Lagos, March 24, 2025. Nigeria’s online space is crackling with tension today at 2:27 PM WAT after singer Timi Dakolo reignited his feud with Pastor Femi Lazarus, founder of Light Nation Church. The R&B star took to Instagram Monday, March 24, accusing the cleric of hypocrisy for allegedly charging $150 per student at his ministry school while slamming gospel singers for taking fees to perform at church events. It’s a showdown that’s got fans, Christians, and skeptics picking sides, and the heat’s only rising.
This isn’t their first tangle. It kicked off March 14 when Lazarus, in a viral sermon, blasted gospel artists for turning ministry into a paycheck, flashing an alleged invoice demanding $10,000, first-class flights, and a 40-man crew. “It’s become a performance,” he preached, per Pulse Nigeria, arguing true ministers shouldn’t charge to share God’s gift. Dakolo fired back days later on Instagram, defending artists’ right to eat. “Studio sessions, production, promotion cost a lot. You have a family to feed,” he wrote on March 17, per Legit.ng, urging churches to pay up or build their choirs instead of “gaslighting” singers.
Monday’s twist turned it personal. Dakolo dropped screenshots of emails from Lazarus’ International School of Ministry, showing a $150 fee about N181,200 in 2024 rates for courses on preaching Jesus, with hints of over 1,000 students enrolled. “You’re charging as low as $150 per person. Let’s do the maths,” he jabbed, per Intel Region. “Are you not selling the gift freely given to you?” The singer, who insists he’s a Christian artist, not gospel, called out the double standard: if singers charging makes them “performers,” what’s a pastor charging for Bible lessons? “Such hypocrisy,” he added, laughing hard in a follow-up video, per Linda Ikeji’s Blog.
The numbers sting. If 1,000 students pay $150, that’s $150,000 over N240 million today. Lazarus hasn’t clapped back yet, but his camp’s held firm before, suggesting training differs from ministration. Dakolo’s not buying it. “School of ministry has expenses, music creation doesn’t?” he scoffed, spotlighting production costs pastors might not grasp. X buzzes with takes one at 11:41 WAT hailed Dakolo for exposing “a pastor crying about singers charging,” while others on Pulse’s thread argue Lazarus’ school isn’t a church gig, so it’s apples and oranges.
Context matters here. Nigeria’s gospel scene’s long wrestled with this artists like Nathaniel Bassey don’t charge, per Web ID 4, thriving on honorariums, while others demand millions, like the N5 million Lazarus cited earlier, per Naija News. Pastors, meanwhile, rake in tithes and offerings, a point Dakolo’s fans on X at 10:18 WAT flagged: “Your church not business?” Lazarus’ critique leans on scripture gifts are free but Dakolo’s camp sees art as work, not charity. “It takes 10 years to be elite,” he noted March 17, per Notjustok.
For Lagos folks like Tolu, a chorister turned cynic, it’s déjà vu. “Pastors milk us, then guilt singers for eating,” he said near Yaba. The feud’s bigger than two men it’s Nigeria’s faith-profit fault line cracking open. Obi’s Rivers fund fight with Tinubu today, per Daily Post, shows governance isn’t immune either. Dakolo’s post, dripping with respect yet sharp, dares Lazarus: own the mirror or explain the math. No response yet, but the silence won’t last. Nigeria’s watching will it end in peace or more receipts?