Nigerian Reverend Father Chinenye Oluoma, a Catholic priest in the Abuja Archdiocese, has reacted to alleged reports that gospel singer, Mercy Chinwo charges N10m for a guest appearance.
The Reverend Father bemoaned how religious worship has become costly.
Speaking in a trending video on social media, Father Oluoma berated gospel musicians who demand huge payments to perform in a place of worship.
Citing Mercy Chinwo as an example, the cleric, reiterated that the singer charges N10m as a performance fee in churches.
“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 were asking if they should be paid. Why didn’t you pay them? If you must bring them, you must pay for 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.
Mercy Chinwo files lawsuit against secular musician, Obidiz, demands N2billion as damages
Last year, Mercy Chinwo filed a lawsuit against the secular musician, Obidiz for using her name and photo in a commercialized song.
In the suit dated March 23rd, the singer slammed him for derogatorily using her name and image in secular music audio and video.
Her lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to Obidiz to refrain from using her name and image in promotion of his music.
He was instructed to take down the song which he published with immediate effect from all musical platforms and to take down promotional videos containing images and clips from all social media platforms.
Failure to heed their demands, the full machinery of the law will be set in motion against him, seeking 2 billion in damages.