Social critic Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, has gone after Apostle Arome Osayi after a video of the cleric and his wife announcing permanent residency in the United States resurfaced alongside the pastor’s recent teaching that Nigeria’s national calling is revival, not industrial building.
VDM’s argument is blunt. He says the same preacher who told young Nigerians not to measure the country against China has now settled his own family in a nation built on invention, not altar calls.
He first replayed Arome’s words.
“So the next time you see someone showing what the Chinese are doing, that they are making engine, and then showing what the Nigerians are doing, we are praying, you don’t understand that nations have callings. Our calling as a nation is revival.”
VDM said the pastor had also taught that people who point to Chinese machines while Nigeria is praying “don’t know that Nigeria had a calling and their calling is revival.”
Then he turned the sermon on the residency news.
“Therefore you are conditioning the minds of the youth in Nigeria that they should forget about creativity and innovation and they should rely on prayers, meanwhile you have now carried your family and taken them to America that was not built with prayer and certain calling of revival. That was built with technology and brains and doing, not relying on prayers.”
He asked why the move was announced as a public testimony and noted that the pastor said he had prayed about it.
“You moved your family to a country that is not built with prayers, that the youths were encouraged to think outside the box. Geniuses later came. Facebook, the founder of Facebook is in the United States. Bezos is there. Elon is there. One billionaire there are 20 to 30 from that place. And these people are not prayer warriors. These people are inventors and innovators.”
His closing shot was aimed at the message he believes is being sold to young people.
“But they are telling the youth of Nigeria that they should not look at China, that China is building machines. They should forget China and they should rely on prayers.”
Arome, founder of Remnant Christian Network, and his wife, Rev. Dinna Osayi, announced the US residency in July as a ministry testimony. In the clip, he said they had been trusting God for approval of their applications and that the outcome came “by a working that is so difficult for us to explain.” He framed the status as liberty to preach among the nations and said they would still return to Nigeria to minister in cities including Lagos, Warri, Uyo and Makurdi.
The revival sermon that triggered VDM is more recent. Last week the apostle told congregants not to reduce Nigeria’s purpose to the naira or Aso Rock.
“Our calling as a nation is revival. God wants to generate something from here that He will export to the nations of the world. This is His covenant with this nation.”
He added that Nigeria is “a key player” and “a stakeholder in end time matters.”
That pairing, a homegrown revival message and a foreign residency card, is what VDM is selling as hypocrisy. Supporters of the pastor see a missionary door, not an escape. Critics see a familiar pattern where shepherds tell their sheep to stay and pray at home, then plant their own family where systems actually work.