Dunamis International Gospel Centre has also faced criticism from VDM, particularly over a reported testimony or miracle claim that became a subject of online debate.
The wider dispute fits into VDM’s repeated challenge to miracle claims by Nigerian churches.
That is one of the most sensitive areas of his activism.
Nigeria’s Pentecostal culture places enormous emphasis on miracles, healing, prophecy and divine intervention.
Questioning such claims can therefore be interpreted not simply as questioning an individual pastor but as questioning a central component of a believer’s worldview.
Yet from a secular accountability perspective, extraordinary claims naturally invite extraordinary scrutiny.
If a public figure says something extraordinary happened, people are entitled to ask what evidence exists.
The difficulty is that religious experiences are often matters of personal faith, while public claims can have consequences beyond the individual believer.
That is where the boundary between faith and evidence becomes contested.
Enoch Adeboye, Oyedepo and the old guard
VDM has also criticised some of the most influential figures in Nigerian Christianity, including Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church.
These confrontations have generally been different from the more direct legal battles involving Fufeyin or Chris Okafor.
They have involved public criticism of statements and the perceived silence or response of major Christian leaders to national problems.
Adeboye, for instance, became a target of VDM’s criticism over the pastor’s previous comments on tithing and other public religious positions.
Oyedepo and other senior clerics have also been drawn into VDM’s wider argument about the role of prominent Christian leaders in responding to insecurity and national crises.
The distinction is important.
VDM is not only attacking pastors over miracles.
He is increasingly questioning what he sees as the political and social responsibility of Nigeria’s religious establishment.
That is what makes the Arome controversy especially significant.
Samuel King and the prophecy wars
VDM’s confrontation with Prophet Samuel King took a different form.
King had made a prophecy involving VDM, and the activist subsequently challenged him.
The prophet later referenced an earlier video in which VDM had expressed fears for his safety, suggesting that the prophecy had been fulfilled.
VDM disputed that interpretation.
The exchange exposed another increasingly common feature of Nigerian social media: prophecy as a public contest.
A prophet makes a prediction.
Something happens.
Supporters claim fulfilment.
Critics question the interpretation.
The prophet responds.
The audience chooses sides.
In a traditional religious setting, such arguments might be settled within a church community.
On social media, they become entertainment, politics, theology and public relations at the same time.
Chris Okafor: when the dispute reached court
The dispute involving Pastor Chris Okafor became one of the most serious episodes in VDM’s clashes with Christian leaders.
In late 2025 and early 2026, VDM and actress Doris Ogala made allegations concerning Okafor that the pastor and his legal representatives disputed.
Okafor’s lawyers demanded a retraction and subsequently initiated legal proceedings.
In January 2026, a Lagos State High Court issued an interim order restraining VDM, Ogala and another defendant from mentioning or referring to Okafor, his church or ministry on public platforms pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The court order is significant because it moves the controversy beyond the familiar territory of social-media arguments.
Whatever one’s opinion of VDM or Okafor, allegations that reach the courtroom must be treated differently from ordinary online claims.
The legal system is designed to determine issues of evidence, liability and rights.
Social media is not.
The religious-bias accusation
One criticism has followed VDM through several of these controversies:
Why does he appear to focus so heavily on Christian leaders?
In 2025, commentator Ossai Success Ovie accused VDM of religious bias, arguing that he was more willing to criticise Christian leaders than Muslim clerics.
VDM responded that he had reasons for his focus and challenged people to produce comparable examples of Muslim clerics engaging in the practices he had criticised among pastors.
Whether that explanation is persuasive is another question.
But it exposes an important complication.
Nigeria is religiously diverse.
Criticism of one religious group can quickly become interpreted as hostility towards the religion itself.
That makes consistency especially important.
If VDM’s principle is accountability, the principle should apply irrespective of whether the person being criticised is Christian, Muslim or adherent of another faith.
