Veteran Nollywood actor Yemi Solade has disclosed that he was once paid to pretend to have a physical disability as part of a staged miracle at a church service.
Solade made the disclosure during an interview with Feel Right News TV, recounting an incident from his student days, long before he became a recognized figure in the Nigerian film industry.
The 66-year-old actor said he was approached to play the role of a cripple during a church programme where the condition was presented as one that would be miraculously healed.
According to Solade, he accepted the arrangement and received payment for participating in the purported healing. He said he later spent the money on alcoholic drinks.
“I have been used for a miracle then, when I was not popular. I acted as a cripple, they paid, I used the money to drink, then I was a student,” he said.
In another account of the incident, Solade said he was among people who were taken from his department to participate in such activities, adding that the money received was used to buy beer.
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The actor, however, declined to identify the individuals or church allegedly involved, saying the people connected to the incident are still alive. “The people involved are still alive; I just don’t want to mention names,” Solade said.
Miracle and healing services are a prominent feature of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity in Nigeria. Available survey data also indicate that claims or experiences of divine healing are not unusual among Nigerian Pentecostals.
A 2006 survey of Nigerian Pentecostals archived by the Association of Religion Data Archives found that 61.6 per cent of respondents said they had experienced or witnessed a divine healing of an illness or injury.
The survey also found that 21.8 per cent said religious services they attended always included activities such as praying for miraculous or divine healings, while 24.7 per cent said such activities occurred frequently.
The figures, however, measure people’s reported experiences and beliefs; they do not establish whether particular healing claims were medically verified or whether individual miracle accounts were genuine.
Solade’s disclosure similarly represents his personal recollection of an incident from his youth. He did not identify the church, the alleged organizers or provide details that could independently establish when or where the purported staged miracle took place.
The revelation has nevertheless renewed discussion about the credibility of dramatic miracle claims and the potential consequences when staged performances are presented to congregations as genuine supernatural interventions.
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