Pastor Poju Oyemade, founder of the Covenant Nation Church has disagreed with Reverend Father Chinyere Oluoma’s assertion that gospel singer Mercy Chinwo collects N10m before she performs at Church programmes.
Father Oluoma, a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Abuja had claimed that gospel singers like Mercy Chinwo now command a fee in the range of N10m before they could perform adding it was so because a good number of churches in Nigeria are now a business enterprise.
“We have made religious worship expensive. If I have to bring Mercy Chinwo to come here and sing, how much will I pay her? How much does a gospel artiste of Mercy Chinwo’s status charge to come to an event or in a Church, it has reached N10m now.
This is the tragedy that we have turned Christianity into, that an artiste will come to a church and lead in ten minutes praise and worship for N10m, N5m. So if that particular artiste doesn’t sing Jesus you love me too much, that means God didn’t love you too much?
“And some people are asking should they be paid? Why wouldn’t you pay them? If you must bring them you must pay them because what you are bringing them for is entertainment. We have turned worship into entertainment.
We have copied the world. In those days, those who composed songs we are still using for worshipping nobody even knows them,” he said
But writing on his twitter handle Pastor Oyemade said: “Mercy Chinwo sang at our service at Lekki last Sunday… and the honorarium we gave her was at our discretion. She made No formal charges.”