Likewise, defenders of Christianity cannot demand scrutiny of other institutions while insisting that their own leaders should be protected from criticism.
Is VDM attacking pastors or challenging a system?
This is where the argument becomes more interesting.
VDM has become a personality in his own right, but the popularity of his confrontations suggests that his audience is responding to something bigger than the man.
There is a growing appetite among young Nigerians for people who challenge established authority.
The same phenomenon can be seen in politics.
Young Nigerians increasingly question politicians, traditional institutions, celebrities and religious leaders.
Social media has weakened the old hierarchy of who gets to speak and who must listen.
A pastor can no longer make a controversial statement in a church and assume the conversation ends at the church door.
A member of the congregation can record it.
A critic can react to it.
Another pastor can respond.
A journalist can investigate it.
Millions of people can form opinions before the original preacher has issued a clarification.
That is not necessarily a crisis of religion.
It is a crisis of traditional authority.
But VDM is not automatically right
There is a temptation, particularly among people frustrated with religious hypocrisy, to treat every VDM confrontation as proof that the activist is exposing the truth.
That would be a mistake.
His critics are entitled to raise questions about his methods.
Mockery is not evidence.
Insults are not investigations.
A viral accusation is not a conviction.
And a large online following does not make an allegation true.
If VDM demands accountability from pastors, he must also accept accountability for his own claims.
Where he alleges criminal conduct, fraud, abuse or deception, evidence matters.
Where he criticises theology, he should distinguish theological disagreement from demonstrable wrongdoing.
And where he mocks an individual’s appearance, health condition or personal circumstances, he should expect criticism of his own conduct.
This is particularly relevant to the Arome controversy.
One can strongly disagree with Osayi’s argument about Nigeria’s national assignment without mocking his physical condition.
Indeed, the strongest criticism of a powerful person is often the one that does not require humiliation.
The deeper question: what is religion supposed to do?
Nigeria’s economic problems make this argument particularly urgent.
Millions of Nigerians are living through rising living costs, unemployment, insecurity and inadequate public services.
Faith remains an important coping mechanism.
But faith cannot construct roads by itself.
Prayer cannot manufacture electricity.
Prophecy cannot replace scientific research.
A revival meeting cannot substitute for a functioning justice system.
At the same time, science and technology do not eliminate the human need for meaning, community and moral purpose.
The choice should therefore not be between Christianity and development.
The real choice is whether Nigerians can build a society where religious faith complements, rather than substitutes for, responsible action.
A pastor can tell his congregation to pray for Nigeria and simultaneously encourage them to study engineering.
A prophet can speak about revival and simultaneously demand accountability from government.
A church can preach salvation while building schools, hospitals and businesses.
There is no contradiction.
The contradiction appears only when spiritual rhetoric becomes an excuse for abandoning practical responsibility.
Nigerians are not necessarily becoming more religious
The evidence does not support a simplistic claim that Nigerians are suddenly becoming too religious.
Nigeria has long been deeply religious.
What may be changing is the way Nigerians relate to religious authority.
Pew Research Center’s demographic estimates show that Nigeria has one of the world’s largest Muslim and Christian populations. In 2020, Muslims accounted for about 56.1 per cent of the population and Christians about 43.4 per cent.
But religious affiliation alone tells us little about the quality of religious leadership or the degree to which citizens question their leaders.
A person can be deeply religious and still demand evidence.
A Christian can attend church every Sunday and reject a pastor’s political argument.
A Muslim can pray five times a day and question an imam.
Faith does not require intellectual surrender.
The danger begins when loyalty to a religious personality becomes stronger than commitment to truth.
The economic pressure on religion
There is also evidence that economic hardship is changing the Nigerian religious landscape.
Churches have reported declining attendance and reduced financial contributions as transportation, electricity and household costs rise.
BusinessDay reported that economic pressures were forcing some Nigerians to reduce physical church attendance, while churches themselves were cutting costs and adapting their programmes.
