“What changed?”
That was the question VeryDarkMan threw at Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, and Nigerians have not stopped arguing about it since.
On Monday, October 12, the social media activist, born Martins Vincent Otse, used his Instagram page to react to a trending clip of the Plateau cleric praying for President Bola Tinubu and his administration. For a man known for burying Plateau’s dead and blasting the federal government over the killings, the footage landed like a shock.
VDM said he wasn’t surprised.
He told followers that many people were caught off guard because Dachomo had repeatedly attacked Tinubu’s government over insecurity in Plateau, but that he personally saw it coming because, in his view, the government controls religion. His caption was blunt. He asked how the cleric moved from accusing Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima of wanting to Islamise Nigeria to praying for the administration, and signed off with “AT THE END VDM IS RIGHT.”
He did not stop at the question. VDM conceded that praying for leaders is not wrong but said something felt off, and suggested the government may have reached out to the cleric.
“Religion is a tool in the hands of the politician,” he said, arguing that sermons can convince Nigerians that help is on the way instead of pushing them to hold power to account.
The prayer that started it
The clip came from Dachomo’s trip to Israel, which he billed as his first International Christian Advocacy Tour to draw world attention to the plight of Christians in Plateau. During a prayer there, he covered Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli people, President Tinubu, Plateau Governor Caleb Mutfwang and other African leaders. On Tinubu, he declared that any seed planted against his regime had been uprooted.
For his followers, that line was the problem.
Dachomo is not just any pastor. He chairs the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) region in Barkin Ladi, and for years he has been one of the loudest voices on violence against Plateau communities, conducting mass burials and demanding tougher government action to protect Christian communities. VDM pointed out that the same cleric had even called for intervention from the United States.
“Everyone get price”
VDM’s followers went further than he did. One user didn’t bother with questions: “Bags don exchange hands bro and in Nigeria everyone get price.” Another asked why a government able to “control” clerics could not stop terrorism. A third simply said the pastor had disappointed him even more.
Not everyone piled on. Some argued Dachomo had every right to change his mind, and one commenter reminded critics that Tinubu is still the President, so praying for his success should affect everyone positively. A commenter elsewhere put it more gently, saying Christians pray for leaders to receive wisdom and can still criticise them when they get it wrong.
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No evidence has been presented that Dachomo received money or any inducement.
The cleric had already moved to shut the story down before VDM weighed in. In a social media post from Israel, he said people were twisting a prayer for Nigeria into an endorsement of Tinubu and Shettima for 2027. He insisted he would never back a Muslim-Muslim ticket, because Nigeria belongs to both Muslims and Christians.
“My prayers have always been for Nigeria to succeed,” he said.
His critics are not buying the distinction. With 2027 campaigns warming up and Plateau still burying its dead, every word from the pulpit is now being read as a political signal. Dachomo says he prayed for a nation. VDM says he heard a campaign.