This is a significant contradiction.
Nigeria may remain one of the world’s most religious societies, but many religious institutions are operating in an environment where their members are increasingly financially constrained.
The worshipper is therefore confronting two realities simultaneously.
He or she may believe strongly in God while questioning the financial demands of religious institutions.
The believer may continue praying while becoming more sceptical of extravagant claims.
And the young person may remain Christian while rejecting the idea that every pastor should automatically be trusted.
That is not necessarily secularisation.
It may simply be maturation.
The VDM generation
Read also:
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- Contextualising Bishop Abioye’s Yearning for Nigeria’s Prophet Elijah
VDM’s strongest constituency appears to be young Nigerians who are suspicious of established authority.
They have grown up in an environment of political promises, economic hardship and social-media transparency.
They have seen politicians campaign with religious language.
They have seen pastors make predictions.
They have watched miracle videos.
They have watched celebrities become influencers.
And they have learnt to question almost everything.
Their attitude is often simple:
Show us the evidence.
That demand can be healthy.
But it can also become destructive when scepticism turns into cynicism.
Not every pastor is a fraud.
Not every miracle claim is automatically false.
Not every criticism of a religious leader is persecution.
Not every accusation against a pastor is true.
The mature position is to investigate.
The uncomfortable middle ground
The VDM-pastor saga ultimately leaves Nigeria with an uncomfortable middle ground.
The country needs religious leaders.
Religion provides millions of Nigerians with identity, community, moral instruction and social support.
But Nigeria also needs religious leaders who understand that influence creates responsibility.
The bigger the congregation, the greater the responsibility.
The more powerful the pastor, the greater the need for transparency.
The more extraordinary the claim, the greater the need for evidence.
And the more powerful the critic, the greater the responsibility to be accurate.
That final point matters because VDM himself has become an influential public figure.
He has millions of followers.
His allegations can affect reputations.
His videos can trigger investigations, online harassment and commercial consequences.
That means he is no longer merely an ordinary social-media user.
He is part of Nigeria’s emerging informal accountability ecosystem.
And informal accountability requires standards too.
Beyond the latest controversy
The Arome Osayi controversy will eventually disappear from the social-media trend list.
So will the arguments involving Fufeyin, Ibiyeomie, Muoka, Adefarasin, Enenche, Adeboye, Oyedepo, Samuel King and Okafor.
But the underlying conflict is unlikely to disappear.
Nigeria is entering a period in which traditional authority is being challenged by digital culture.
Pastors will continue to command large followings.
Activists will continue to question them.
Religious communities will defend their leaders.
Critics will accuse them of hypocrisy.
Lawyers will sometimes enter the disputes.
Courts will occasionally be asked to draw the line.
And millions of Nigerians will watch.
The real question is whether the country can develop a healthier culture of disagreement.
A society does not become less religious simply because its citizens question pastors.
Nor does it become more progressive merely because an activist insults religious leaders.
The real measure of progress is whether Nigerians can distinguish faith from personality, criticism from abuse, evidence from allegation, and spiritual conviction from unquestioning loyalty.
That is the lesson buried beneath the VDM-versus-pastors saga.
Nigeria does not need to stop praying.
It needs to stop treating prayer as a substitute for responsibility.
It does not need to silence its pastors.
It needs to allow them to be questioned.
It does not need to silence VDM.
It needs to hold him to the same standard of evidence and accountability he demands from others.
And it does not need to choose between religion and development.
A country can worship God and build laboratories.
It can preach revival and manufacture machines.
It can organise prayer meetings and reform its institutions.
It can believe in miracles and still demand evidence.
Perhaps the most important question is therefore not:
“Are Nigerians becoming too religious?”
It is:
“Can Nigerians remain deeply religious without surrendering their capacity to question those who speak in the name of God?”
The answer to that question may determine not only the future of Nigerian Christianity, but the quality of public accountability in the country itself.
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